At the initiative of the IPU, three new guides for democratic standards in the political sphere have recently been made available to the parliamentary community worldwide. As part of an integrated approach to standard-setting, these guides are designed to serve as effective tools for focusing attention on shared democratic objectives, while at the same time providing practical guidance on how to achieve these objectives in the form of guidelines, recommendations and examples of good practice.
The first product is a guide on parliaments and democracy in the 21st century. This guide is born out of the realization that we live in a time when we hail the victory of democracy but lament the fact that in many countries parliament - the central institution of democracy - is facing a crisis of legitimacy. The executive branch dominates the agenda, international cooperation and globalisation have led to decision making that lacks democratic control, and people question whether current political processes are really able to produce parliaments that can represent their interests in all their diversity.
So what is a democratic parliament? The guide answers the question with five key characteristics which every parliament should have. They should be representative, transparent, accessible, accountable and effective. It proceeds to give numerous examples of how parliaments, in very concrete terms, fulfil those characteristics.
The guide does not rank national parliaments or attempt to measure the quality of their democracy. However, it is an invitation to all to participate in an open debate on what it means to be a democratic parliament, and how each parliament can put into practice the democratic values described in the guide. Ultimately, this contribution by IPU seeks to build momentum and greater political support in shaping strong, effective and truly representative parliamentary institutions across the globe.
Secondly, new work has been done on standards for free and fair elections. This is not only a question for new and emerging democracies, but for every country. Citizens increasingly expect - and demand - to be able to vote for their representatives in a free and fair election. The IPU has taken stock of developments over the decade following the adoption of the Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections in 1994, leading to the publication of a new, expanded edition of its study on Free and Fair Elections.
The third initiative is a set of guidelines for the international community on parliaments, crisis prevention and recovery. The guidelines were developed by the United Nations Development Programme in partnership with the IPU and recommend a large number of actions for the international community to ensure that parliaments are sufficiently taken into account when designing international support for peace processes.
