The National Assembly Organizes a Workshop on Ethics and Integrity in Cambodian Parliament

In the afternoon of Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 November 2009 at the National Assembly Palace, the Technical Coordination Secretariat (TCS) of the National Assembly with support of the UNDP’s Legislature Assistance Project (UNDP/LEAP) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) organized a workshop on Ethics and Integrity in Parliament, with the participation of deputies and senators, aimed at brainstorming and suggesting for the creation of a draft Law on Ethics and Integrity in Cambodian Parliament.

H.E. Leng Peng Long, Secretary General of the National Assembly, said, in his opening remarks, that in the face of favorable atmosphere in the Kingdom, in line with the Royal Government’s reform projects including public administration and judicial reforms and in order to effectively combating corruption, it requires each public institution adopting its own code of conduct and integrity. He added that this workshop is the forum of exchanges of views and experiences amongst the lawmakers themselves on the topic of parliamentary ethics and integrity so that they would draft a better law on the issue.

According to an excerpt from the letter of the IPU’s Secretary General addressing to the participants to the workshop delivered by Mr. Peter Lilienfield – IPU’s Senior Specialist in Parliamentary Procedure -- parliamentary ethics and integrity has become a pressing trend in the last decade as many parliaments in the world have adopted their own code of ethics and integrity and there are a lot of research and publication on the issue. IPU highlighted that it is necessary for a parliament to adopt its own code of conduct and integrity with a majority vote so that the enforcement would be smooth and successful.

The workshop focused on some pressing issues regarding ethics and integrity in Cambodian parliament including: (1) setting up public standards by which the behavior of parliamentarians can be assessed; (2) providing a basis for assessing proposed actions and behavior; (3) providing an agreed method of responding to behavior that is considered unacceptable and (4) assuring the community that the trust given to parliamentarians is well placed. It is expected that a draft law on code of ethics and integrity will be agreed upon and submitted to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee for review and to the National Assembly’s sessions for approval.