Some 30 countries from around the world will be represented at the Conference for Heads of Parliamentary Administration, which will take place at the Knesset from Tuesday–Thursday, 5 to 7 Adar.

The conference, the largest ever held in the Knesset Building, will be attended by some 50 senior members of parliamentary administrations and will be hosted by the Director-General of the Knesset, Albert Sakharovich, and the Secretary General of the Knesset, Yardena Meller-Horovitz.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who will open the conference, said, “The Knesset’s initiative to host such a large conference, and the fact that we are among the few parliaments in the world who have done so demonstrates the high regard in which we are held by parliaments around the world. People are coming from around the world to hear about the work of the Knesset and discuss how to advance parliaments around the world. This is a great honor to the Knesset and its capabilities, as well as to the State of Israel in its seventieth year of independence.

The guests will receive a special welcome and will attend panels headed by Director-General Albert Sakharovich, Secretary-General Yardena Meller-Horovitz, and senior Knesset officials on accessibility and the Knesset initiative to establish an inter-parliamentary forum on the subject, transparency, parliamentary oversight, the Green Knesset project, the Knesset Guard, media and public affairs, the Knesset Visitors Center, and more. In addition, the guests will tour the Kosel and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and Beit Hatfutzot in Tel Aviv, among other sites, and they will meet with Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ze’ev Elkin.

During the conference, Knesset Secretary-General Yardena Meller-Horovitz will discuss parliamentary transparency at the Knesset: “This is a hot topic that is of interest to many parliaments. The public wants to know what its elected officials are doing and how it is being represented. We will show the attendees the many activities that earned the Knesset the governmental prize for transparency, including live broadcasts from the Knesset Plenum and committees, online portals with full details of the work of the Knesset committees, a personal web page for each Knesset Member on the Knesset website, which contains details of his or her parliamentary work, online details of Members’ presence in the Building and their voting record, watching an audio-visual file of the Knesset’s work alongside written minutes, and more.”

The list of countries and organizations represented (in alphabetical order): Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, the Council of Europe, the Czech Republic, the European Parliament, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, and Ukraine.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)