The Lebanese Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI) launched its new campaign in continuation of  the “Badna Nsehrek” campaign previously launched in 2020 advocating the opening of the parliamentary committee sessions to the public. This new campaign hosted a group of experts that shared their experience when they were invited to attend one or several parliamentary committee sessions.

Attorney Karim Daher head of ALDIC Association, Ms. Myriam Mehanna from Legal Agenda and Ms. Diana Kaissy from LOGI all shared their previous experience.

Some experienced challenges to have their opinions considered. Others described their  experience as an initial discovery of the parliamentary protocol which limited their participation in the session. Moreover, some of those experts declined the invitation to participate in  parliamentary committee sessions because of the secrecy of the committees which was considered as a shield used against civil society .

The participants unanimously agreed that article 34 of the parliament’s internal bylaws must be amended to enhance the transparency and accountability of the Lebanese Parliament and ensure that parliamentary committee sessions are open to the public.

This amendment will allow Lebanese citizens to play a larger role in monitoring the activities of the parliamentarians. Lebanese citizens will be able to learn which member of parliament is sharing positive and constructive feedback, who is not attending and who is taking a completely different position from the principles and values that they defend in public.