PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

A representative parliament I 39
Another resource available to parliamentarians under pressure is the
support of fellow parliamentarians abroad. The German Bundestag, for example,
has established a ‘Parliamentarians Protect Parliamentarians’ campaign.
Its rationale and mode of operation is summarised as follows:
No one advocating the implementation and observance of human rights
in Germany runs any risk in doing so. In many other countries, however,
people who defend human rights can themselves become the victims
of human rights abuses. …… Politicians are also among the
defenders of human rights who are at risk. Exercising their right of free
speech is mostly their sole offence. The criticism they voice makes them
a thorn in the flesh of both state agencies in countries where the human
rights situation is problematic and of paramilitary groups.
As members of the Bundestag you have a network of international
contacts that you can use in favour of your fellow parliamentarians
who are at risk. …… The secretariat of the Committee on Human
Rights and Humanitarian Aid will tell you whether opposition politicians
are under threat in a country you have contacts with or are intending
to visit and what you can best do to support them. You can also
use the information provided by the Committee secretariat to offer support
from within Germany. It provides a sound basis for petitions and
talks with political decision-makers from countries in which human
rights are violated.
Individual rights of parliamentarians and party discipline
A difficult and much contested issue concerns the right balance to be struck
between the requirements of party discipline and the individual right of parliamentarians
to speak their minds freely. On one side it is reasonable for a party
on whose platform and with whose support a member has been elected to
expect that the member will support the party’s programme in parliament.
This consideration is necessary not only for the parties themselves but also for
the electors, if they are to be able to count on a predictable connection between
their exercise of the vote and the actions of their elected representatives in parliament.
On the other hand, members have an individual responsibility to
defend the interests of their constituents, and to speak out against policies
which they believe to be misguided or damaging, even where these are promoted
by their own party. Parties for their part have a responsibility to develop
internally democratic procedures which allow for full debate on contentious
issues, rather than simply relying on dictats from above.