The Department of International Law (DIL) of the OAS Secretariat for Legal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of Paraguay organized a virtual workshop to analyze the institution of the guarantor body, in light of the Inter-American Model Law 2.0 on Access to Public Information and national experiences in Paraguay, Mexico and Peru.

In the workshop, held on June 9, Dr. Cecilia Pérez, Minister of Justice of Paraguay, highlighted the importance having effective mechanisms available for citizens to exercise their right of access to public information and when necessary, challenge the non-delivery of the information they request from the subject entities.

By way of introduction, the Director of the DIL, Dr. Dante Negro, presented an overview of the Inter-American Model Law 2.0, explaining the legal nature of this instrument and highlighting aspects such as active transparency, the exceptions regime and appropriate document management.

The workshop also included a presentation by the DIL focused on the institution of guarantor body from the perspective of Model Law 2.0, detailing the characteristics, composition and functions that give these entities the institutional strength and capabilities that they require to fulfill their mission of promoting the right of access to information and to interpret and enforce applicable law.

In order to offer the more than 140 participants an overview of the guarantor body models that operate successfully in the region, Dr. Mario Ovelar, Director of Access to Public Information within the Ministry of Justice of Paraguay, referred to the national regulatory framework, highlighting some of its characteristics and identifying areas of opportunity to better meet the objectives of a guarantor body.

Next, Dr. Eduardo Luna, General Director of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Protection of Personal Data in the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Peru, explained that the General Directorate he leads is an organic unit with functional autonomy, in charge of promoting and guaranteeing the right of access to information, clarifying that Peru is in the process of transferring these functions to a new specialized technical body that will also have sanctioning capacity and budgetary autonomy.

For her part, Dr. Ileana Hidalgo, Secretary of Access to Information of Mexico’s the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) referred to the legal nature and powers of this autonomous and independent guarantor body created at the constitutional level, indicating some of its main attributions and responsibilities, hierarchy within the State apparatus, relations with obligated subjects and internal structure.

The session concluded with an open discussion with attendees, moderated by Dr. Rigoberto Zarza on behalf of the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Vice Ministry of Justice.