IDEA, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Parliament of Burundi organized a seminar on The role of parliaments in the national reconciliation process in Africa, 7-9 November in Bujumbura, Burundi. It was opened by the President of the Burundi National Assembly, Hon. Immaculée Nahayo and brought together parliamentarians from 15 African countries.
IDEA spoke at the inaugural and closing sessions and gave two presentations on “The role on the international community in reconciliation” and “Reconciliation as a goal and a process”.
The seminar sparked a dialogue between parliamentarians of African countries, and fostered a better understanding of the role of parliaments in seeing through the reconciliation process and identifying priorities and pitfalls. Specifically, the seminar focused on the question of how to deal with the legacy of human rights abuse that often characterizes periods of prolonged conflict. It looked into topics such as: the need to address the scars of the past; women and gender in post-conflict situations and reconciliation processes; trials; and justice versus amnesty.
Participants raised specific reconciliation issues such as:
- How to overcome the deep divisions that often characterize post-conflict societies: for example, Burundian parliamentarians explained the complex division of roles between the National Assembly and the Senate, whereby the function of the latter is to give equal weight to the voices of the two dominant ethnic groups.
- The use in African parliaments of quotas based on ethnicity: some participants considered that such quotas were important in order to give a sense of security to all groups in a post-conflict situation; yet, others argued that Parliamentarians, once elected, should be considered as representing all citizens regardless of ethnic and other divides. There were also views that ethnic quotas may be a temporary arrangement but should be abandoned once the situation is stabilized.
- The need for a strong and positive inter-relationship between parliaments, civil society and the media was emphasized in order to effectively promote reconciliation processes.
- It was observed that women were often better represented in post-conflict parliaments that in those of well established democracies; it was suggested that the reason may be in the fact that post-conflict democracies were being established with a strong support of the international community, a support that includes strong gender-equality incitements: Rwandan Parliamentarians mentioned the fact that their Parliament featured the first cross-party parliamentary caucus formed by women.
- As to the role of the International Community, most of the participants in the debate agreed with the main points suggested by IDEA, i.e. that the international community had an important role to play as provider of expertise, finance and comparative knowledge, but that the reconciliation processes need to be home-grown and fully owned by national stakeholders.
The seminar was the first major international event organized by the Budundian National Assembly after the June 2005 parliamentary elections and the inauguration, in August, of the new government led by President Nkurunziza. As such, the event was given high visibility in the capital city of Bujumbura.
Many of the issues addressed at the seminar are covered by the recently published IDEA and IPU handbook “Making Reconciliation Work: The Role of Parliaments”.
Contact: Goran Fejic, head of the democracy and conflict management team.Click here for additional information about the seminar.
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