Ethics
IMPACT’s code of ethics
IMPACT’s code of ethics
As individuals and as a company established on the basis of ethics, Impact commits not to extend its services to the purveyors of tobacco or weapons, nor to enterprises that harm animals.
Introduction
Introduction
In Israeli democracy, there is lively discourse involving individuals, groups, and organizations. The Knesset is the beating heart of the democracy, wherein those elected by the public and their aids meet the citizenry, as well as representatives of companies and organizations.
Knesset Members and public servants regularly make important decisions that affect individuals, groups, organizations, and companies. The legislative process and setting policy are based on principles of professionalism, transparency, consultation, and public involvement. As part of these principles, the public has the right to express its opinion and influence the shaping of policy, while by the same token, legislators and public servants are obligated to make decisions for the public good and act with integrity.
Based thereon, lobbying is an integral part of the democratic process and public involvement in decision-making. Thus it is in the world’s leading democracies, and thus it is in Israel. The objective of lobbying is to ensure that public policy takes into account as wide a range as possible of considerations, that the voices of everyone who will be affected thereby get to be heard, and that the citizens are actives partner in shaping policy.
Lobbyists bring to the attention of decision-makers a spectrum of facts, stances, opinions, and interests of a range of companies and organizations in the Israeli economy and society. Lobbying is therefore intended to help the public to maintain constant communication with its elected officials, and to serve as a channel for conveying knowledge and expertise from a given sector to Knesset Members, within the provisions of the law and professional and ethical standards that rest on fairness, transparency, and openness.
In an effort to raise public trust in lobbying and in the democratic process, the Lobbyists’ Forum drafted its own code of ethics. The code is aimed at lobbyists who work for business entities, organizations, non-profits, and others. It contains new requirements that impose ethical obligations upon the lobbyists, who served in the past as Knesset Members or public servants, and that of course apply to all working lobbyists. The Lobbyists’ Forum encourages all lobbyists in Israel to act as per the code and to work toward its adoption by their colleagues so as to ensure the highest ethical standards of the profession.
The code of ethics is derived from such codes around the world, including the international code of the Association of Accredited Lobbyists to the European Union, who are guided by the International Code of Lobbying Ethics; and the American code of ethics of the American League of Lobbyists. In addition, it is based on recommendations of the 2006 committee that drafts the code of ethics for Knesset Members, headed by Judge Yitzhak Zamir; on a code formulated by the 2011 Knesset sub-committee for drafting an ethical code headed by Knesset Member Haim Oron; and existing codes in Israel’s lobbying sector.
The Code of Ethics
The Code of Ethics