The newest issue in of the journal of the Laboratory for Legislative Initiatives " PARLIAMENT” has just been issued. It features an article Legislative Benchmarking “Assessment of Ukrainian’s State of Parliamentary Development based the Benchmarks and Self-Assessment Frameworks for Democratic Parliaments” (“ОЦІНКА СТАНУ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ПАРЛАМЕНТАРИЗМУ НА ОСНОВІ КЕРІВНИХ ПРИНЦИПІВ ДЕМОКРАТИЧНИХ ПАРЛАМЕНТІВ” )

The article outlines the main approaches to the legislative benchmarking developed by the IPU (2006), the Commonwealth Parliamentary Assembly (CPA) in 2009 and the UNDP in 2010 regarding benchmarks for transparent, open, engaging, and effective law making bodies. Based on these international standards, LLI Researcher Olena Chebanenko concludes with 40 points where the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine could take action to meet these international standards. These range from parliamentary election law issues to procedural issues to constitutional issues. As the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence approaches, this study comes at a convenient time to provoke reflection and serve as a call to action.

The study and its publication was supported in part by a small grant from PDP II The article is in Ukrainian only.

English Abstract of the Ukrainian Language (only) Article):

The study implies broad analysis of the Ukrainian Parliament functioning according to the toolkit developed by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. This toolkit was generalized in the Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures Guidelines which include international standards on Parliamentary operations (in particular, elections, procedures and sessions, committees, parliamentary staff, legislative, oversight, and representative functions, ethical governance, and accessibility of parliaments). The study consists of three parts: (1) Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures as an assessment methodology on parliamentary operations; (2) realities’ and problems’ assessment of the VRU’s operations according to international standards; (3) assessment of the White Paper of Ukrainian Parliamentarism recommendations and other relevant researches in terms of their correspondence to the Benchmarks.

Many parliaments today are seeking to improve their performance – among other things, to become more open, independent, accountable, and responsive. Although every parliament is a product of its own country’s history and culture, and there is no magic formula or checklist for developing a democratic and effective parliament, there is emerging international consensus that certain norms and standards regarding democratic parliaments transcend the particularity of political and legislative systems. Such norms or standards can be used to: assist parliaments engaged in reform and modernization efforts, including greater independence and powers relative to the executive branch; guide those efforts providing parliamentary development assistance in establishing clear targets towards which to orient their support. Some entry points of newly developed standards include: assistance in preparation of the parliamentary budget and/or strategic plan; stimulation of parliamentary reforms processes; enabling new members of parliament to discuss key issues; making an NGO assessment of parliament; and promotion of gender sensitivity in parliament.

Assessment of Ukrainian Parliamentarism based on the Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures analyses and systemizes key problems connected with parliamentary elections, the quality of performance of the Parliamentary Secretariat, the representative nature of the legislature, the Parliament’s performance of its legislative and oversight functions, status of members of parliament of Ukraine (MP), and public participation in parliamentary work.