Civil Society Participation in MESICIC

Provision 8 of the Report of Buenos Aires states: “In order to obtain better input for its review, the Committee shall include in the provisions governing its operation an appropriate role for civil society organizations, taking into account the "Guidelines for the Participation of Civil Society Organizations in OAS Activities" [CP/RES. 759 (1217/99)] and the definition of civil society contained in AG/RES. 1661 (XXIX-O/99), in keeping with the domestic legislation of the State Party under review.”

To that end, Chapter V of the Rules of Procedure and Other Provisions defines the participation of civil society organizations within the activities of the Committee of Experts.

Below you will find both the guidelines from the Rules of Procedure which govern civil society participation, as well as specific instances of civil society participation in past and current Rounds of Review.

1. Presentation of documents in the definition process of the methodology and questionnaire:  



Pursuant to Chapter V, Article 34 (a) of the Rules of Procedure and Other Provisions, civil society organizations may "present, through the Secretariat, specific proposals to be considered in the drafting process referred to in Article 18 of these Rules".

Second Round
“Transparency International Proposals for the Methodology of the Second Round of MESICIC” (March 20, 2006)

First Round
"Key elements to be considered for the Inter-American Convention against Corruption review methodology" (April 8, 2002)
"Inter-American Convention against Corruption, Comments on the First Version of Draft Questionnaire and Methodology" (May 10, 2002)



2. Presentation of documents with information on the implementation, in a specific State Party, of the Convention's provisions selected:



In accordance with Chapter V, Article 34 (b) of the Rules of Procedure and Other Provisions, civil society organizations may "present, through the Secretariat, documents with specific and direct information related to the questions that are referred to in the questionnaire with respect to the implementation, by a State Party under review, of the provisions selected for review within the framework of a round. They may also present documents with information related to the implementation of the recommendations formulated by the Committee to the State Party in previous rounds. These documents shall be presented, with a copy in an electronic format, within the same time period given to the State Party in responding to the questionnaire".

Second Round
Replies to the questionnaire

First Round
Replies to the questionnaire

As noted in the schedule for the Second Round, the time periods during which Civil Society can present documents in accordance with Article 34 (b) of the Rules of Procedure are as follows:

April 1 – July 17, 2006: Argentina, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Ecuador and Honduras

October 10 – November 10, 2006: Bolivia, Peru, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago

April 25 – May 25, 2007: Colombia, Panama, Chile, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Bahamas

October 2 – November 2, 2007: Canada, United States, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Guatemala

April 22 – May 22, 2008: Grenada, Suriname, Brazil and Belize



3. Presentation of proposal documents in relation with the collective interests issues:



In accordance with Chapter V, Article 34 (c) of the Rules of Procedure, civil society organizations may present proposal documents related to the collective interest issues that the Committee has included in their annual working plan, in accordance with the provision in Article 37 (b) of these Rules. These documents shall be presented, through the Secretariat, with a copy in electronic format, no later than a month before the date of the meeting in which the Committee shall consider these issues.



4. Verbal presentations, in the Committee's meetings, on documents that have been previously presented on collective interests issues:



Pursuant to Chapter V, Article 36 of the Rules of Procedure, "The Committee may invite or accept the request from civil society organizations, within the framework of its meetings, to give a verbal presentation of the documents they presented in accordance with the provision in Article 34 (c) of these Rules."  



5. Informal meetings with organizations of the civil society within the framework of the meetings of the Committee:



In accordance with Chapter V, second paragraph of Article 36 of the Rules of Procedure “the Committee will invite civil society organizations to give verbal presentations, in informal meetings, of the documents they presented in accordance with the provisions in Article 34 (a) and (b) of these Rules”.