Africa-Press – Senegal. The National Assembly has adopted four bills, two of which authorize the President of the Republic to ratify the African charters on statistics and road safety, APS noted on Monday at Dakar.
Meeting in plenary session, the deputies also adopted a bill authorizing the Head of State to ratify the convention on legal and judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters between Senegal and the United Arab Emirates.
They also adopted a bill authorizing the President of the Republic to ratify the convention on mutual legal assistance in civil and commercial matters between Senegal and Mauritania.
With the text relating to the African Charter for Statistics, Senegal joins the “guidance framework” developed by the African Union for the production, management and dissemination of statistical data and information, according to a report developed jointly by four committees of the National Assembly, including those responsible for foreign affairs and African integration, economic affairs, laws, decentralization, labor and human rights.
With the adoption of the bill relating to the African charter on road safety, Senegal « responds to the concern to improve the management of issues related to road traffic in Africa and to significantly reduce fatal accidents on the roads’ ‘, said in the parliamentary report the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aïssata Tall Sall.
The bill concerning the mutual legal assistance convention in civil and commercial matters is supposed to « strengthen the relations of friendship between the two States », Mauritania and Senegal.
It is seen as a solution to « the trying situations of Senegalese lawyers in Mauritanian courts, which are often linked to translation », when they go to defend clients in Mauritania, underlined Aïssata Tall Sall.
« Our compatriots are more and more present in Dubai and are starting to develop business there, » she said to justify the bill relating to the legal and judicial convention in civil and commercial matters between Senegal and the United Arab Emirates.
The deputies took advantage of the debate prior to the adoption of the four bills to draw his attention to the difficulties of Senegalese living abroad.
« About 50 Senegalese are currently in Turkish prisons for lack of a residence permit, » said Babacar Mbengue, chairman of the commission for foreign affairs and African integration at the National Assembly.
He asked Aïssata Tall Sall to bring them the help of the Senegalese authorities with a view to their release.
Babacar Mbaye believes, for his part, that « there are many Senegalese prisoners in Mauritanian prisons ». « It’s mostly my parents from Guet-Ndar (a fishing district in Saint-Louis), » he said.
Samb Dang asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to increase the period of validity of the ordinary passport, in particular for Senegalese living abroad. “You need at least ten years validity instead of five,” he said.
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