OSCE meeting calls on states to ensure an open and transparent legislative process

VIENNA, 7 November 2008 - An OSCE meeting on democratic lawmaking came to a close in Vienna today with calls for participating States to ensure greater public participation and transparency in the lawmaking process.

Organized by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship, the two-day meeting brought together some 200 participants from throughout the OSCE region to discuss the processes involved in making laws in a democracy.

"Democracy is a process that requires more than periodic elections," said ODIHR Director Ambassador Janez Lenarcic at the meeting's closing session. "Citizens' participation in the lawmaking process must not be seen as a concession, but as a benefit ... since it will ultimately ensure the effectiveness of the legal system."

Speaking on behalf of the Finnish Chairmanship, Justice Lauri Tarasti said that, while the aim of democratic lawmaking is to achieve justice, the quality of laws "depend on the process through which they are prepared and developed".

The need for an open and inclusive legislative process was also the subject of numerous recommendations that came out of a civil-society roundtable discussion yesterday prior to the start of the meeting.