GITEGA November 2nd (ABP) – The President of the Burundian Senate, Mr. Emmanuel Sinzohagera, proceeded on Tuesday, October 31, 2023, to the closing of the ordinary parliamentary session for the month of August 2023, at the Gitega hemicycle (Center of the country), a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In his closing speech, he said that during that session, the senators analyzed and adopted six draft laws among seven projects that the government of Burundi had sent to them. Among those bills, he specified, are, among others, that ratifying by the Republic of Burundi the agreement between the government of the Republic of Burundi and the government of the State of Qatar concerning the regulation of the employment of Burundian workers in the State of Qatar signed in Doha on March 7, 2023, that ratifying by the Republic of Burundi the Framework Agreement on Cooperation in the Nile River Basin, the bill establishing modification of law nº1/08 of March 17, 2005 on the code of organization and judicial jurisdiction at second reading.
During that session, the President of the Senate warmly thanked the senators who are members of the standing committee responsible for gender issues and relations with the legislative assembly of the East African Community, CEA. Those senators visited the provinces of Ngozi, Kirundo, Muyinga, Makamba, Rumonge and Bubanza from September 4 to 8, 2023, to inquire about the situation of gender-based violence observed in those provinces. Mr. Sinzohagera indicated that during that period of parliamentary recess, senators are called to always be close to the population, especially during community development work organized in their respective constituencies. They are also called upon to closely monitor issues related to the non-respect of the rights of the people in their everyday lives. They will focus particularly on the areas of health, justice and detention centers. He, in fact, indicated that the senators will also monitor the implementation of the bills they voted for, listen to and raise awareness among the people to preserve peace and security and focus more on community development work.
Before the closing ceremonies of that ordinary session in August 2023, the senators met in plenary session to analyze and adopt the report on the need to end or not the system of ethnic quotas in the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial. After a long discussion by the senators, the President of the Senate adjourned that session and indicated that that report will be reanalyzed in the first two weeks of December 2023. He called on the senators to reread that report and to propose better recommendations to formulate when transmitting that report to the decision-making bodies.