IPU eBulletin header Issue No.8, 18 July 2007   

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PARLIAMENTARIANS JOIN FORCES WITH OTHER WORLD LEADERS IN VIENNA TO REBUILD TRUST IN GOVERNMENT

There is no gainsaying that, in many countries around the world, governing institutions, including parliaments, are facing a crisis of legitimacy. Many people have lost trust in these institutions as they are seen to be ineffective and not responding to their needs. The United Nations recently convened a summit in Vienna to focus on these and other shortcomings in the field of governance. The 7th Global Forum brought together world leaders from government, parliament, and civil society to debate and propose measures for improving governance worldwide.

Befittingly, the IPU convened a Parliamentary Forum on this occasion, to allow parliamentarians to consider the specific role of parliaments in ensuring more transparent and accountable governance, nationally and internationally.

Parliamentary Forum in Vienna
The meeting was hosted by the Austrian Parliament and was attended by over a hundred parliamentarians from some 31 countries. It focused on transparency and accountability as means of restoring trust in governing institutions. In the words of Ms. Barbara Prammer, Speaker of the Lower House of the Austrian Parliament, governments must earn trust by strengthening popular participation in the policy process, by promoting cohesion between communities and by practising transparent, accountable and effective governance.

Participants at the Vienna meeting looked at ways and means for parliaments to hold the Executive to account and stressed the need for strong, independent, well-resourced and effective parliaments as key pillars of democracy. It was noted that parliaments should be shining examples of integrity in order to promote integrity in government. That is why many speakers called for codes of conduct/ethics for members of parliament.

Parliaments' desire to extend their control over all sectors of activity at the national level was evidenced by the in-depth discussions that took place on parliamentary oversight of the security sector. Indeed, presiding over the proceedings of the Forum, Ms. Margaret Mensah-Williams, Vice-President of the IPU Executive Committee, averred that no sector of public life can legitimately claim to be outside the purview of parliamentary scrutiny. While the security sector was acknowledged to be a relatively new field for parliaments, and therefore fraught with difficulties and opacity, participants stressed the need for the security sector to be at the service of the entire nation and for it to be subject to civilian control. Parliament should therefore be able to scrutinize the structure, policies and operations of the whole range of security services. Such scrutiny should include procurements and deployment of troops abroad. Participants also strongly condemned the interference of the military in politics.

The Parliamentary Forum concluded with a strong plea by participants for more adequate protection to be provided to parliamentarians in the performance of their duties. In this regard, the issue of parliamentary privilege came in for lengthy discussions with participants emphasizing that parliamentary immunity was not a personal privilege but a collective facility to enable parliament as an institution to function without let or hindrance. A call was also made for political parties to be more proactive in promoting inclusiveness to ensure more representation for women, in particular, in governing institutions. They should also adopt increasingly democratic internal procedures and relax party discipline to allow members of parliament to express themselves and act more independently in a bid to promote accountability in government.

The views and recommendations formulated by the parliamentarians were conveyed to the entire 7th Global Forum on Reinventing Government, in a message delivered, on behalf of the IPU, by Ms. Nino Burjanadze, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament.

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