Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Indian Ocean Commission, through the Governance, Peace and Stability Project, brought together members of the Association of Parliaments of IOC Member States (AP-IOC) from 23 to 26 May in Seychelles. The AP-COI has adopted its new statutes, its rules of procedure and its action plan for the current year.
Initially known as the Association of Parliamentarians of the COI, the PA-COI now has a new identity: Association of Parliaments of the Member States of the COI. This change of name aims to better signify the involvement of the institutions that are the National Assemblies in the regional landscape.
The PA-COI brings together the national parliaments of the member countries of the COI and intends to:
– Defend the common interests of the region;
– Contribute to the effective realization of the ideals of freedom, equality, peace and stability and justice as well as to the promotion of human rights;
– Promote contacts between parliamentarians of IOC member countries on the one hand and between parliamentarians of IOC member countries and those of the rest of the world, on the other hand.
In addition to the adoption of its new statutes and rules of procedure, the AP-COI also defined its priorities for the year 2023. It is in this vein that it declared its support for the priorities of the Comorian presidency of the African Union and the Seychellois Presidency and the Mauritian Vice-Presidency of the SADC Parliamentary Forum (statement attached).
It should be recalled that the revitalization of the AP-COI, supported by the COI, is part of a logic of strengthening parliamentary diplomacy and links of exchange, collaboration and common advocacy between the islands, as underlined by Prof. Vêlayoudom Marimoutou, Secretary General of the IOC:
“You have the democratic legitimacy to support State diplomacy and to also be a source of proposals on public policy issues for which regional cooperation constitutes an added value: I am thinking here of public health, maritime safety, mobility in vocational training, food security, or even the development of the blue economy, the promotion of the specificities of our island States and, of course, the strengthening of democratic institutions and regional stability. »
It should be noted that the Governance, Peace and Stability (GPS) project in Indianoceania is the first IOC project around governance and diplomatic cooperation issues. The GPS project of the IOC aims to meet the needs in terms of crisis prevention and the promotion of peace and stability in the region through four components:
• Crisis prevention and mediation;
• Improving electoral processes;
• The strengthening of democratic institutions;
• The consolidation of the role of the IOC in the promotion of peace and stability.
The GPS project is funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) to the tune of 8 million euros. The duration of the project implementation is 54 months.
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