admin
Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Women and youths’ involvement is important in the fight against terrorism, the president of the African Parliamentary Union Executive Committee and Senate president Cde Mabel Chinoma has said.
Cde Chinomona said this today at the ongoing Third Counter-Terrorism Coordination Meeting of Parliamentary Assemblies, and Parliamentary Political Dialogue being held in Doha, Qatar.
“Just recently, we took part in the high-level Conference on Youth Engagement in the Fight against Terrorism, in Lomé, Togo, which was a great success. It became increasingly apparent during the conference that if we let terrorism continue to envelop our youths, we are giving away our future and destroying the gains we have so far made as the human race.
“The importance of presenting young people with viable alternatives to terrorism and violent extremism cannot be overstated. The root causes of their involvement in terrorism and violent extremism must continue to be interrogated and solutions proffered. Governments and social structures have the important mandate to involve young people in trying to seek these solutions,” she said.
Cde Chinomona added that there was also need to integrate gender in fighting terrorism and violent extremism.
“These are issues of great imperative, and I am pleased to point out that it is not a coincidence that the role of African women in the fight against terrorism was the topic discussed by the Committee of Women Parliamentarians of APU, at the Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) conference in November 2022. This essentially highlights the need to involve women at all levels of decision-making, in national, regional and international mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of conflicts,” she said.
She also called for cross-border cooperation in the context of the fight against terrorism adding that as legislators, they had constitutional means to act on the policies, strategies and action plans that have been put in place to fight terrorism.
She said as lawmakers, they could utilise the law to engage in serious consideration of funding for counter- terrorism when voting for budgets.
“We must exercise oversight over government policies and actions in dealing with or preventing terrorism. The themes discussed during international meetings lead to recommendations which, if implemented, constitute powerful means of moving the lines in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. As parliamentarians, let us take the threat of terrorism seriously and push for the implementation of these recommendations in our individual countries,” Cde Chinomona said.
Online Reporter