Rationale

In the Information Age, Parliaments, Courts, etc. are striving to leverage modern information and communications technologies to radically improve the quality of their services and to improve access to all Parliamentary information as a strategic resource for the young and active- democracies of Africa.

African parliaments and courts have been engaged and have been committed to introducing information and communications technologies (ICT) into their organisations for some years now. Up to now, however, the focus has been primarily directed towards the electronic dissemination of parliamentary documents, laws and judgements online with little or no attention to more sophisticated services (such as hypertextual access, semantic search, cross-jurisdictional linking, time-constrained access to in-force legislation, etc.) that are based on the need to introduce standards and guidelines as a requirement for both effective management of information and long term preservation of formal documentation.

In the new context of African Union agenda and Africa integration, as well as in the context created by ICTs in terms of information management and global accessibility of information, the need for standardised document formats is not just a desirable practice but a necessity in order to develop information systems that can exploit the unprecedented opportunities of ICTs and support the exchange of information and collaboration.

The present situation sees lack of uniformity in the preparation and structuring of parliamentary, legislative and judicial documents and more specifically with regard to  the electronic environment, the lack of standards in the metadata sets, the lack of shared referencing mechanisms, etc. Furthermore, the focus so far has been mainly on ”publication”, meant as an activity which simply involves  making available online the electronic counterparts of the traditional paper documents, without proper consideration of the opportunities provided by new ICTs and mark-up languages.

Parliaments and courts in Africa are continually confronted with demands for ever-greater transparency in the interactions between the electors and the elected, between the courts and the civil society. Also, they have to understand how to manage information and documents in a way that improves transparency and access, at the same time permitting greater understanding of the democratic and judiciary process.

Improved access to documents regarding parliamentary and judiciary activities  enables citizens to hold Parliaments accountable, stimulates greater efficiency and enhances democracy and transparency in the actions of parliaments and courts,  thereby providing further safeguards to equitable justice and citizens' trust.

Parliaments and courts are major producers of data and information that are vital for the democratic well-being of a country and the lifeblood of political participation. The lack of a standardised way for parliamentary, legislative and judiciaries bodies to classify, structure, publish and make reference to their documents, information resources and business processes stands in the way of increased integration of information exchange and also of social and economic integration of Africa.

The explosion of Internet-based systems have increased the possibilities and range of such services but this can be achieved and exploited only if common standards to produce, classify and share parliamentary, legislative and judiciary electronic documents are agreed and used by African Parliaments and Judiciary bodies.

In conclusions, there is a need to promote high level access to parliamentary, legislative and judiciaries documents to foster greater co-operation between different institutions and to use common open standards that avoid vendor lock-in and increase public access to information.