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Posts tagged "CPA"

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association members endorse Declaration on Parliamentary Openness

Posted September 12, 2013 at 8:30am by danswislow

Last week, nearly 1,000 delegates and observers from Commonwealth parliaments came together in Johannesburg, South Africa at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA)’s 59th Annual Conference. The CPA counts more than 17,000 parliamentarians as members from 175 national and sub-national parliaments in 54 countries around the world.

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The conference included a workshop entitled, “Governing Democratically in a Tech-Empowered World: Deepening Partnerships Between Parliaments and Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations.” Members of parliament from four countries led a panel discussion, including Hon. Dr. Pambos Papageorgiou (Cyprus), Hon. Dr. Benjamin Kunbour (Ghana), Hon. Junaid Anwar (Pakistan) and Hon. Dave Levac (Ontario, Canada), along with K. Scott Hubli, director of governance programs at the National Democratic Institute.

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Parliamentarians and PMOs collaborate to strengthen parliaments in the digital age

Posted June 18, 2013 at 5:09pm by andrewmandelbaum-blog

Cross-posted from NDI.org:

Citizens’ increasing use of technology and social media presents both opportunities and challenges for the world’s parliaments.

Many parliaments, like the Brazilian Congress, are seeking to use technology to engage citizens in the legislative process in new ways. It’s e-democracia website allows citizens to comment on legislation anywhere there is Internet access.

Social media and other tools are also helping parliaments listen to and respond to citizens’ ideas. But while new technologies can enhance the way parliaments engage with citizens, they can also shine a light on wrongdoing by individual MPs. In some instances, this could weaken public support for parliaments generally.

The digital age has underscored the need for parliaments to work harder to strengthen public confidence in their ability to represent citizens’ interests, and it has provided tools and opportunities for doing so.

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MP-PMO Study Group to recommend democratic reforms for parliaments

Posted May 6, 2013 at 6:33pm by andrewmandelbaum-blog

This week PMOs and MPs from Commonwealth countries will be gathering in London to discuss and make recommendations to improve the democratic functioning of Commonwealth parliaments. The study group, which is being organized by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) with the support of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the OpeningParliament.org community, will review the CPA’s Recommended Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures in light of the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness and other standards frameworks for the democratic functioning and performance of parliaments that have been adopted in recent years. The resulting recommendations will be considered for approval at the CPA’s annual conference in Cape Town in October 2013.

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