Georgian Parliament to host a high-level international discussion on legislative openness

The discussion will be opened by the Chairperson of the Georgian Parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze.

On 17 July 2018, 12:00, in the Tbilisi building of the Parliament of Georgia (8 RustaveliAve, Tbilisi), Georgian Parliament will host the Open Parliament Day – a high-level international discussion on legislative openness.

The Open Parliament Day is taking place ahead of the Global Open Government Partnership (OGP) Summit in Georgia on 18-19 July and brings together over 200 participants from 12parliaments and 24 world countries.

Several panel discussions will focus the issues related to the legislative openness, including the new ways of engaging citizens and civil societies in parliamentary work, institutional reforms needed to achieve parliamentary transparency and accountability, and the role of technology and innovation in strengthening parliamentary openness.

The discussion will be opened by the Chairperson of the Georgian Parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze.

This will be followed by a video message of Heidi Hautala, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and welcome remarks from Senator Blanca Ovelar, President of the ParlAmericasOpen Parliament Network; Sanjay Pradhan, Chief Executive Officer of the Open GovernmentPartnership (OGP); and OGP Ambassador Helen Clark, formerly the Prime Minister of NewZealand (1999 – 2008) and Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (2009– 2017).

Panel discussions will be moderated by Niels Scott, UNDP Head in Georgia; Mukelani Dimba, OGPSteering Committee Co-Chair from the Civil Society; and Laura Thornton, Senior resident director/Global Associate of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Georgia.

Katarina Mathernova, Deputy Director General at the European Commission, will join the last part of the event.

The Open Parliament Day is initiated and organised by the Parliament of Georgia, in cooperation with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Support Unit, with the assistance from partners and donors – the European Union (EU), UNDP, USAID/Good Governance Initiative (GGI), GIZ, NDI and Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI).