Freedom of Information: A Comparative Legal Survey - Federation of ...

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information classifi ed on grounds of intelligence, also with several sub-categories listed (Article
15(2));
information relating to preventing and combating crime, once again with several sub-categories
(Article 16(1));
information relating to international negations whose disclosure would damage the negotiation
process or information whose disclosure would negatively affect foreign relations (Article 16(2));
internal deliberative material, as described above (Article 17(1));
information protected by banking, tax, commercial, industrial, technological and stock-exchange
rules (Article 17(2));
information relating to ongoing investigations on the use of power sanctioned by the administration,
but only until the matter is resolved or six months have elapsed since the investigation began (Article
17(3));
information prepared or obtained by public legal advisors whose publication could reveal a legal
strategy, or information covered by legal privilege, but only as long as the legal process to which the
information relates is ongoing (Article 17(4));
personal information whose disclosure would constitute an invasion of privacy (Article 17(5)); and
information rendered secret by any other law (Article 17(6)).
Appeals
There are fairly rudimentary appeals provisions in the Peruvian RTI Law. Pursuant to Article 11(e), where
a request for information has been denied, or is deemed to have been denied due to the expiry of the
deadline for a response, an applicant may, if the public body is “subject to a higher department”, lodge
an appeal against the decision, presumably with that higher department. Article 11(f) provides that if the
appeal is denied, or if no response is forthcoming within ten working days, all administrative procedures
are considered to have been exhausted, paving the way for a legal appeal. It would be preferable if the law
required a response to be provided within ten days, but it may amount to more-or-less the same thing.
Apart from the above, which is a form of internal appeal, the RTI Law does not provide for an appeal to an
independent administrative body, such as an information commissioner or ombudsman.
Article 11(g) provides for a legal appeal, either pursuant to administrative law procedures or the constitutional
process of Habeas Data, 241 protected by Article 200(3) of the Constitution and also provided for by statute.
Sanctions and Protections
Pursuant to Article 4 of the RTI Law, public bodies are required to respect the provisions of the law. Offi cials
or public servants – that is, employees of public bodies but not private bodies covered by the law – who do
not follow the law will be sanctioned for “committing a major offense, possibly being criminally denounced”
in accordance with Article 377 of the Penal Code, providing for abuse of authority. This is reinforced by
Article 14, which provides that any responsible offi cial who ‘arbitrarily obstructs’ access to information,
responds incompletely to a request or hinders implementation of the law will be held liable in accordance
with Article 4.