Institute Alternative organized a roundtable entitled “The second year of implementation of the Law on Parliamentary Oversight in the field of security and defense”, with the support of the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces Geneva (DCAF).
We managed to gather all relevant stakeholders of parliamentary oversight of the security and defense sector and to hold a detailed discussion about the implementation of the Law on Parliamentary oversight in the field of security and defense in 2012.
For the purposes of this paper, we have prepared a monitoring report on the activities of the Security and Defence Committee in 2012 in aimed at meeting its legal responsibilities.
Here are some findings from the monitoring report on the implementation of the Law on Parliamentary Oversight in the field of security and defense in 2012:
Partly due to the parliamentary elections, the 2012 represents a step backwards when it comes to fulfilling responsibilities and measures envisaged by the Law on Parliamentary Oversight in the field of security and defense. A significant number of activities from the Oversight Plan is not carried out.
Last year was marked by the passivity of MPs of the ruling majority and opposition MPs in terms of initiating Parliamentary Oversight Mechanisms. There were only two initiatives for holding control hearings and none for a consultative hearing. By failing to review the annual work reports of the Police and the National Agency of Security, the Committee didn’t fulfill one of its most important commitments.
In 2012, the Committee didn’t use any of the numerous mechanisms available for the control of the implementation of the secret surveillance measures. This is particularly problematic if we consider that the parliamentary oversight in this area had not been carried out at all in 2011.
The Parliament is excluded from the decision to send members of civil protection, police and employees of the state administration to the peacekeeping missions abroad; It was not informed about their activities. Cooperation with civil society is significantly lower than in 2011, primarily due to failures to hold planned consultative hearings.
The mechanism of the visit is imprecisely defined, and the Committee does not adopt reports on completed visits. The Parliament on the plenum does not discuss reports on the parliamentary oversight submitted by the Committee during the respective year (and in 2012, there were nine reports). Regarding gender equality, situation in the Committee was not improved altough its structure changed following the 2012 general elections
