What is a Petition?

What exactly is a petition? The term petition derives from the Latin word petitio which means “attack” or “plead”. One may call a simple hint, a request or a concrete complaint concerning a certain issue a petition. It is usually transferred to the responsible office or parliament.

What is a petition?

What is a petition? by stopthepave CC

As this definition clarifies, petitions enable every member within a population to ask for a comment or even an amendment in terms of serious deficits of which somebody is convinced to exist. The petition compactly summarizes certain fears and woes of the citizens and lodge it with the responsible persons.

Handing in petitions is an important way for citizens to have influence on politics as well as on the cultural circumstances on the pathways of their direct neighborhood. But be aware that there are a lot of things that you may clarify previously by initiating legal proceedings.

Petitions: Who may put them up?

The answer to this question is simple: Everyone may formulate a petition, no matter if it deals with war, health, environment or even TV matters! You may hand in a petition right on your own or as an entire community. The so-called petitioner may originate from every nation, be stateless and of every age. Even children are able to create petitions as well as juristic persons or a citizen’s initiatives. Petitions form an important part of our democratic system – the petitioner will not experience any disadvantages in consequence of writing his or her request. The one important thing is that all the petitioners have to be directly affected by the named deficit.

Formal Steps concerning your Petition

There are not many formalities to be considered when you make your petition:

  1. The petition has to be submitted in written form.
  2. The petition must contain the signature(s) of the petitioner(s).
  3. The petition has to include the address of its official recipient.

The petition may also be stated in an oral form right at the official administration that is responsible for the specific matter.

The Committee on Petitions

As soon as an office receives a petition it forms the so-called Committee on Petitions that explicitly looks into the subject put forward by the petitioner. This way the official administrations may examine if there possibly are any loopholes in the law and if there respectively exist any inequities.