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Best Practices

Pursuant to the mandates of both operative paragraph 13.a of resolution AG/RES. 2288-07 on Access to Information and of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the Permanent Council, the Department of International Law invited the Trust for the Americas, a not for profit affiliate of the Organization of American States, and the “Alianza Regional para Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información”, under the coordination of the former, to participate in a series of preparatory meetings for the study on Recommendations about Access to Information, Document CP/CAJP-2599/08, and asked them to elaborate a complementary document related to the Questionnaire “Legislation on and Best Practices of Access to Public Information of the Commission on Juridical and Political Affairs”, Document CP/CAJP-2548/07 rev. 1.

To do so, the International Law Department through the CAJP asked Member States to answer the questionnaire that was developed by the CAJP to compile the legislation and explore the practices of States in the topic of Access to Information. The Trust for the Americas, on its side, convened the Civil Society Organizations, members of the “Alianza Regional por la Libertad de Expresión e Información” knowledgeable on the field of Access to Information in the region, to answer the same questionnaire.

As a result, the Trust for the Americas produced a Complementary Report to the document CP/CAJP-2599/08 called Report on the Questionnaire on Legislation and Best Practices about Access to Public Information, document CP/CAJP-2608/08, with the purpose of identifying some practices of States in the topic of Access to Information.

The Report compiles the answers to the questionnaire presented by the CAJP and it contains the following elements: 1) Questionnaire of the CAJP, 2) Table summarizing the answers by the States to the questionnaire and related documents, 3) Introduction to the Civil Society’s answers to the questionnaire, Table summarizing those answers and related documents and 4) Recommendations from Civil Society Organizations.