This document introduces Javnarasprava.ba, an online platform that aims to connect citizens and parliament in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It summarizes proposed laws in a clear way, allows citizens to vote and ask questions about proposals, and gives parliamentarians a forum to discuss issues. The platform has seen over 130,000 visits and significant engagement from both citizens and politicians. Its goals are to increase transparency around the legislative process and give citizens more influence over laws being adopted.

1. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
Connecting citizens and Parliament

3. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ A platform for direct communication between parliamentarians and
citizens
▪ It’s not the first one, but it is the first one that is working
What is it?

4. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ The legislative process in Bosnia and Herzegovina is pretty much a closed
process (over 40% percent of laws are adopted through urgent procedure and
no public consultations are held)
▪ Citizens don’t particularly understand policy issues of specific laws and rely on
(often) biased media reporting
▪ The MPs themselves don’t have a platform to express their opinions in regards to
legislature
▪ Most of the communication between citizens and MPs is not in any way related to
what parliamentarians jobs are (adopting legislation)
▪ Citizens need to be more educated about the legislative process and need to
have more influence on it
Why did we make it?

5. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ It summarizes the proposals of the laws in a way that people can
understand them (short and longer summary is available)
▪ It makes the entire text of the proposal available for download
▪ It identifies key policy issues of the proposals and presents them in an
understandable way
▪ It sets a set of predefined questions for every law
What does it do?

6. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ State parliament
▪ Entity parliament
▪ One (out of nine) cantonal parliaments
Where does it do it?

7. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
Vote on every law proposal currently in procedure
What can YOU do with it?

8. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
Vote on specific policy issues in the law proposals
What can YOU do with it?

9. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ Submit questions to the parlamentarians in regards to specific laws
▪ Submit questions to the parlamentarians on any topic that is connected with
their political life
What can YOU do with it?

10. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
Start petitions and submit initiatives for law changes
What can YOU do with it?

11. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ Use it as a tool to see what is the public opinion on specific laws
▪ Use it as a tool to promote their positions on different topic
▪ Use it as a resource in terms of preparing for parliament sessions
(sometimes it is not possible to read through all the materials, so we do it
for them)
▪ Use it as a source for initiatives in the parliament
What can MPs do with it?

12. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
The Results
▪ Over 130.000 visits from October 2015
▪ Over 270 laws analyzed
▪ Over 5.000 questions asked
▪ Over 30.000 votes cast
▪ Over 60 parliamentarians actively using the platform
▪ MPs from both the governing and opposition parties using the platform
▪ Over 8.000 followers on social media
▪ Social media posts have been seen over 1,2 million times
▪ The only place on BH web where you can find all law proposals from
the last year in one place

13. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ Easy to use
▪ Parliamentarians don’t need a new login and password to answer questions,
the questions come directly to their emails
▪ Parliamentarians can answer with only one click
▪ User registration is easy (only one form, or just one click for registration via
social media)
▪ Non-biased (the platform does’t give any stances on specific issues, it just
presents them as they are presented in the law)
▪ To the point (the administration doesn’t allow questions that are not related
to parliamentarians public life)
▪ New features are implemented constantly (quizzes that make it easier for
citizens to vote on specific issues is the newest one)
Why does it work?

14. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and Parliament
▪ Get more MPs to become involved (at least 50% of all MPs in the
parliaments – currently around 30%)
▪ Increase our social media presence even more
▪ Set up platforms for every cantonal parliament in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(9 more)
▪ Work towards becoming a decisive factor in law-making and adopting
Where do we go from here?

15. Javnarasprava.ba
Connecting citizens and ParliamentThank you for your attention!