The ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network (OPN) promotes legislative openness through efforts to increase transparency and access to public information, strengthen the accountability of democratic institutions, promote the participation of citizens in legislative decision-making, and ensure a culture of ethical behaviour and probity in the national legislatures of the Americas and the Caribbean.
Since its integration in ParlAmericas in 2015, the Network (formerly known as Inter-American Parliamentary Network on Transparency, Access to Public Information, and Probity), provides workshops, facilitates peer to peer exchanges and produces tools for legislators with the ultimate objective of combating corruption, enhancing public trust and strengthening our democratic institutions, to build peaceful and inclusive societies that provide access to justice for all and boast of effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels, in support of Sustainable Development Goal 16. The outcomes of these activities also inform the development of specialized resources and online communities for parliamentarians.
The Network is governed by an elected Executive Committee, composed of the President (who also serves as 2nd Vice-President on ParlAmericas’ Board of Directors) and sub-regional Vice-Presidents representing North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean.
Likewise in 2019, to strengthen and support the actions and initiatives of the OPN, and in recognition of the continuous work being done by parliamentary staff, ParlAmericas established a space for sharing experiences and good practices to promote legislative openness. This space aims to provide continuous encouragement of actions that ensure the sustainability of these efforts and contribute to the progress of the open parliament agenda at the institutional level. The Parliamentary Staff Network on Open Parliament has been operating and holding meetings to continue to promote the implementation and development of initiatives for legislative openness. Parliamentary Staff from parliaments across the hemisphere are welcome to participate in this network.
For further information on the Open Parliament Network please contact the ParlAmericas International Secretariat.
Open Parliament: a new form of interaction between citizens and legislatures that promote parliamentary openness and transparency, to ensure access to public information, accountability, citizen participation, and high probity and ethical standards in parliamentary work
The Road Map towards Legislative Openness provides a framework to help guide parliamentarians in producing their own national legislative openness action plans and/or initiatives. This document was co-created by parliamentarians and civil society organizations representing 20 countries of the Americas and the Caribbean and adopted at the 1st Gathering of the OPN in Asuncion, Paraguay in 2016. Commitments are organized under four pillars:
Transparency and Access to Information
Individuals’ fundamental human right to information that is of public interest through mechanisms for the disclosure of reliable information and compliance with requests for such information
Accountability
Public servants’ obligation to explain, provide justification for, and communicate their decisions and actions with respect to public resources
Citizen participation
Active involvement of citizens in public decision-making processes that may impact their lives
Ethics and probity
Norms of highest integrity that individuals should adhere to while serving as public servants
Executive Committee
Javier Macaya Danús
President
Senator, Chile
Bertha Alicia Caraveo Camarena
First Vice-President – North America
Senator, Mexico
The Honourable René Cormier
Second Vice-President – North America
Senator, Canada
Luz Mary Alpízar
First Vice-President – Central America
Member of the Legislative Assembly, Costa Rica
Corina Cano Córdoba
Second Vice-President – Central America
Member of the National Assembly, Panama
Honourable Catherine Juvinao
Vice-President – South America
Representative, Colombia
His Honour Reginald Farley
Vice-President – The Caribbean
President of the Senate, Barbados
Coordination of the Parliamentary Staff Network on Open Parliament
Luis Rojas Gallardo
General Coordinator
Deputy Secretary General, Chamber of Deputies, Chile
Regional Coordinator – North America
Director General of Digital Enablement and Innovation, House of Commons, Canada
Regional Coordinator – Central America
Director of the Citizen Participation Department, Legislative Assembly, Costa Rica
Regional Coordinator – Central America
Legal Advisor to the Presidency, National Assembly, Panama
Beverly Gibbons
Regional Coordinator – The Caribbean
Deputy Clerk, Parliament, Barbados
Elections for the Executive Committee are held during the OPN’s gathering. For more information about the governance of the Executive Committee, please read our statutes.
