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The 12^th Ordinary Session of the regional Plenary Assembly will be held in Nairobi next week, hosted by the Forum of Parliaments of Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (FP-ICGLR), in collaboration with the Kenya Parliament.

The event is scheduled for April 2 to April 6 at Serena Hotel, Nairobi. This year’s theme is: “The role of parliaments in conflict resolution in the Great Lakes region”.

The event will be officially opened by Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka, who is the president of the assembly.

The FP-ICGLR is an inter-parliamentary group of 12 national parliaments of the ICGLR member states — Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

“The main objective of FP-ICGLR is to make significant parliamentary contribution to implementation of the pact on security, stability, and development in the Great Lakes region,” the assembly said in a statement.

 The FP-ICGLR intervenes in: “democracy and good governance, peace and security, humanitarian and social issues, economic development, natural resources and regional integration,  and issues of gender, children and vulnerable people.

The Plenary Assembly is the supreme organ of the FP-ICGLR. In accordance with Article 6 of the Inter-Parliamentary Accord establishing the FP-ICGLR and signed in Kigali, as amended to date, the Plenary Assembly is competent to deliberate on all matters within the scope of the forum.

The 12^th Ordinary Session will start with the Seventh Statutory Meeting of the Committee on Democracy and Good Governance, and the Joint 4^th Statutory Meeting of the Committee on Gender, Children and Vulnerable Person, and Social and Humanitarian Issues.

Both meetings will be held on April 2 ; the 24th Ordinary Session of the Executive Committee on April 3; the 12^th Ordinary Session of the Conference of Speakers on April 4, and the Plenary Assembly Proper on April 5-6.

Debate will focus on security, political and humanitarian issues in the Great Lakes region.