Equitable Access to Public Information - May 2013
Successful conclusion of High-Level Workshop on
Equal Access to Public Information in Lima, Peru
The High-Level Workshop
on Equal Access to Public Information, hosted by the
Department of International Law (DIL) in association
with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru, came to a
successful conclusion on May 10. During the
workshop, government officials of various ranks
whose work relates to access to information and
public administration, national and international
experts, and representatives of academia and civil
society analyzed the Peruvian legal framework in
this area, using as a benchmark the principles and
rules of the Model Inter-American Law on Access to
Public Information (Model
Law), approved by the OAS General Assembly in
June 2010, and its Implementation Guide.
Thanks to a growing
recognition of the
importance of access to
information in strengthening
democracy, governability,
good governance, and trust
in public institutions, the
region has registered
significant progress on this
right through legislative
advances, especially the 12
special laws already in
place in Latin American
countries.
Manuel Clausen Olivares,
Secretary General of the
Presidency of the Peruvian
Council of Ministers, and
Mariana Llona Rosa,
Secretary for Public
Administration of the
Council of Ministers, opened
the workshop. The Deputy
Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Ambassador Juan
Fernando Rojas Samanez,
closed it with the
participation of the
Director of the OAS
Department of International
Law (DIL), Dante Negro.
The High-Level Workshop was
attended by high-ranking
government officials,
including the Deputy
Minister for Human Rights
and representatives of the
National Authority for the
Protection of Personal Data,
the Office of the Ombudsman,
the Council of Ministers,
and the Ministry of
Environment. It enjoyed
active participation by
prominent international
experts from the World Bank,
Mexico’s Federal Institute
for Access to Information
and Protection of Personal
Data, the Regional Alliance
for Freedom of Expression
and Information, and the
National Autonomous
University of Mexico. Mr.
Javier Yépez, Minister
Counselor and Alternate
Representative of Peru to
the Organization, also
participated in the
workshop.
The workshop program
combined panels and
roundtables on the main
thematic areas of the Model
Law, including the principle
of maximum disclosure,
measures to promote
openness, publication
schemes, records and
policies for creating,
storing, and ensuring the
integrity of public
documents, mechanisms for
obtaining public
information, costs,
exceptions and appeals
regimes, the functions of
the public information
commissions, monitoring and
compliance with current
laws, and the importance of
training programs for the
authorities processing
requests for access to
public information.
The workshop concluded with
the formulation of
recommendations on subjects
including the public
information commissions,
policies for monitoring the
authorities responsible for
enforcing the law,
procedures and mechanisms
for classifying and
maintaining information, the
exceptions and penalties
regimes, and training
programs.
This event is part of the
Equal Access to Public
Information project led by
DIL and funded by the
Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA).
Similar workshops will be
held in Costa Rica,
Colombia, and Panama in the
near future.
See the following page (http://www.oas.org/en/sla/dil/access_to_information.asp)
for information on the presentations, work, and
conclusions of the Workshop, as well as the
cooperation project on access to public information.
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