Equality by lot

The Council of Europe, “the continent’s leading human rights organisation”, announces:

A historic milestone for deliberative democracy: Ukraine’s first-ever Citizens’ Assembly successfully launched

Kyiv, Ukraine 8 October 2024

The first weekend of Ukraine’s inaugural Citizens’ Assembly, supported by the Council of Europe, successfully concluded in Zvyahel. This historic event, the first-ever Citizens’ Assembly held under wartime conditions, marks a significant step in advancing deliberative democracy in Ukraine. The CA was organised by Zvyahel City Council with the expert, methodological and financial support of the Council of Europe project «Strengthening democratic resilience through civic participation during the war and in the post-war context in Ukraine».

The Citizens’ Assembly of the Zvyahel community, focusing on ‘Creating Urban Spaces as Public Locations for Social Interaction and Recovery,’ will continue for two more weekends, on October 19-20 and November 2-3, 2024. Over the course of three sessions, the Assembly members, with the support of experts and facilitators, will develop recommendations for local authorities on this highly relevant topic. The municipal authorities have expressed their commitment to considering these proposals in future planning.

Following the methodology developed in collaboration with Council of Europe international expert Eva Bordos, who designed and coordinated the first Citizens’ Assemblies in Hungary, 4,000 invitation letters were sent to randomly selected households in each community. The sortition was conducted to accurately reflect, as closely as possible, the population of the community aged 18 and over in terms of age group, gender, educational attainment, and district. The random selection of 45 members (2 places were reserved for internally displaced persons) and 12 substitute members was conducted using the open-source software, Panelot. To ensure the involvement of as wide a range of residents as possible in the process, including the members of the diaspora, the municipality’s website also provided a platform where any resident could submit their suggestions and opinions on the topic.

The Citizens’ Assembly in Slavutych will commence on October 19-20, 2024, focusing on the topic: “How can we improve the household waste management system in our community?”.

Filed under: Applications, Sortition |