Published 13 April 2018
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
by: Times Caribbean
Senator Akilah Byron-Nisbett Represents St.Kitts-Nevis at 3rd Gathering of the Open Parliament Network on the occasion of the VIII Summit of the Americas in Lima, PERU
Senator Hon. Akilah Byron-Nisbet is currently wrapping up participation in the ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network forum in Peru as part of the 2018 Summit of the Americas.
Hon. Byron-Nisbett represented the federation of St.Kitts-Nevis at the gathering, which was held on the premises of the Congress of the Republic in LIMA , Peru, which served as the official parliamentary gathering of the Summit of the Americas, in which legislators from more than 20 countries in the Americas and the Caribbean discussed the importance of open states for democratic governance against corruption, as well as the crucial role that legislatures play in developing and implementing solutions to this problem.
Senator Byron was invited to sit on a Panel to discuss The role of Women Parliamentarians in shaping policy decisions.
“I had the pleasure of sitting on a Panel to discuss The role of Women Parliamentarians in shaping policy decisions. I was also able to hear and learn of the New modernization and legislative openness tools and mechanisms in the Americas and the Caribbean. The gathering was extremely informative and productive ,” said Sen. Hon. Akilah Byron-Nisbett
ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network promotes open parliaments through transparency and access to public information, accountability, citizen participation, and ethics and probity, with the of fighting corruption and strengthening citizens’ confidence in the hemisphere’s legislatures. It will be an opportunity for parliamentarians from the hemisphere to exchange knowledge and experiences with respect to ethics and probity and gender mainstreaming in the fight against corruption, and to establish guidelines for the formulation of open parliament action plans. Moreover, two new tools will be presented and made available to legislatures: the Toolkit for Citizen Participation in the Legislative Process and a follow-up mechanism for open parliament commitments.
“This gathering is a major opportunity for legislators from the hemisphere to work together with the aim of developing strategies that will enable us to eliminate the causes and impacts of corruption at all levels. On behalf of the Congress of the Republic of Peru, it is an honour to welcome parliamentary delegations from the Americas and the Caribbean who will join us in continuing to make progress on this agenda,” stated Member of Congress Luis Galarreta, president of the Congress of the Republic of Peru and host of the gathering. For her part, Senator Marcela Guerra, president of Parl Americas, affirmed that “parliamentarians play a vital role in the fight against corruption, not only in exercising our powers of representation,
legislation, and political control, but also by promoting actions on legislative openness, which facilitate interactions between citizens and legislatures, access to public information, and citizen empowerment.”
