PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

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A parliament that is open and transparent I 47 In an effort to comply with citizens’ constitutional right to information, Senate regulations include rather detailed provisions covering, for example, the need to inform the public of forthcoming Senate sittings, public right to attend Senate and Senate committee sittings, public access to Senate papers, minutes and stenographic reports from Senate and Senate committee sittings, as well as to other documents and information associated with the work of Senate and its bodies …… There is no doubt that access to information issues legislated in so much detail has a great deal of impact on the transparency of work performed by the Senate and its bodies, contributing on one hand to the democratisation of life and, on the other, to activating citizens who can, if they so wish, become familiar with Senate work via the access to information from of their choice. This is extremely important for a democratic societal control of people’s representatives, whose performance voters can scrutinise using numerous possibilities of accessing information while at the same time learning democratic parliamentary procedures. Romania’s parliament is covered by a general law on the free access to information of public interest. ‘In application of this law, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies provide access to information of public interest, both ex officio and on request, through their respective specialised services.’ Slovenia’s parliament is also covered by a general act on Access to Information of a Public Character, applying to all public bodies. Ecuador has its own access to information statute, ‘guaranteeing the transparency of all public activity including that of parliament’. Typical of all such legislation is the existence of independent bodies which are authorised to hear complaints against decisions to deny access to information, including those made by parliament itself. Here, to take another example, is how the Parliament of Jamaica describes the purpose of its FOI Act: The objects of this Act are to reinforce and give further effect to certain fundamental principles underlying the system of constitutional democracy, namely – a) governmental accountability; b) transparency; and c) public participation in national decision-making, by granting the public a general right of access to official documents held by public authorities. Many international organisations have published model FOI laws, which are very similar in the issues covered. Here, for example, are some of the key principles for FOI outlined in a publication by the global campaign for free expression, Article 19:
48 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ■ the principles of maximum disclosure, obligation to publish and active promotion of open government; ■ exceptions should be clearly and narrowly drawn and subject to strict ‘harm’ and ‘public interest’ tests; ■ access to information should be facilitated, and requests not deterred by high costs or delay; ■ refusals to disclose information should be subject to appeal to an independent body whose decisions should be binding. Further online reading about freedom of information and model laws: Article 19 (2001). A model Freedom of Information Law. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (2003) Recommendations for an informed democracy. Freedominfo.org Mendel, T (2005). Parliament and access to information: working for transparent governance. Organization of American States (2003). AG/RES. 1932 (XXXIII-O/03): Access to public information: strengthening democracy. The Commonwealth (2003). Model Freedom of Information Act. Freedom of expression The counterpart to the right of access to information is the right to communicate and publish it freely to others. This right is fundamental to the democratic process as one based on dialogue and persuasion between informed
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consideration of a bill more effect
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Oversight through parliamentary que
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A case-study of oversight: security
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Facing the future I 187 State: give
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strengthening of both legislative a
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As regards the practicability and c
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3. Technology assessment. This has
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Australia Austria Belarus Belgium B
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Organization’s programmes aimed a
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MS. MARTA LAGOS CRUZ-COKE Executive
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MS. DULCE MARIA SAURI RIANCHO Membe
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Commonwealth Parliamentary Associat
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types of, 8, 15-17, 69 voter partic
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