On Wednesday, 3 April, the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee agreed to support and forward for plenary review the draft decision which would task the Ministry of Justice with elaborating and submitting to the Saeima the Draft Law on Responsibility for Breaking the Oath of a Member of the Saeima.

On the basis of the collective submission titled Responsibility for Breaking the Oath of a Member of the Saeima, which was signed by 13,854 citizens, the Ministry of Justice must prepare provisions regarding responsibility for breaking the oath of a member of the Saeima. The Ministry will have to submit the Draft Law to the Saeima by 31 December 2013.

The collective submission Responsibility for Breaking the Oath of a Member of the Saeima is the first citizens’ initiative that has been submitted to the Saeima according to the procedure set forth in the Rules of Procedure of the Saeima enabling at least 10,000 citizens to file a collective submission with the parliament.

According to the Rules of Procedure of the Saeima, a collective submission must contain a request to the Saeima and a brief justification of the request, as well as specify the natural person authorised to represent the signatories of the collective submission. A collective submission may not contain a request which is clearly unacceptable in a democratic society or is plainly offensive; a collective submission may not undermine values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities.

The Saeima plans to examine the draft decision on 11 April.




Saeima Press Service