Program areas at PGA
Gender equality and inclusion:ecuador hosted a strategic discussion on child and early unions in the country. As part of pga's collaboration with girls not brides' power to girls campaign, local ngo fundacin sendas shared the results of their research about this harmful practice, which continues to be prevalent, particularly in rural areas. In 2022, pga also launched a #genderclimatechallenge to amplify the commission on the status of women (csw)'s priority theme on achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programs. Women Parliamentarians from anguilla, belize, jamaica and saint vincent and the grenadines shared their views on actions for gender equality taken as Parliamentarians to build a more sustainable tomorrow.
International peace and security:in 2022, pga engaged its member-parliamentarians in benin, burkina faso, cameroon, central african republic, chad, comoros, cte d'ivoire, democratic republic of congo, eswatini, ethiopia, the gambia, ghana, guinea, kenya, liberia, malawi, mali, mauritania, mozambique, namibia, nigeria, the seychelles, sierra leone, somalia, south africa, south sudan, tanzania, togo, uganda, zambia and zimbabwe, making significant progress sensitizing and mobilizing mps on the ratification of/accession to the biological weapons convention (bwc) as well as national reports to the unsc 1540 committee. In march 2022, pga and its argentina national group collaborated with the council of europe's cybercrime program as well as the organization of american states to organize a regional parliamentary webinar for latin america and caribbean to promote universality and implementation of the budapest convention on cybercrime. Over 70 members of parliament and national experts from argentina, chile, dominican republic and united states participated in the briefing.
International law and human rights:in equatorial guinea and the central african republic, pga worked to successfully abolish capital punishment. Following malaysia's pledge to abolish the death penalty in june 2022, pga called on the government to table the relevant amendments in parliament without delay and on malaysian legislators to adopt these legislative amendments in a timely manner. Hon. Kasthuri patto, mp (malaysia) published an op-ed, "abolishing mandatory death sentence: m'sia taking the right step." Furthermore, as a result of the full-scale invasion of ukraine by russia in february 2022, pga intensified its longstanding focus on ukraine. Pga organized various events in which member-parliamentarian. And their peers as well as other stakeholders urged ukrainian leaders to ratify the rome statute and ensure its effective domestication.