The Amsterdam Declaration proposes tte introduction of a charter of citizen's rights. There is a good example that has already gotten widespread recognition and international recommendation, the Dutch eCitizen Charter.

The e-Citizen Charter (BurgerServiceCode) is a quality standard for e-Government written from the citizen’s perspective. It consists of 10 quality requirements for digital contacts, both in the field of information exchange, service delivery and policy participation.

The charter has been adopted as a quality standard on all levels of Dutch government and is also used as the basis for ongoing measurement of citizen satisfaction. Moreover it is the criterion for the annual eParticipation Awards.

The e-Citizen Charter is the Winner of the European e-Democracy Award 2007 (Global e-Democracy Forum, Paris, October 2007) and Finalist of the European e-Government Awards 2007 (Ministerial e-Government Conference, Lisbon, September 2007). Moreover it has received the EU Good Practice Label 2007.

To date the e-Citizen Charter has been translated in 19 languages. Implemention of the charter is recommended by UN, OECD, Council of Europe and UK Cabinet Office. How to implement the charter is explained in the eCC-Workbook.

Learn more at: eCitizen Charter

10 quality requirements of the e-Citizen Charter

1. Choice of communication channels: counter, letter, phone, e-mail, internet.

2. Transparent Public Sector: citizens know where to apply for official information.

3. Overview of Rights and Duties: the rights and duties of citizens are transparent.

4. Personal information service: tailored information, personal internet site.

5. Convenient Services: citizens only have to provide personal data once to be served in a proactive way.

6. Transparent procedures: openness and transparency of procedures.

7. Digital Reliability: secure identity management and reliable storage of electronic documents.

8. Considerate administration: government compensates and learns from mistakes.

9. Responsible management: citizens are able to compare, check and measure government performance.

10. Involvement and empowerment: the government stimulates participation and involvement of citizens.