By Kurt Campbell
[www.inewsguyana.com] – The establishment of a Regional Youth Parliament and a Regional Parliamentary Week along with better facilities and treatment for persons living disabilities are among a few of the outcomes of the recently concluded 16th Biennial Regional Conference of Presiding Officers and Clerks of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
The Conference was held here in Guyana from October 28 – 30 under the theme: “The role of Parliaments as they meet the challenges of evolving democracies.”
The Conference concluded with the passage of three resolutions, a first time occurrence. The First resolution will see the establishment of an Executive Steering Committee to basically coordinate activities among conferences, the next to be held in 2015 in Bermuda.
Other initiatives include Parliamentary Outreach Programmes aimed at youth education, having recognized the need for greater intra-regional co-operation and support amongst the member branches.
Additionally, the Conference also passed a resolution calling for countries to ratify the United Nations convention on the rights of persons living with disabilities to assist in the process of mainstreaming such persons in all societies.
Present at a press conference on Thursday, October 31 was Barbados House Speaker Michael Carrington, Trinidad and Tobago House Speaker Wayne Mark and Guyana’s House Speaker and host of this year’s Conference, Raphael Trotman.
All Speakers remarked that the Conference was a very productive one and extended special thanks to the Parliament and Government of Guyana in this regard.
The Speakers made it clear that this year’s conference was definitely not a talk shop and pledged to continuity of work undertaken, something Trotman had said was absent.
