This Background Study: Professional and Ethical Standards for Parliamentarians purports to be a comprehensive but practical publication that analyses how to build and reform systems that set professional and ethical standards for Members of Parliament (MPs) and regulate their conduct to ensure that those standards are met. The targeted audience can use this publication in different ways:

• For MPs, parliamentary staff and experts from academia and civil society, it can serve as an overview publication outlining the key issues in developing and professional and ethical standards for members of parliament, drawing upon OSCE participating States' examples and practices;
• For OSCE Field Operations, as well as other international organizations, it can provide an additional tool for delivering expertise through capacity-building, training and advice to MPs and parliamentary staff, as part of parliamentary-strengthening projects or based on direct requests from parliaments.