PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

An accessible parliament I 85
This was the case with the recently passed Education Bill 2005 which
had its first reading in 2003. Since then several town hall meetings
were held and the Bill was widely discussed on radio talk shows.
A committee was set up to report to Parliament the outcome of all these
meetings and discussions. After the report was submitted the Bill
then had its second and third readings, taking into consideration the
comments of civil society.
Interestingly, a similar process of public discussion has been undertaken by
the committee reviewing the salaries of parliamentarians, including public
meetings, radio discussions and call-in programmes.
The public forum or chamber
In a few countries the engagement of civil society in the work of parliament
takes the form of an organised public forum or chamber, as these examples
from the Lebanese Republic and the Russian Federation show:
Lebanese Republic: In order to further communication between the
Lebanese Parliament and the civil society organisations, and to activate
the participation of these organisations in the policy making of
Lebanon, the Forum of Parliamentary Dialogue was established in
1999. The Forum of Parliamentary Dialogue, which is considered as a
non-governmental organisation, aims at conveying the views, aspirations
and proposals of the civil sector to the Parliament. Among its
objectives are: securing information for the parliamentarians on the
programmes of the NGOs, organising joint activities between the
parliamentary joint committees and the civil society organisations, and
providing the latter with access to the publications and works of the
Parliament……It also organises workshops and training courses for
MPs, committee secretaries, experts, representatives of the civil sector,
academics and journalists, dealing with policy making in Lebanon and
the participation of civil society in its formulation.
Russian Federation: The most important law aimed at the further development
of democracy in Russia and strengthening the role of parliament
has been the Federal law ‘About the Public Chamber of the
Russian Federation’ introduced by the President of the Russian
Federation and adopted by the State Duma through the third reading
of March 18 2005……As an intermediary between society and the
administration, the Public Chamber will be composed of the widest