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"id": 994074,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
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"content": "As noted in the previous progress reports of the Committee, during the initial stages of our work, we clustered all emerging issues into five thematic areas. The first area was health issues, which includes; community health testing, quarantine, isolation centers, Intensive Care Unit Facilities (ICU), the human resource aspects of health, drugs and supplies, the role and engagement of county governments and mental health. The second issue is economic and finance issues, which includes; the macro economic effects, the impact of businesses, trade facilitation, and measures to cushion borrowers and financial institutions. The third thematic area, which this Report is focusing on, is social public order and human rights. This includes; protection of vulnerable persons and groups, protection of women and girls at risk of domestic abuse, and in some counties, men; measures to enable learners to continue with their studies, enforcement of the national curfew, access to justice, and decongestion of prisons and remand facilities. Fourth is access to food, water and other basic commodities. This includes; measures to ensure the continuous production and supply of food, water and other essential commodities. Finally, support services and cross cutting issues. This includes awareness creation on measures to prevent infection, the media drive, how to combat stigmatization, and the role of Information and Communication (ICT) in combating the pandemic. Madam Temporary Speaker, having already reviewed the best practice from comparative jurisdictions, and having analyzed key issues and concerns from the five thematic areas, the Committee resolved to focus on one thematic area at a time. That is why if you notice, the last three reports that have come in are bringing in-depth analysis of issues and concrete recommendations. There are so many things that arise, and if we deal with everything in a scattered manner, we will not be able to achieve anything. We have been bringing in very thorough reports on each thematic area, and we hope to give a weekly report. The Committee has a six-month mandate. I hope that we would have finished with COVID-19 in those sixth months. As you can see, things are easing off and people want to go back to normal. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Third Progress Report that I tabled on 28th April, 2020 covered the thematic area on health. That does mean that we have stopped looking at the health thematic area, but we have a report. Many of our recommendations are actually already being taken up. On 12th May, 2020, I tabled a report on economic and finance issues. You can see that following that, the President announced measures of stimulus cheques to deal with the economy at this time of COVID-19, so we are making good progress. The focus of this Sixth Report is on the third thematic area - social public order and human rights. Subsequent reports will focus on the remaining thematic areas. Madam Temporary Speaker, you should also be aware that the Committee went very fast. After discussing with almost 200 stakeholders, individuals and institutions, we have published a Bill. It has gone to the Second Reading, but I would like to express my disappointment. For the last two or three sittings, we have not been able to even put the question on the Second Reading. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}