Kadaga Nominated to be Among Selection Board for Cremer-Passey Prize

Uganda’s First Deputy Prime Minister Rt Hon Rebecca Kadaga has been nominated by the African Geo-political group to be among the selection Board for the award of the Cremer-Passey Prize of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

“Am proud to have been nominated by the African Geo-political group to be among the selection Board for the award of the Cremer-Passey Prize of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,” the Minister of East African Community Affairs confirmed on Friday.

Geopolitical groups play an important role in the functioning of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Each group decides on its own working methods that best suit its participation in the activities of the Union and informs the Secretariat of its composition, the names of its officers, and its rules of procedure.

The African Group consists of 52 members with Kadaga as its Chairperson and Mr. N’ZI Koffi as its Coordinator.

Former presidential candidate Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba congratulated Kadaga on the nomination.

“You have proved that you can make impact and be popular in any position you hold…. Very soon you are going to turn the Ugandan Ministry of East African Affairs into the most popular Ministry. Keep scaling the heights,” he said.

You have proved that you can make impact and be popular in any position you hold…. Very soon you are going to turn the Uagndan Ministry of East African Affairs into the most popular Ministry. Keep scaling the heights. https://t.co/JckSXS3NWI

— Prof. V Baryamureeba (@baryamureeba) May 20, 2022

MP of the year: The new Cremer-Passy Award

In January this year, the IPU announced a new prize: the Cremer-Passy prize.

The prize will be awarded annually to an MP or MPs whose exceptional actions contribute to a more united, fair, secure, sustainable and equitable future.

Kadaga is the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the Kamuli District Women’s Constituency, Busoga sub-region, a position she has held since 1989.

Named after the two IPU founders, Frédéric Passy and Sir William Randal Cremer, this annual award will be given to a parliamentarian who has made an exceptional contribution as an MP.

Nominations were submitted through Geopolitical Groups by 30 April 2022 (changed from 31 May 2022).

The award will be announced on 30 June 2022 in time for the International Day of Parliamentarianism, which is also the anniversary of the IPU.

The IPU was created in 1889, in an era when there were no established means for governments or parliaments to work together internationally. The idea of bringing together MPs from different countries had been gaining ground among pacifists in the 1870s and 80s, but until 1889 no one had seized the initiative to turn the idea into a reality.

It took two 19^th-century men of vision—Englishman Cremer and Frenchman Passy—to lay the foundations for all that has followed.

Frédéric Passy, one of the founders of the IPU, dedicated 50 years to promoting arbitration and reconciliation between nations.

He became known as the “Apostle of Peace”, winning the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.  Today is his 200th birthday.