IDFI is recognized as a supporting organization for the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness

News | Publications | Open Government | Article 27 July 2015

On 25th of July, 2015, OpenParliament.org added Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) on the list of the supporting organizations for the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness. OpeningParliament.org is a forum intended to connect world's civic organizations engaged in monitoring, supporting and opening up their countries' parliaments and legislative institutions.


On the OpenParliament.org the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness is published, which the Parliament of Georgia joined on 30th of April, 2015.


The Declaration on Parliamentary Openness calls on the legislative branches to improve the Parliamentary Openness and civil society participation in legislative affairs in cooperation with the parliamentary monitoring organizations. The Declaration also advises the legislative branches to introduce electronic technologies in the legislation process and support the transparency and accessibility on the parliamentary information.


OpeningParliament.org lists the supporting organizations for the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness from 85 countries. From Georgia, two parliamentary monitoring organizations - Transparency International-Georgia and JumpStart Georgia were listed. Now IDFI also joined the list. It is noteworthy that IDFI is the only local Georgian non-governmental organization named as a supporting organization for the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness.


IDFI is actively involved in the open parliament activities. Particularly, UN Development Program (UNDP) in cooperation with IDFI and the Parliament of Georgia, in the framework of EU funded program "Strengthening the Parliamentary Democracy System in Georgia", implements the project "Supporting Parliament of Georgia Involvement in Open Government Partnership Initiative".


Under this project the Open Parliament Georgia Working Group and the Inter-Factional Group were created, that were working on the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan.


IDFI provided contributed the organizational support for effective functioning of the Open Parliament Georgia Working Group and the Inter-Factional Group, prepared a research paper on the Issues of Parliamentary Openness in the OGP Member States. Moreover, IDFI initiated the signing of the Memorandum between the Parliament of Georgia and the members of the Open Parliament Georgia Working Group. Memorandum also defined the terms of drafting the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan. Resultantly, the Inter-Factional group and the members of the Open Parliament Georgia Working Group developed Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan for the years of 2015-2016, and on May 17, 2015 the Action Plan was adopted by the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia.

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