Reform and Governance Program

The issue of reform is firmly on the agenda within Palestinian civil society.  There is little doubt generally among Palestinians that the reform of the Palestinian political order is the only way that can break the internal deadlock that characterizes political and governing structures, and that can begin to generate an adequate response and strategy to the tightening stranglehold of Israeli occupation.  This year Muwatin will build on the work achieved in previous years.

Activities will be executed in close coordination with Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members, the Ministerial Committee on reform, political parties and civil society institutions whose work Muwatin coordinates.  This program is a development of related activities that are being pursued by Muwatin. The program aims at integrating and systematizing these activities into one coherent and effective project, thus producing a synergy between its different components that could exponentially increase its re-formative impact on the system.

The program for the period 2007-2009 will focus on the following projects:

1.  Reform of the Security Services: currently there a number of laws dealing with the security services in Palestine pending in the PLC.  These have a number of shortcomings and still reflect an unclear separation of powers between the executive and the legislative.  The laws also fail in determining accountability and oversight procedures over the work of the security services.

This project also aims to link the work of the security services to a strategic appraisal of national security requirements for Palestine.  Successful legislation needs to be informed by a holistic understanding of the interrelations between different components of the security regime proposed, and the need for it to be consonant with democratic norms, transparency and the rule of law. The Basic Law needs to include a chapter laying the constitutional basis for the work of the security services.

This project is multi-faceted.  A study of the laws governing the security services will be undertaken, and problems will be analysed.  A Code of Honor will be proposed that will suggest the basic constitutional and legislative principles that would cover the work of these services.  Changes to the Basic Law and to current legislations will be drafted.  An advocacy program will be launched.

2. Merging the local authorities election law with the PLC election law:

In light of the experience of the municipal elections as well as the PLC elections, Muwatin proposes to merge the two laws into one and to amend the shortcomings of the existing legislations in light of the problems actually encountered in the course of the elections at both local and national levels.

Consultative meetings with political parties, municipalities and PLC members as well as the Election Monitoring Committee will be held to pinpoint, in the light of experience of the elections, the shortcomings and weaknesses of the two laws and to propose amendments. A draft of proposed amendments will be prepared for presentation to the PLC and a program of advocacy initiated.

3.  PLC Monitor and Parliamentary Horizons newsletter: 

a. A coordinator from Muwatin will be assigned to monitor the work of the PLC in terms of legislations proposed, the debates around them and the issues that need to be addressed.  The monitor will also follow the work of the various PLC committees where a lot of the preliminary work on legislation is achieved. 

b. Parliamentary Horizons newsletter: Parliamentary Horizons newsletter has normally covered the work of the Palestinian Legislative Council and is now in the tenth year of its issue.  It has offered an in-depth critical look at the laws under debate in the PLC, as well as the issues and constraints that have affected the Council’s work. It has thus filled in a gap that regular new media coverage of the work of the PLC did not.  The newsletter also regularly examines wider issues such as the question of periodic elections, the need for transparency and accountability, and the reasons for the lack of effective impact of the PLC in public life.

Three issues of Parliamentary Horizons newsletter will be published to cover the work of the PLC in 2007.

4.   A Social Security System for Palestine:

There is a pressing need to provide a system of social security for the Palestinian population.  Palestine has limited resources but precisely because of this and the increasing impoverishment of the population under a state of siege and occupation, it is necessary to guarantee a minimum set of social security rights from health to retirement pensions that can help people survive with dignity, and allow the political system to function with some efficacy.

5.   Law to regulate the work of the Executive Branch of Government:

As yet the Executive Branch of Government operates without a clear system of rules and regulations that can ensure maximum efficacy as well as transparency according to good governance models.  The Executive branch has not been institutionalized as a working institution.  A draft proposal to regularize the work of the Executive branch will be prepared.

6.  A comparative study of presidential and parliamentary systems of government:

Government in Palestine currently operates under a mixed parliamentary and presidential model with overlapping powers and unclear boundaries between the two.  There is an urgent need to disentangle the prerogatives concomitant with these two models of executive power, and to determine which system is more suitable for the existing political climate in Palestine.  Perhaps a mixed system would be more suitable for Palestine but with more clearly defined demarcation of powers between the president and the PLC.

Achievements expected: 1: Amendments to different laws to be completed successfully. 2. Good working relations with Council established. 3. Providing platform for public debate 4. generating pressure for reform from within civil society, 5. Publishing policy research reports, as well as 5-6 issues of PH.