Mechanisms of Citizen Participation in
Parliamentary Activities
Why is it important?
Lack of awareness of citizens is one of the main obstacles for their active participation in legislative processes.
Government should be making information related to legislative processes available. The legislative process should be derived from the interests of the population.
This module was created by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and reviews lawmaking activities and citizen participation mechanisms that are currently available through the website of the Parliament of Georgia.
Why is it important?
Lack of awareness of citizens is one of the main obstacles for their active participation in legislative processes.
Government should be making information related to legislative processes available. The legislative process should be derived from the interests of the population.
This module was created by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and reviews lawmaking activities and citizen participation mechanisms that are currently available through the website of the Parliament of Georgia.
Legislative Initiative and Legislative Proposal
The main difference between a legislative initiative and a legislative proposal lies in their submitters. In addition, a legislative initiative has the form of a draft law, while a legislative proposal is a general idea or concept of a law.
The following entities/individuals are entitled to submit a draft law by means of a legislative initiative: Government of Georgia; Member of Parliament (MP); Parliamentary Faction; supreme representative body of Abkhazia and Adjara; and an initiative group (after collecting no less than 30,000 voter signatures).
A legislative proposal can be submitted by an individual that does not have the right to propose a legislative initiative and, therefore, is not entitled to submit a draft law. A legislative proposal is submitted to the Parliament and contains a proposal on adoption, amendment or invalidation of a law.
An individual is also entitled to directly address an MP and introduce his or her idea of the draft law. In case of approval of the idea, the MP is entitled to use their right of a legislative initiative and submit the draft law to the Parliament.
Another Mechanism for Participation – Submitting a Petition
Petition is a written request of a group of individuals that concerns issues related to national or general problems.
Where Can I Find Draft Laws?
How Can I Leave a Comment on a Draft Law?
How Can I Attend Plenary and Committee Sessions of the Parliament?
Another mechanism for civil participation in the lawmaking process is to attend plenary and committee sessions of the Parliament. When attending committee session, citizens are given the right to be heard.
Detailed regulations for entering the Parliament building are determined by the Order of the Chairperson of Parliament of Georgia and by the Appendixes attached thereto. All of the abovementioned is available on the Parliament website.
Citizens that are willing to attend plenary or committee sessions of Parliament may appeal to MPs or to the Parliamentary Stuff, more specifically: head and deputy heads of the Parliamentary Stuff; head of the Office of the Chairperson of Parliament; heads of the Departments of Parliament; head of the Office of the Registrar of Parliament. Full list of individuals that are authorized to pass the permit on entrance of Parliament is given at the webpage of Parliament.
In order to attend a parliamentary session it is necessary to know dates and its agenda.
In the agenda of the Parliamentary Bureau the draft laws that are going to be discussed at the planned Plenary Session of Parliament are given in detail.
In order to attend the Committee Session of Parliament it is required to know its date and agenda. This information is available in the Announcement Section on the Parliament website.
Where Can I View Voting Results?
The results of voting conducted by the Parliament of 7th, 8th and 9th convocation may be viewed on the Parliament website (www.parliament.ge).It is possible to view the full list of laws, as well as to search a specific law by indicating several parameters, such as the title, MP, date of adoption.For each law, one can find general information, voting results, personal information of MPs that took part in voting and their voting record.The Parliament website also offers full MP voting records.
This Guide was created within the framework of the Joint Parliamentary Project of European Union and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in collaboration with “Institute for Development of Freedom of Information” (IDFI).