Irekia to help to draft an Open Government Manifesto
![Irekia participa en la redacción de un Manifiesto de Gobierno Abierto [0:50]](http://bideoak2.euskadi.net/2012/04/18/manifiesto/nagore_manifiesto.jpg)
The text, which will be written as a collaborative effort, seeks to raise awareness among the citizens of around the world of their transparency and participation rights with respect to their governments
During the first meeting of the Open Government Partnership, held on 17 and 18 April in Brasilia, some of the leading experts agreed on the need to approve a common definition of the Open Government concept.
In particular, Helen Darbishire, the Executive Director of Access Info, an organisation dedicated to fostering and protecting the right of access to information, considers that “governments have very different ideas about what Open Government is. We have listened to the opinions of many international experts, the leaders of the access to information, open data and participation movement, and need to define more accurately what Open Government is".
Therefore, she announced a collaborative process, headed by her organisation, which will try to define the minimum standards for Open Government within civil society, by means of exchanging ideas and suggestions. The proposal is therefore to draft a manifesto which will then ensure that “there is a single definition in all member countries of the OGP, and in the other countries, with which to defend the right of citizens to have a government that informs and listens to the citizens”.
Right from the start of this initiative, Irekia has supported the drafting of this manifesto and will help with the work that will begin in the coming days. Specifically, its director, Nagore de los Ríos, stated that work has already begun on preparing this world manifesto that will be part of a citizen campaign to foster Open Government. The first objective of the manifesto is to ensure that the citizens understand "what Open Government is, that they embrace it as their basic right, wherever they live, and they should claim this right loudly, clearly and strongly". Thus, the forces behind the manifesto want countries with opaque governments to have to open up, in reaction to the pressure from civil society to do so.
After the experts and interested parties have prepared the manifesto, it will be disseminated so that any citizen of the world can support, sign and embrace it.
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