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On 13 and 14 November 2008, the Ad Hoc Committee on e-democracy (CAHDE) held its fourth and final plenary meeting in Strasbourg. The aim of the meeting was to finalise a draft recommendation of the Committee of Ministers on e-democracy.
This recommendation (Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1) was adopted on 18 February by the Committee of Ministers at the 1049th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies. It will offer all European governments substantial guidelines and principles when dealing with e-democracy. It is accompanied by a number of practical tools prepared for those who require hands-on information about combining modern information and communication tools and democratic requirements and practice.
- Explanatory Memorandum and accompanying documents.
Internet Governance Forum (3-6 December 2008, Hyderabad)
Discussion Paper for Workshop n° 26 : “Towards a code of good practice on public participation in Internet governance – Building on the principles of WSIS and the Aarhus Convention”
Representatives of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe met in Madrid on 15-17 October in the 2008 Forum for the Future of Democracy to discuss the potential of the new information technologies to strengthen democracy and increase participation.
Programme
Presentations and speeches given at the Madrid Forum
Videos of keynote speeches
Issues papers
More information (including Conclusions) and Forum Chronology
Within the context of the 2008 Session of the Forum, a biennial meeting to review the different developments in the field of e-voting was held on 16 October, as workshop 3.
Agenda
Third plenary meeting of the Council of Europe ad hoc Committee on e-democracy (CAHDE), Strasbourg, 20-21 May 2008 – Click here for Working documents
2nd plenary meeting of CAHDE (Strasbourg, 8-9 October) – Links to: Working documents - Experts’ presentations
Report on the Internet voting in the March 2007 Parliamentary Elections in Estonia
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The Integrated Project “Making Democratic Institutions Work” (2002-2004) was the Council of Europe’s response to one of the major challenges facing Europe today – to ensure that democratic institutions support and enter into dialogue with all Europeans, including groups that have, for various reasons, been excluded from equal participation in democratic processes. Two follow-up projects resulted from the Integrated project:
1. The Project on “Good Governance in the Information Society” (2005-2008), which focuses on how new information and communication technologies (ICT) affect the practice of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Council of Europe member states.
In 2007, the Project had as its main task to compile and analyse examples of good practice on e-voting and e-participation via its experts network and to examine developments on e-democracy/e-participation at European and international level in order to advise the Committee of Ministers on e-democracy’s potential to facilitate democratic reform and practice.
In the framework of this Project, the Ad Hoc Committee on e-democracy (CAHDE), by looking beyond the widely addressed field of e-Government, fills a gap in intergovernmental work by looking into the potential of ICTs to facilitate democratic practice. Synergies are being sought with the European Commission, OSCE/ODIHR and with the United Nations, through participation in the follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
The first annual plenary meeting of CAHDE was held in Strasbourg in September 2006, followed by informal working group meetings in Vienna, Strasbourg and Sofia. In April 2007, a Symposium was held on “E-democracy: new opportunities for enhancing civic participation”.
The second plenary meeting of CAHDE was held in Strasbourg on 8-9 October 2007.
The third plenary meeting of CAHDE took place on 20-21 May 2008.
In November 2006, the first biennial intergovernmental meeting was held to review developments in the field of electronic voting (e-voting) since the adoption of Committee of Ministers' Recommendation Rec(2004)11 on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting two years ago has reconfirmed that the Recommendation has become accepted by member states as a valid and currently the only internationally agreed benchmark by which to assess and evaluate e-voting systems. Subjects which turned out to require further research and attention in this field include the accreditation and certification of e-voting systems, the development of guidelines on the observation of e-enabled elections and the need for codes of conduct for e-campaigning.
A Council of Europe evaluation study was prepared on the e-enabled Estonian Parliamentary election of March 2007. In October 2006, a seminar on e-voting was held in Tallinn/Estonia, to evaluate the 2005 e-voting experience in local elections (the first binding nationwide e-enabled election worldwide) on the basis of the Council of Europe’s Recommendation, with a view to optimising the use of e-voting in the country’s March 2007 Parliamentary elections.
2. The “Forum for the Future of Democracy” was established, by decision of the Third Summit of Council of Europe Heads of State and Government (Warsaw, May 2005) to strengthen democracy, political freedoms and citizens’ participation
- The third Session of the Forum was held in Stockholm/Sigtuna (Sweden) on 13-15 June 2007 with the theme “Power and empowerment – the interdependence of democracy and human rights”. The Forum was organised in co-operation with the Swedish Government, the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. It brought together more than 400 representatives of government authorities, parliaments, local and regional authorities and civil society from all over Europe.
- the second session session was held in Moscow on 18-10 October 2006 with the theme “the role of political parties in the building of democracy
- The Launch meeting was organised in Warsaw in November 2005 on the theme of “civic participation”.
The 2009 session will be held in Ukraine.
Integrated Project “Making democratic institutions work”
The objective of the Integrated Project (2002-2004) was to identify the key principles that should govern the functioning of democratic institutions, civil society participation, and fair and inclusive electoral systems. By taking stock of the European acquis in these fields, the Project highlighted some important gaps, omissions and weaknesses, and initiated action on "emerging themes". By preparing summary publications and practical tools, and publishing and disseminating them through the project website and in co-operation with the Council's publications department, the visibility and impact of the Council's work was enhanced.
One very important theme was the democratic potential of the information society.
The Project generated 2 Committee of Ministers’ recommendations: on e-voting (Rec(2004)11) and e-governance Rec(2004)15), which were then promoted at a number of international events.
The Ad-Hoc Committee of Experts (CAHSI) prepared the Committee of Ministers’ Declaration on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the Information Society, the first policy framework on this issue at international level. This declaration was adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 May 2005 and was then presented at the Warsaw Summit and as the Committee of Ministers’ contribution to the Tunis Phase of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, 16-18 November 2005).
2004 marked the final year of activity of the project “Making democratic institutions work” and the results were presented at the Project Conference “The Future of Democracy in Europe” in Barcelona on 17-19 November 2004.
The major contributions to this conference are brought together in the book “Reflections on the future of democracy in Europe”,
The main conclusion of the Barcelona Conference is that the Council of Europe should establish a Forum for the Future of Democracy to build further the acquis and take forward the work of the Integrated Project. This body would harness the momentum established at the Barcelona conference. It would develop systematically the conceptual and practical resources generated through the Integrated Project and the Green Paper on “The future of democracy in Europe”.
At the Third Summit of Council of Europe Heads of State and government (Warsaw, 16-17 May 2005), the decision was taken to establish the Forum for the Future of Democracy (the Summit Action Plan).
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