Legislators, parliamentary staff, and civil society representatives from around the world participated in the Parliamentary Day at the Open Government Partnership Global Summit organized by OPeN
On Tuesday, December 14, 2021, Parliamentary Day was held virtually within the framework of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit, with the objective of bringing together the open parliament community to reflect on the role that legislatures have played as partners for open government reforms. It was attended by legislators, parliamentary staff, and civil society representatives from around the world, who exchanged initiatives, actions, and challenges regarding the progress of this agenda, centring the two themes: strengthening civic space and innovative measures against corruption.
The first part of the meeting highlighted the current challenges in safeguarding civic space and its implications for democracy. Likewise, initiatives that are being developed to guarantee citizen participation in the legislative work were shared. One of the cases presented was that of Costa Rica by Member of the Legislative Assembly Ana Lucia Delgado (Costa Rica), First Vice-President for Central America of the ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network, who spoke about the Open Parliament Institutional Committee that includes three representatives of civil society in its composition. To this end, a regulation was approved to establish the institutional processes for the integration of civil society organizations in this committee whose purpose is to lead the efforts in favour of legislative openness. To this end, a resolution was approved to establish the institutional processes needed for the integration of civil society organizations in this committee, whose purpose is to lead the efforts in support of legislative openness. This panel also included the Honourable Cornelius Mweetwa, Member of the National Assembly of Zambia; Mr. Damar Juniarto, Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet); Mr. José Marinero Cortés, President of the Fundación Democracia, Transparencia y Justicia in El Salvador; and was moderated by Ms. Julia Keutgen, Senior Advisor on Transparency at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
In the second part of the meeting, the participants discussed innovative strategies to address corruption, considering the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Along these lines, initiatives, mechanisms, and tools that both parliaments and civil society organizations have used to monitor and promote public integrity in government actions were shared. Representing Canada, the Honourable Senator René Cormier, Second Vice-President for North America of the ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network, highlighted the recommendations made by the Senate to the Canadian Government to ensure that all measures against COVID are effective and produce the expected results. The recommendations highlighted the importance of improving data collection and reporting practices through the inclusion of additional details on region, race, ethnicity and gender, taking into consideration the economic impact of the pandemic on historically marginalized groups. This panel included interventions by Member of Parliament Givi Mikanadze from Georgia; Dr. Shiow-Duan Hawang, Professor at Soochow University in Taiwan; Ms. Caroline Gaita, Executive Director of Mzalendo Trust in Kenya; Ms. Etilda Gjonaj, former Minister of Justice of Albania; and was moderated by Ms. Corina Rebegea, Advisor to the National Democratic Institute.
The event was also attended by Senator Javier Macaya (Chile), President of ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network, who emphasized that “legislative openness does not advance on its own: it requires the will of both legislators and civil servants, active citizenry, organizations with proposals, and a spirit of collaboration.” In this regard, he also highlighted the approval of OGP’s memorandum on parliamentary engagement, which is the result of a participatory process and is intended to guide parliaments in the necessary processes to establish action plans for legislative openness. Other notable interventions were made by the Honourable Dr. Paran Umar Tarawally, Secretary General of the Parliament of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Secretary of the OGP Parliamentary Working Group; Ms. Maria Baron, OGP Co-Chair and Global Executive Director of Directorio Legislativo; Mr. Luis Rojas, Deputy Secretary of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile and General Coordinator of the ParlAmericas Parliamentary Staff Network on Open Parliament; and Ms. Vita Dumanska, Executive Director of CHESNO in Ukraine.
Parliamentary Day was a joint effort by leading parliamentary organizations and founding members of the Open Parliament Global Network (OpeN): Directorio Legislativo, Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency, National Democratic Institute, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ParlAmericas, and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
