COMMONWEALTH WORKSHOP ON DEMOCRACY AND SMALL STATES

Key issues concerning democracy and small states will be considered in depth when senior figures from over 30 Commonwealth small states meet at a workshop being held at the Hotel Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort, from tomorrow Wednesday 10, to Friday 12 May, 2000.

This is the fourth in a series of Commonwealth meetings on the theme Deepening Democracy, whose purpose is to help member countries in their efforts to strengthen their democratic processes and institutions.

This workshop is being jointly organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), with the support of the Malta Government. The opening ceremony will be held tomorrow, Wednesday 10 May, in the Tapestry Chamber, at The Palace, in Valletta, by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy, the Hon. Lawrence Gonzi. The ceremony will be chaired by the Speaker, the Hon Anton Tabone.

Over the following days, the workshop will discuss key aspects of the democratic process in small states including the roles of the executive and the legislature, mechanisms for scrutiny, accountability, sovereignty and democracy, and the culture of democracy.

The participants in the workshop are to include ministers, parliamentarians, diplomats, public servants, academics, and electoral officials, among others. There will also be a number of observers from Malta, the UN, international organisations, and Commonwealth non-governmental organisations.

The previous meetings in the Commonwealth Secretariat's Deepening Democracy series were: The Role of the Opposition (UK,1998), Workshop of Commonwealth Domestic Election Observers (Jamaica, 1999), and Gender and Democracy (Namibia, 2000). More than a quarter of the world's population lives in the Commonwealth. Thirty-two of its 54 members are classified as small states.

Media contact: Mr Mwambu Wanendeya, Tel 356 374894.