The parliamentary delegation from the
Canadian Branch that attended the Bureau meeting of the Assemblée parlementaire
de la Francophonie (APF) in New York, United States, on January 21 and 22,
2009, has the honour of presenting its report.
The delegation comprised the Honourable
Pierre De Bané, Senator and President of the APF Parliamentary Affairs
Commission, and the Honourable Rose-Marie Losier-Cool, Senator and Chair of the
APF Women Parliamentarians Network. The two senators were accompanied by Jean
Michel Roy, Executive Secretary of the Branch; Christine Lafrance, Designated
Advisor of the Canadian Branch to the APF General Secretariat; and Monique
Levesque, Administrative Assistant in the International and Interparliamentary
Affairs Directorate.
The following branches were
represented: Belgium/French Community /Wallonia-Brussels, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Canada, Egypt, France, Gabon, Jura, Laos, Nova Scotia, Ontario,
Quebec, Switzerland, Val D'Aoste and Vietnam.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The President of the APF, Guy Nzouba-Ndama (Gabon), began by thanking the Canadian,
French and Quebec branches for their assistance in organizing the Bureau
meeting since there was no American host branch. He then highlighted the
importance of the meeting at the United Nations as a sign of support for the
APF regarding linguistic diversity, multilingualism and the promotion of French
within international institutions. The General Assembly declared 2008 the
International Year of Languages; the year officially ends on February 21, 2009.
The permanent representative of the
Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) to the United Nations,
Moussa Makan Camara, read a message from the
Secretary General of the OIF, Abdou Diouf, to the Secretary General of the
United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.
Signing of a framework cooperation
agreement
The President of the APF and the
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Kemal Dervis,
signed a cooperation agreement adopted at the APF session held in Quebec City
in July 2008.
Presentation
UNDP Administrator Kermal Dervis gave a presentation on the global economic crisis and its impact on
international cooperation and development. Mr. Dervis noted that the
primary source of the crisis is a fundamentalist ideological view of the market
economy. To address the crisis, governments must give priority to budget
renewal, a strong monetary policy and increased public spending. It is
important to restore confidence and dispel uncertainty. Moreover, given the depth
and scope of economic interdependence, international coordination of renewal
plans is essential.
On the subject of Public Development
Aid (PDA), Mr. Dervis takes the view that PDA is a key component of many
countries’ policy on renewal. In addition, democratic governance is an absolute
imperative in the midst of this serious crisis. Hence, the UNDP is very much
involved as the world’s largest provider of democratic governance aid and as a
supporter of one in three parliaments around the world. That support primarily
takes the form of measures to strengthen democratic participation by women
parliamentarians, opposition and the electoral process.
In response to a question from Senator
De Bané, Mr. Dervis said that in addition to providing direct support to
developing countries, the UNDP coordinates the work of 28 of the 38 United
Nations organizations involved in development. He added that the UNDP focuses
on four areas: democratic governance; alleviation of poverty; energy
development from a sustainable development and environmental protection
perspective; and crisis prevention and recovery.
APF membership
The National Assembly of Armenia has
been granted associate member status. The decision will be submitted for
approval by the APF at the next session in Paris in July 2009.
Commission proceedings
Senator Pierre De Bané, President of the Parliamentary Affairs Commission, presented the
Commission’s report. Senator De Bané noted that at its last meeting in Quebec
City in July 2008, the Commission adopted the draft resolution from the
President of the APF urging all Francophone parliaments to seize every
opportunity to follow the lead of the French parliament and incorporate La
Francophonie into their constitution.
The Commission also approved the report
on follow-up of the 10-year strategic framework and adopted the notice
submitted at the Quebec City summit of heads of state and the version of the
resolution on migration policies in Francophone countries submitted by the
Bureau. It adopted the report on access to information for all citizens.
Michèle André (France) presented the Commission with a progress report on
chapters 5 and 6 of the guide to parliamentary procedures and practices in
Francophone countries.
Alain Berset (Switzerland) presented an
outline of his report on globalization and La Francphonie entitled Les
phénomènes de mondialisation et l’aire francophone : une clé de lecture.
He began by endeavouring to define the various terms,
then reviewed the historical events that have shaped relations between states
and identified some of the working hypotheses that will guide him in his work.
An inventory of cooperation programs was then produced.
When the report of the Political
Commission was presented, it was reiterated that at the Commission’s next meeting,
the Canadian Branch will be presenting a report on an update of APF by-laws.
The reports of the Cooperation and Development Commission and the Education,
Communication and Cultural Affairs Commission were also presented.
Presentation
Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Alain
Le Roy, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations for peacekeeping,
addressed the Bureau members. Dr. Migiro noted that the UN and the APF share
common values based on the principles of diversity, dialogue and
multilingualism. The two organizations have common goals, namely the prevention
and resolution of conflict and the promotion of democracy and development. She
called on the APF to strengthen its cooperation with the UN.
As an example of cooperation, the
United Nations and La Francophonie jointly hosted a symposium in Bamako, Mali,
in December 2008 on democracy and peaceful political change in Africa. Dr.
Migiro expressed the view that La Francophonie is an excellent partner for the
UN in attaining the Millennium Objectives for Development.
Reports from regional chargés de
mission
The chargé de mission (America), Michel Samson (Nova Scotia), presented a regional activity
report. Mr. Samson gave an account of the last regional meeting held in Quebec
City in July 2008. The subjects discussed at the meeting were heritage
conservation, the Ontario Youth Parliament and linguistic duality at the 2010
Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver, a topic presented by the Canadian
Branch. A resolution was passed reminding the organization committee for the
Vancouver Games and all public authorities involved in planning the Games of
their duty to ensure French-language broadcasting.
The next conference of the section
presidents of the Region will be held February 18 to 20, 2009, in Newfoundland
and Labrador, the only Canadian province that is still not a member of the APF,
and the next regional meeting will be held in Halifax in September 2009.
Report on the activities of the Women
Parliamentarians Network
Senator Rose-Marie-Losier-Cool, President of the Network, presented a report on the Network’s
activities. She made reference to the Network’s last meeting in Quebec City in
July 2008. During that meeting, the Network adopted three reports: Les
droits de l’Enfant : suivi de la Convention internationale des droits de
l’Enfant [children’s rights: monitoring the International Convention on the
Rights of the Child]; La traite des personnes [human trafficking]; and Le
suivi de la mise en œuvre de la Convention sur l’élimination de toutes les
formes de discrimination à l’égard des femmes [follow-up of the
implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women].
The delegates also reviewed the
Network’s proposed contribution to the APF notice on the OIF’s ten-year
strategic framework and prepared the hearing of the OIF Secretary General
referring to his statement on violence against civilians in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Finally, the Network adopted a
declaration in which the delegates praised the release of Franco-Colombian
senator Ingrid Bétancourt, and voiced their support for the hostages still
being held by the FARC in Colombia, as well as all hostages around the world,
in particular women and children.
The Network took part in the
international meeting on equality between Francophone women and men (“Du dire
au faire : égalité entre les femmes et les hommes dans l’espace francophone”)
held in Quebec City in September 2008. The gathering was organized by the OIF
in partnership with the Claire-Bonenfant Chair on the status of women at Laval
University. Senator Losier-Cool was invited by the OIF to attend the session on
the costs of legislation affirming women’s rights from conception to
implementation and to address the participants on this issue.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Presentation
Kiyotaka Akasaka, UnderSecretary-General of the UN and coordinator for
multilingualism, and Paul Badji, Senegal’s permanent
United Nations representative in charge of multilingualism within the
Francophone ambassdors’ group, addressed the Bureau members.
Mr. Akasaka spoke to the Bureau members
about the essential role of linguistic diversity and multilingualism and
reiterated that the linguistic diversity is related to cultural diversity and
that communication and information are the keys to development.
Mr. Akasaka quoted the May 16, 2007,
resolution in which the Assembly requested the Secretary-General “to ensure
that all language services are given equal treatment and are provided with
equally favourable working conditions and resources, with a view to achieving
maximum quality of those services”. The resolution also emphasized the
importance of “making appropriate use of all the official languages in all the
activities of the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat”;
“reaffirms the need to achieve full parity among the six official languages on
United Nations websites” and “encourages United Nations information centres to
continue their multilingual activities in the interactive and proactive aspects
of their work”.
Review of the situation in various
countries
The Bureau adopted declarations on the
political situations in various Francophone countries, namely Haiti, Guinea,
Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Lebanon. The Bureau
also adopted a declaration on the Middle East situation and a declaration on
the economic situation in certain Francophone countries and its impact on the
teaching of French.
Other business
The 35th Session of the APF will be
held in Paris, France, from July 2 to 6, 2009.
Following a suggestion by Senator De
Bané, it was agreed to incorporate the seminar on the criteria for
evaluating the democracy of Parliaments (La réalité démocratique des
Parlements : Quels critères d’évaluation ? organized jointly by the APF and
the UNPD into the next meeting of the Parliamentary Affairs Commission. A
seminar on the same theme will also precede the next meeting of the Political
Commission.
Frédéric Fortin, Director General of Information and Institutional Affairs with
the Quebec National Assembly, presented a report on the activities of the Association
des secrétaires généraux des Parlements francophones.
In closing, the Canadian delegation
would like to thank Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations,
Ambassador John McNee, the deputy permanent representative, Ambassador
Henri-Paul Normandin, and the entire staff of Canada’s permanent mission for
their contribution to the success of the Bureau’s work.
Respectfully
submitted,
Pierre De Bané, Senator
Member of the Canadian Branch of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie (APF)