On April 17, the Senate opened the door for the Congress of Mexico to move towards transparency. We had never before seen a commitment to make such substantial changes in the legislative process.

For nearly a month, the Mexican Congress has been said to be working at full speed toward new reforms, but with very few specifics. It is safe to say that things have been moving very fast, but with little transparency. However, today there are signs that this may change and we can bring some light to the legislative process.

With just a few days left before the end of the second session in Congress and with a loaded legislative agenda left to address, this past April 17 we may have witnessed and participated in an event that may lead to very positive change in legislative work. The Senate’s Committee on the Assurance of Access and Transparency of Information (COGATI) – with the presence of Sen. Arely Gómez González, Sen. Salvador Vega Casilla and Sen. Juan Gerardo Flores Ramírez – officially endorsed the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness. But what does this mean?

At first glance, this gesture might seem like something minor. However, the local organizations that were present – Impacto Legislativo, Visión Legislativa and Fundar –   had never before seen such a commitment to make substantial changes (and we have all now spent many years following the work of both chambers). In this endorsement, we received a stated recognition from the legislators and staff who generate and protect legislative information that it is necessary to move toward a more open legislative process.

The Declaration on Parliamentary Openness is a document that was produced by a community of international organizations that specialize in legislative issues and seek to generate standards for world parliaments to be guided towards the best practices of transparency, access to information and open data. Today, the Declaration is supported by over 120 organizations in nearly 75 countries and has been translated into 15 languages. Now, the Senate of Mexico can be added to that list as the first national legislative chamber to have officially endorsed it.

So Mexicans must be proud of this commitment from our Senate, but we also must remain vigilant so that this does not become solely a statement of good intentions. We must ensure that the Declaration is translated into clear and specific actions. Examples abound of the changes that must be made: just a week ago, Mexico’s Auditor realized the immense opacity which subsists in parliamentary groups, as knowing where they spend the millions of dollars they receive is nearly impossible. Currently, as citizens, we also know little about how members of Congress and its different commissions are making decisions in both chambers.

At the meeting of COGATI, agreements were accepted that will make immediate changes; the changes range from facilitating new training of staff on transparency and access to information, to having video recordings of what happens in committees so that citizens have the chance to see them online at any time. Similarly, there will be updated and systematized information on the attendance of Senators, their votes to approve or deny initiatives in plenary, and the possibility of establishing a system of access to information for indigenous groups in their own language. (View all of the adopted agreements here in PDF, or here in XML.)

Right now, there is a section on COGATI’s website dedicated to its new commitments. The page announces the committee’s endorsement of the Declaration and includes a section that will keep citizens informed on its progress in attaining the goals of greater openness. The Declaration, as I mentioned, is supported by a large number of organizations that continues to grow, and I invite you to read the full document in Spanish at this link.

Given the high level of mistrust that citizens have about the work of legislators and the lackluster results obtained by Mexico’s Congress in the Latin American Network on Legislative Transparency’s recent index of transparency, the Senate has taken an important step to create change by committing to enable greater space for citizen participation and accountability in the legislative process. And without proper transparency and access to information, it wouldn’t be possible to honor those commitments.

This article originally appeared in Spanish on Animal Politico, entitled “¿Será que ahora sí serán transparentes?” View it here.

This is a follow up to a past blog post, available here.

Image credit: Comité de Garantía de Acceso y Transparencia de la Información del Senado de la República