The Open Government Partnership Steering Committee has set a series of four tasks for the Turkish government to perform to avoid being designated as an “inactive” member.
Despite having missed several key deadlines over several years, Turkey was given another chance. However, Turkey will be automatically designated “inactive” at the September Steering Committee meeting if it does not meet minimum requirements described in a resolution.
The resolution approved May 4 was not including in the pre-meeting packet made public on the OGP website. It was posted about a week after the meeting and revealed in the OGP newsletter. The minutes of Steering Committee meetings are usually published several weeks after meetings.
The OGP on May 4 previously announced that a divided Steering Committee voted that day to declare Azerbaijan as inactive, the first such action for the 69-member organization. (See previous FreedomInfo.org article.)
A week before the meeting, the Turkish government sent a letter promising to embrace the OGP process with “full enthusiasm,” as it had with similar language a year ago. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
In giving Turkey more time, the OGP Steering Committee said the government must:
- identify both a Ministerial lead and Point of Contact to lead the development of proposals and engagement with civil society for a National Action Plan,
- by May 31, 2016, produce a publicly available plan to produce a National Action Plan, which includes the timeline of key moments, meetings, and process, including ways for civil society to participate and co-create, and,
- collaborate with the OGP Support Unit to organize a visit during the drafting period, which will include a comprehensive public meeting with civil society organizations,
- follow through on its promise to complete a National Action Plan by no later than September 1, 2016.
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