The Speaker of the National Assembly has reiterated the call for greater global commitment to humanitarian assistance and the protection of human rights during the just-concluded Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland.
The conference noted with concern the rise in humanitarian crises worldwide, despite existing international conventions meant to address such challenges.
Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadthila says, "Although we have international conventions that unite us as a global community to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected by crises, we are not fully living up to the commitments we have made. Many communities remain in dire straits, without the necessary assistance, and continue to face human rights violations."
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the conference agreed that there is a need to ensure compliance with humanitarian obligations and equitable resource sharing, including capacity building to reach affected communities.
The IPU Assembly also discussed the persistent exclusion of women from political decision-making processes.
Delegates underscored the need to mainstream gender equality into national policies and laws to ensure that women's voices and perspectives are included in shaping governance and development priorities.
"We also agreed to ensure that we learn from each other, and we have developed tools that we have agreed to utilise to ensure that we develop the human capacity that women possess. The African group also drew the attention of the IPU to the situation in Madagascar, which is a deviation from the norms that we have adopted as an African continent, and it called on the IPU to support the efforts of the continent to help that country to revert back to democracy, which is the governance system that we have adopted for the African continent," she highlighted.
The Namibian delegation also used the platform to call for an end to the economic blockade against Cuba and the sanctions imposed on Venezuela.
The delegation further expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine, calling on the international community to support their right to self-determination and to end ongoing human rights violations in the region.