The World e-Parliament Conference 2007 and related meetings took place in Geneva from 9 to 12 October 2007.
The Conference, opened on 11 October by the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the President of the Association of Secretaries General of Parliament, provided for the first time a forum for MPs and officials, academics and representatives of international organizations and the civil society, to exchange views and experiences, analyze successful approaches, and identify best practices on the use of new technologies to modernize parliamentary processes and improve dialogue between parliaments, legislators and citizens.

The Conference, organized jointly by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP), through the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, brought together 70 parliamentary delegations composed of MPs, ICT directors and staff, librarians, researchers and legislative officials.

The Conference was preceded by a regional meeting of Latin American parliamentary officials organized on 9 October by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament.

Moreover, on 10 October, the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament organized the International Workshop "e-Parliament: Managing Innovation", to explore the issues and challenges that parliaments have to face in keeping up with the impact of new technologies and highlight the skills, technologies and approaches required to harness ICT opportunities.

Following the Conference, the first face-to-face meeting of members of the Global Network of IT Experts in Parliament took place on Friday, 12 October 2007. The Global Network was set up by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament in May 2007 as an online platform where IT experts can exchange information on the use of new technologies in parliament.

Concrete outcomes of this four-day long activity include the establishment of the Network of IT officials of Latin American Parliaments, which will initially work on joint studies concerning technologies in legislatures - such as mobile tools, legislative web sites, and security issues – and the preparation of an e-learning activity on open standards and XML; the agreement by more than 65 members of the Global Network of IT Experts in Parliament on modalities of work and priorities thematic areas for the Network; and, broad consensus by participants both at the international workshop and at the Conference around mechanisms of inter-parliamentary and intra-parliamentary cooperation to better harness the use of ICT to modernize internal and external processes, as well as to improve communication with the public.
Best practices and innovative experiences showcased during the meetings in Geneva are highlighted in the first ever World e-Parliament Report 2008 issued in February 2008 by the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Global centre for ICT in Parliament.

The Report of the World e-Parliament Conference 2007and related meetings is now available (click here for french version).

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