Newsletter -February 2011
Access to Public Information
The
General Assembly of the OAS, through resolutions
AG/RES. 2548 (XL-O/10) and AG/RES. 2607 (XL-O/10),
requested the Permanent Council, in collaboration
with the Department of International Law, conduct a
special session of the Committee on Juridical and
Political Affairs to address the topic of access
to public information in order to determine the
effectiveness of the OAS’ activities to date and to
plan for the OAS’ future work.
This special session, held in December 2010, focused
on five main themes, in accordance with the mandates
of the General Assembly, namely: 1) review of the
work of the OAS to date in terms of access to
information, including the principles and
recommendations on access to information; 2)
submission of a revised study on best practices
compiled by Member States; 3) presentation of the
Inter-American Model Law on Access to Public
Information and implementation guide contained in
resolution
AG/RES. 2607 (XL-O/10), adopted by the General
Assembly in June 2010 and submission of final
comments on the issue by Member States; 4) first
presentation of draft recommendations on data
protection; and 5) determination by Member States
about the possibility of preparing an Inter-American
program on Access to Public Information that will
help consolidate the work completed in the past and
set an agenda for future work of the OAS in this
area.
This Special Session included the participation of
the Inter-American Juridical Committee, the Special
Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Human
Rights Commission, the Secretariat for Legal
Affairs, through its Department of International Law
and Secretariat for Political Affairs. Also in
attendance were many experts who participated in the
drafting of the model law and its implementation
guide, as well as civil society organizations
dedicated to ensuring the right of access to
information on the continent, including the Carter
Center and the Regional Alliance for Access to
Information and Freedom of Expression. Also
participating were experts from Member States, who
offered their comments on the model law and
considerations for the proposed program, including
the Federal Institute of Access to Information and
Data Protection (Mexico) and the Council for
Transparency (Chile). Finally, the Special Session
was also attended by the World Bank, which presented
its newly adopted policy on access to information
applicable to all branches of the institution.
This Special Session was open to the public and held
in the Simon Bolivar Room of the headquarters of the
OAS.
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