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Topics: Access to Information

La Inciativa de Acceso en Centro America

San José, Costa Rica. 2009

Last April 29th and 30th, representatives from TAI Coalitions from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica gathered in regional workshop to create a common Action Plan to strengthen their work on the implementation of Principle 10.

The Action Plan has three sections:

A) Challenges and commitments of the leader organizations in each coalition: This point is related with the strengthening of the following aspects: 1) National coalitions to promote the Access Rights. 2) Information channels within the coalitions and between the coalitions. 3) Fundraising for national coalitions projects. 4) the inclusion of the Dominican Republic and Panama in the regional process. 5) Establishing a regional partnership that consolidates common work strategies and get funding for regional projects. 6) Political context challenges in each country. B) Regional Agenda: This point refers to issues related with: 1) access to information and communications between governments and civil society, 2) Legal framework on access rights. 3) Proceedings and institutional structures of public participation. 4) Education and training on access rights. 5) Funding for public participation and access to information. C) Building a regional partnership: It contains the actions defined to create a regional partnership of TAI Coalitions in Central America.

As part of the program, the meeting had two spaces to tend other topics: Daniel Barragán, from TAI Ecuador, presented the hemispheric strategic plan of Latin America Access Coalitions. Aldo Palacios and Diego Cooper from PP10 Secretariat presented the components and the work of the Partnership for Principle 10.

This workshop is an activity of the project “Partnership 10 Central America” which is funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and executed by Foundation for Peace and Democracy(FUNPADEM).

Further information please contact Luis Diego Segura from Foundation for Peace and Democracy, FUNPADEM. Email sociedadcivil@funpadem.org or +506 2283 9435.

El Principio 10 en Costa Rica: Situación y desafíos

San José, Costa Rica. 2009

Last April 29th and 30th, representatives from TAI Coalitions from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica gathered in regional workshop to create a common Action Plan to strengthen their work on the implementation of Principle 10.

The Action Plan has three sections:

A) Challenges and commitments of the leader organizations in each coalition: This point is related with the strengthening of the following aspects: 1) National coalitions to promote the Access Rights. 2) Information channels within the coalitions and between the coalitions. 3) Fundraising for national coalitions projects. 4) the inclusion of the Dominican Republic and Panama in the regional process. 5) Establishing a regional partnership that consolidates common work strategies and get funding for regional projects. 6) Political context challenges in each country. B) Regional Agenda: This point refers to issues related with: 1) access to information and communications between governments and civil society, 2) Legal framework on access rights. 3) Proceedings and institutional structures of public participation. 4) Education and training on access rights. 5) Funding for public participation and access to information. C) Building a regional partnership: It contains the actions defined to create a regional partnership of TAI Coalitions in Central America.

As part of the program, the meeting had two spaces to tend other topics: Daniel Barragán, from TAI Ecuador, presented the hemispheric strategic plan of Latin America Access Coalitions. Aldo Palacios and Diego Cooper from PP10 Secretariat presented the components and the work of the Partnership for Principle 10.

This workshop is an activity of the project “Partnership 10 Central America” which is funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and executed by Foundation for Peace and Democracy(FUNPADEM).

Further information please contact Luis Diego Segura from Foundation for Peace and Democracy, FUNPADEM. Email sociedadcivil@funpadem.org or +506 2283 9435.

The Polluters Almost Always Remain Clean

By Kiril Ristovski (Posted: May 10, 2009) 

Frequent diseases among the people, pestilence of fish and cattle are some of the consequences of the pollution for which the official analyses show that they are in the framework of maximally permitted values. The major source for these values are frequently the polluters themselves. In other words, the polluters pollute us not only with waste but with false information, too.

That is the conclusion from the research conducted by NGO Florozon in Skopje, technically and financially supported by The World Resource Institute in USA. This national research was for the first time conducted in our country, and it is based on the right to access to information, public participation in the decision-making process and access to justice. A lot of irregularities are being pointed out. – ‘Very often when big facilities cause pollution and the indicators confirm that the health of the people and the quality of the environment are threatened the information provided by the authorities is rather discouraging about the satisfying level of pollution substances in the air, water and soil. That points out that the authorities very often take the polluters’ side and hide the data that reflect the real state. So far there hasn’t been any successful initiative from the citizen associations in order to reveal the true values for the quality of the environment ‘– Florozon claims.

The access to information in state of emergency or damage is not satisfactory either and there is no practice for timely and quality informing in dangerous incidents. The population is not informed about the accidents and there is no legal liability among the polluters. – ‘The court decisions are not efficient. It is practice not to find the powerful subjects that considerably contribute for the local economy responsible although there are lawful environmental procedures.’ – it is said in Florozon.

Their research includes more capacities chosen at random , among these are the refinery ‘Okta’, the mines ‘Toranica’ and ‘Sasa’, the fish pestilence in the river Vardar and others. In all examined cases a lot of irregularities and lapses can be seen in the state institutions and by the polluters. Also, the doors for providing information are always closed and there are contradictory results in the conducted analyses. One example is the pollution of Kamenicka Reka caused by the mine ‘Sasa’. Although the analyses of the State Inspectorate for Environment and the mine showed that the river wasn’t polluted, the analyses made by several non-governmental organizations in private laboratory in Kumanovo showed presence of cadmium, lead and zinc over the permitted values. So far there hasn’t been any official information about the big pestilence of fish in the river Vardar, too.

The original version in the newspaper Dnevnik: http://www.dnevnik.com.mk/?itemID=C8C861DD7428734DA6FCC2FF03…

TAI MACEDONIA

Kiril Ristovski

The Law Can Never be Secret!

Posted by Lalanath de Silva 

News Release from Access Info Madrid, 11 March 2009, for immediate release

The European Court of Justice ruled on 10 March 2009 that it is illegal to enforce against individuals a law which has not been made public. The case referred to rules governing what cannot be carried onto aircraft, which for years since they were first adopted in 2002 were kept secret, violating the fundamental principle that a law is not a law until it has been published. The news release was issued by Access Info Europe, a human rights organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the right of access to information in Europe and contributing to the development of this right globally.

The result of these secret “laws” has been widespread confusion and misinterpretation. Not only did an Austrian gentleman have his tennis racquet confiscated (which was the origin of the case to the European court) but many people have had nail clippers and scissors and tweezers and other small personal items confiscated when in fact the rules (which were eventually made public by the European Commission on 8 August 20082) state that only scissors and knives with blades longer than 6cm are prohibited.

“A fundamental principle of democracy is that a law is not valid until it has been published. Citizens cannot be expected to comply with laws they cannot even know about. If we abandon these principles, even in the name of the fight against terrorism, then terrorists and others who do not believe in democracy really are gaining the upper hand,” said Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info.

Access Info reports that it is not only the European Union which has kept this list secret. A freedom of information request to the UK government to know what UK law says about what cannot be carried onto aircraft was refused on 29 September 20083 with the argument that to disclose the actual regulations, even partially, would make it “easier for the information to fall into the hands of a person with hostile intent.”

The problem with this line of argument is that it confuses the compulsory publication of laws, with no exceptions, with other information which may be subject to exceptions from disclosure. In this case it might be possible to withhold some aspects of information about airport security such as the technical specifications of X-ray machines in airports. But any rules with which the public must comply as a matter of law can never be subject to exception.

Access Info calls on all governments in Europe to make public the national laws, regulations and rules relating to what passengers may not carry onto aircraft. As Franz Kafka said in his short story Before the Law, “the law should always be accessible to everyone”.

For further information, please contact: Helen Darbishire, Executive Director, Access Info Tel: +34 667 685 319 (mobile) Tel : +34 91 366 5344 (office) helen@access-info.org

Editors Notes

  1. Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Case 345/06

  2. COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 820/2008 of 8 August 2008 laying down measures for the implementation of the common basic standards on aviation security.

  3. Letter to Helen Darbishire from UK Department of Transport of 29 September 2009, Reference F0004502, which states at paragraph 6 that: The Department is of the view that to safeguard national security, information on the Government’s guidance to the aviation industry regarding airport security measures should not be made public. To make such information widely available would potentially undermine the effectiveness of the National Aviation Security Programme (NASP) as it would be much easier for the information to fall into the hands of a person with hostile intent. This danger is present even where only a limited amount of information is disclosed as incomplete or partial information can be used to supplement information already in the public domain and can be used to build a clearer picture of the UK’s aviation security measures.

Highlights from the TAI Global Gathering

By Monika Kerdeman (Posted: March 6, 2009) 

50 people representing 29 countries participated in the second TAI Global Gathering, held in Sligo, Ireland at the Sligo Institute of Technology. The gathering was the largest international conference held at Sligo Institute of Technology. Highlights from the meeting include:

  1. Jeremy Wates, from the Aarhus Convention Secretariat in Geneva, opened the conference by discussing the importance of access work in the role of shaping environmental policy.

  2. The deputy leader of Seanad Eireann (the Senate of Ireland), and Green Party chairperson, Senator Dan Boyle, addressed the gathering. He spoke on Ireland’s need to ratify the Aarhus convention and the importance of access to information in a mature democracy.

  3. TAI partners shared ideas, stories, successes and solutions for moving the network to more action on the ground.

  4. Latin American partners agreed on next steps for a collaborative regional advocacy plan.

  5. The TAI Secretariat shared major themes and messages from its publication, Voice and Choice: Opening the Door to Environmental Democracy.

  6. Partners discussed case studies on access rights for the poor carried out by five TAI partners and next steps for including poverty-access rights analysis in all future TAI assessments.

  7. The Thailand Environment Institute (TEI) introduced partners to a draft citizen’s toolkit.

  8. New sectors were explored in the context of TAI, including climate change, forestry and aid effectiveness.

Click here to read the full report from the gathering.

TAI Water Governance Toolkit

Published: 2007

This paper combines the various pieces of TAI’s method for evaluating citizen voice in water sector governance.

Contents include:

General Capacity Building Indicators

Information Memorandum on Access to Information Laws Especially Dealing with Access to Environmental Information

Published: 2008

Professor Svitlana Kravchenko’s memo on access to information laws, especially dealing with access to environmental information, is an overview of the right of access to information, the scope of that right and restrictions of that right. It also deals with procedures for enforcing the right of access to information and remedies available when the right is denied. She reviews laws from several countries and draws on her experience as the Vice Chair of the UN ECE Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee.

The memorandum is a pointer to the state of the art in access to environmental information laws

TAI Global Gathering 2008

Published: 2008

This report is a detailed account of the objectives and outcomes from the second TAI Global Gathering, held in Sligo Ireland. At the gathering more then 50 TAI partners from 29 different countries met to discuss network activities and share access rights success stories.

Companies and the Right to Access Public Information

Published: 2008

This publication addresses the following questions, challenges and benefits: Why is the right to access public information essential to achieve inclusive governance? How is it a useful tool for companies? How does this right contribute to the development of a dependable and predictable business environment? Why is the private sector the one that exercises this right the least in Argentina? What is the situation in other countries in the region?