JOURNALIST'S NOTEBOOK: Seminar on parliamentary systems (07/22/90)

JOURNALIST'S NOTEBOOK: Seminar on parliamentary systems

by Marta Kolomayets

The Weekly continues its series on Ukraine today written by associate editor Marta Kolomayets, who traveled to Ukraine in May with a Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund delegation that brought medical supplies and technology and vitamins for the victims of the 1986 nuclear accident.

KIEV - Discussions about democratic principles resounded in the hall of Ukraine's Supreme Soviet during a two-day seminar titled "Comparative Parliamentary Experiences," as more than 250 elected deputies of both the republic's and the USSR's governments learned about the laws of Western countries.

Organized by Dr. Bohdan Hawrylyshyn of the International Management Institute in Kiev, the seminar brought together such prestigious scholars and statesmen as Dr. Kurt Biedenkopf, a former secretary general of the Federal Republic of Germany and currently a member of Parliament; Dr. Kurt Furgler, three-time president of the Swiss Confederation and a member of the Federal Council for 15 years; and Prof. Shirley Williams, director of the Center for Elective Politics at the John Kennedy School, Harvard University. She is the ex-president of the Social Democratic Party of Great Britain and an ex-minister of the Labor Government. Prof. Richard Neustadt of Harvard University also spoke at the two-day seminar.

The first of its kind, this seminar, which took place on May 20 and 21, consisted of a series of short presentations, providing introductions to the various forms of government that rule western countries. Following each presentation, brief discussions about the countries' government were held, pointing out their positive and negative features.

The main topics presented during the two full days of presentations and discussions included the process of formation of government, the process of lawmaking, and relations between legislative, executive and judiciary bodies. Other topics highlighted relations between elected members of government and top administration, the initiation and implementation of top government policies, and the powers and prerogatives of different levels of governance in countries.

The sessions, conducted in the English language with simultaneous translation into Ukrainian, brought forth some interesting questions from the elected deputies who are taking their first steps in forming a democratic society.

Dr. Hawrylyshyn of Geneva, Switzerland, who organized the conference, also served as its moderator, providing summations of each day's proceedings. He and his staff at the IMI were present for all of the sessions.

During the seminar, the deputies were given introductory materials about parliamentary procedures in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, the Swiss Confederation, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States of America and France.

The materials, written in the Ukrainian language, were compiled in a 25-page booklet, which outlined the constitutional system of each country, the structure of its parliament, its houses and its legislative initiative.

Many of the Ukrainian deputies expressed the urgent need to further acquaint themselves with democratic governments in the West, with the hope that they could receive more of this type of material, participate in more of these kinds of programs as well as have the opportunity to visit Western countries to observe firsthand the workings of democratic states.

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