The Max Planck Foundation held its fourth and last consultative forum with the Parliamentary Legislative Department of the Iraqi Parliament (PLD) under the GFFO-funded project titled ‘Democratising the Legislative Process in Iraq ‘ in Baghdad, Iraq, on 8-9 September 2025. Foundation staff were joined by prominent regional and international experts and practitioners who addressed various aspects of participatory law-making.
The forum began with an exchange between the PLD and the regional and international practitioners from Tunisia, Germany and Morocco that focused on the mechanisms and instruments for public participation in the legislative process and the challenges faced within each of the Tunisian, German and Moroccan systems, respectively. This was followed by a discussion on the Iraqi experience in participatory law-making and the obstacles that face parliament and civil society, respectively. The PLD members were further invited to participate in group exercises that involved the development of a parliamentary policy to enhance public participation in the legislative process, as well as devising the actual steps to be followed and the instruments to be employed at every stage of the legislative process.
An additional presentation on the use of GenAI in legislative drafting was aimed at inviting the participants to reflect on preliminary lessons learned in relation to a practice that is bound to expand in the coming years.
This last forum further featured three dialogue sessions around the three pillars of the project – the legislative process and legislative drafting techniques (including the use of modern technologies in legislative drafting); ex ante and ex post legislative impact assessments; and participatory law-making mechanisms. During each of these sessions, the Department members were invited to formulate concrete recommendations for reform in relation to each, which could subsequently be elevated to the level of the Secretariat General of Parliament.
Project activities are set to continue until late 2025.