【宣言簽署】2023 公督盟與萬年野黨 聯合宣言暨合作備忘錄 (中英文版本)

2023 台灣公民監督國會聯盟和日本萬年野黨結盟，合作推動亞洲國會監督網絡

聯合宣言暨合作備忘錄

2023年6月19日，台灣公民監督國會聯盟（CITIZEN CONGRESS WATCH）和日本萬年野黨（PERENNIAL OPPOSITION）的代表在台北舉行會議，討論雙方的合作以及建立亞洲國會監督合作網絡的行動。

作為國會監督組織（PMOs），CCW自2007年以來一直參與評鑑國會議員的活動，PO則是自2013年開始。根據我們的經驗，我們堅信一個可靠的國會是民主的關鍵要素，PMOs在維護和改善國會功能方面發揮著關鍵作用。我們認知到，雖然台灣和日本都是發展成熟的民主社會，但我們仍然需要加強國會監督行動，以實現更好的民主。我們也認為，PMOs的重要性在全球正在顯著提升，尤其是在許多國家面臨民主倒退威脅的時刻。

基於這些觀點，我們同意加強合作，尤其包括以下方面：

1. 舉辦線上研討會，更詳細地交流雙方的國會監督行動，以便雙方能進一步改進評鑑方法和程序。
2. 為2023年秋季共同舉辦台日國會議員的“聯合頒獎典禮”做出準備。
3. 採取進一步的聯合行動，增強國會監督行動在國會議員和公眾的認識和重要性。

我們也都認同在亞洲國家間建立國會監督國際合作框架的緊迫及重要性，將共同並致力於加快實現此一目標，尤其包括以下方面：

1. 與其他亞洲PMOs展開討論，與國際非政府組織和倡議組織合作，旨在於2024年啟動亞洲國會監督網絡，
2. 研究國會表現的評鑑方法（評鑑指標和評鑑項目等），並與各國PMO合作，檢視在亞洲各國引入“自動蒐集國會資料系統”的可能性，建構一個標準資料庫，以便各國國會提升透明度和效能。

2023 Citizen Congress Watch, Taiwan and Perennial Opposition, Japan formed an alliance to promote the Asian parliamentary monitoring network.

Joint Statement and Memorandum of Cooperation

On June 19th, 2023, representatives of Citizen Congress Watch, Taiwan (“CCW”) and Perennial Opposition, Japan (“PO”) met in Taipei to discuss mutual cooperation and the action toward creating an Asian cooperation network on parliamentary monitoring.

As parliamentary monitoring organizations (“PMOs”), both have been engaged in evaluating parliament members’ activities since 2007 for CCW and 2013 for PO.  Based on our experiences, we share our firm belief that a reliable parliament is the essential element of democracy and that PMOs can play a crucial role in maintaining and improving the function of parliaments.  We recognize that, while both Taiwan and Japan are well-developed democratic societies, we still need to strengthen our parliamentary monitoring activities to achieve further better democracy.  We also share the view that the importance of PMOs has been increasing significantly globally, especially as many countries face the threat of democratic regression.

With these perspectives, we agreed to strengthen our cooperation, especially including the following;

• holding an online workshop to exchange more detailed information regarding each organization’s parliamentary monitoring activities so that both of us can improve our evaluation method and process further,

(one of the topics to be discussed should be the possibility of CCW’s introducing an “automated data collection program,” which PO introduced in 2022.)

• preparing to hold a “joint commendation ceremony” of selected members of parliaments in the autumn of 2023,
• taking further joint actions to enhance the recognition of the parliamentary monitoring activities and their importance among parliament members and the general public.

We also agreed on the urgent importance of creating an international cooperation framework of parliamentary monitoring across Asian countries and committed to accelerating our efforts toward the goal, especially including the following;

• starting discussions with other Asian PMOs, in cooperation with international non-governmental organizations and initiatives, aiming at launching an Asian parliamentary monitoring network in 2024,
• studying the evaluation method (benchmarks, assessment frameworks, etc.) of parliamentary performance, and examining the possibility of introducing “automated data collection programs” across Asian countries in cooperation with each country’s PMO and providing a standard data set so that each country’s parliament can improve its transparency and effectiveness.