[open-government] Fwd: [PMO Network] TechPresident article on @OpenParl Declaration

Thu Aug 8 13:39:28 UTC 2013

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andrew Mandelbaum <amandelbaum at ndi.org>
Date: Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 8:11 AM
Subject: [PMO Network] TechPresident article on @OpenParl Declaration
To: "pmo-network at googlegroups.com" <pmo-network at googlegroups.com>

Please feel free to disseminate broadly...
http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/24247/declaration-parliamentary-openness-roadmap-transparent-govt-gains-support-international

Declaration on Parliamentary Openness Gains Wide Endorsement in Europe

BY JESSICA MCKENZIE <http://techpresident.com/blogs/jessica-mckenzie> |
Wednesday, August 7 2013
  Wikipedia <http://tinyurl.com/jvfw3nd>

Since the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness was introduced last
September <http://www.ictparliament.org/node/5015>, it has garnered more
than 120 endorsements from civil society organizations in 74 countries.
This month, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA <http://www.oscepa.org/about-osce-pa>)
became the first international institution to endorse the declaration.

The Declaration on Parliamentary
Openness<http://www.openingparliament.org/about> is
“a set of shared principles on the openness, transparency and accessibility
of parliaments.” The Declaration began with a meeting of parliamentary
monitoring organizations hosted by the National Democratic Institute,
Sunlight Foundation and Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency
in April 2012.

“The document essentially gives any parliament a roadmap to help their
institutions improve interaction with the citizens it represents,” wrote
Ranko Krivokapic<http://blog.openingparliament.org/post/57413843963/osce-pa-time-for-parliaments-to-commit-to-openness>,
President of the Parliament of Montenegro as well as the President of the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

In my home country, Montenegro, we have a growing tradition of openness
where the public can view our sessions from committee to plenary, and see
public procurement information online and have it delivered upon request.

Despite the successes of a number of individual parliaments in making their
institutions and data more open to the public, generally parliaments have
been slower to engage in international partnerships to help lead the
movement toward more open government. This is beginning to change. At the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, where we have advocated for greater
governmental transparency and accountability for 20 years, it is only
logical that we would be the first parliamentary assembly to express
support for collective action to improve parliamentary openness as well. . .

In an assembly like ours, dedicated to international dialogue, having
parliaments using new technology to make legislation and debates accessible
online also helps further our goals, making it easier for policy ideas
being enacted in one country to be replicated in harmony ten time zones
away.

Some have questioned the potential effectiveness of the Declaration,
including techPresident's David Eaves, who wrote last
September<http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/22813/opening-worlds-legislative-bodies-global-game>
:

But how effective will such a declaration be? Hard to tell. My suspicion is
that such a global partnership of organizations seeking legislative
transparency likely has the best hope of success among governments that
already have a strong streak of transparency to them, such as Sweden and
Norway. They may also find traction among emerging democracies where
outdated and opaque processes have not become hallowed "traditions" and
where notions of transparency and accountability have real meaning to both
the public at large and to elected officials.

Eaves also expressed doubt that the declaration would have much of an
impact on traditional Western democracies. Perhaps the endorsement from
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, which includes representatives from 57 nations
in Europe, Central Asia and North America, will yet prove his bleak
suspicion wrong.

*Personal Democracy Media is grateful to the Omidyar Network and the UN
Foundation for their generous support of techPresident's WeGov section.*

-- 
*Andrew G. Mandelbaum*

Senior Program Officer, Governance
National Democratic Institute
www.ndi.org
OpeningParliament.org <http://openingparliament.org/>

Twitter: agm3dc
Phone: +212 6 62 68 10 56
Skype: agm3jordan
Email: amandelbaum at ndi.org

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