Organizer: Access Info Europe, Article 19, Open Society Justice Initiative
Date: September 28, 2007

28 September: European Governments Urged to Uphold Right to Information in World's First Access Treaty

On the occasion of International Right to Know Day, 28 September 2007, over 180 organizations and over 190 individuals have called on European governments to ensure that the right of access to information is fully upheld in a forthcoming treaty, the European Convention on Access to Official Documents, currently being drafted by the Council of Europe, a body that represents 47 countries and 800,000 people.

The letter, which was spearheaded by three NGOs with observer status on the drafting group -- Access Info Europe, Article 19 and the Open Society Justice Initiative -- was endorsed by leading international organisations including the International Federation for Human Rights, Statewatch, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), the Transparency International (EU Advocacy Working Group), the European Federation of Journalists, the World Press Freedom Committee, Internews Europe, The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Index on Censorship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Due Process of Law Foundation, as well as dozens of national organizations in Europe and around the world.

Among the concerns expressed by these organization is that the planned future treaty will not guarantee the right to information held by judicial and legislative bodies, and will not require that each country has an independent oversight body empowered to order disclosure of information if it finds in favour of a requestor.

Background

The treaty, which will become the "European Convention on Access to Official Documents," is being drafted by a Group of Specialists, chosen by 15 of the 47 governments that are members of the Council of Europe. The Group of Specialists is mandated to finish its work by the end of 2007, and has just one more drafting session scheduled for 9-12 October in Strasbourg. Only two of its 15 members are from countries outside of western Europe, namely Poland and Russia.

The draft treaty, according to the NGO coalition, has seven major flaws:

1. Failure to include all official documents held by legislative bodies and judicial authorities within the mandatory scope of the treaty;
2. Failure to include official documents held by natural and legal persons insofar as they perform public functions within the mandatory scope of the treaty;
3. Failure to specify certain basic categories of official documents, such as those containing financial or procurement information, that must be published proactively.
4. Absence of a guarantee that individuals will have access to an appeals body which has the power to order public authorities to disclose official documents.
5. Absence of a guarantee that individuals will be able to appeal against violations of the right of access other than "denial" of a request (such as unjustified failures to provide access in a timely fashion or in the form preferred by the requester).
6. Lax drafting of exceptions that permit withholding of official documents under the internal deliberations and commercial interest exemptions:
   a.There are no time limits on the application of the internal deliberations exemption; such documents may be withheld indefinitely, even after a final decision on the matter has been taken;
   b.The treaty should protect only "legitimate commercial interests," not all and any "commercial interests," as in the present draft.
7. Absence of a requirement that states set statutory maximum time-limits within which requests must be processed.