The World Bank Institute has issued three working papers on Freedom of Information topics.
Proactive Transparency: The future of the right to information? A review of standards, challenges, and opportunities, by Helen Darbishire, Access Info Europe
- This paper on “proactive disclosure” of information (disclosure of information by public bodies without request by the public) highlights its benefits, key drivers, and emerging standards. Lessons and recommendations on how the disclosed information should be organized and published for it to be truly useful for the public are described in detail.
Access to Public Information and Citizen Participation in Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI): Guide to Good Practices, by Ezequiel Nino, Argentina’s Asociacion por la Igualdad y la Justicia (Association for Equality and Justice)
- Given its important role, there are increasing demands for SAIs to promote ATI, transparency, and citizen participation mechanisms into the work they carry out. This paper describes various practices and provides examples of such efforts in Latin America.
Access to Information and Transparency in the Judiciary: A Guide to Good Practices from Latin America, by Alvaro Herrero and Gaspar Lopez, Argentina’s Asociacion por los Derechos Civiles (ADC, Association for Civil Rights)
While acknowledging the importance of the Judiciary’s independence, this paper highlights its connections between transparency, citizen participation and accountability within the Judiciary (including the relationship with other actors such as civil society and the media). It provides examples of practices and experiences in the administrative and jurisdictional operations of the Judiciary in Latin America.
FOIAnet Picks New Board
A new Steering Committee for the FOIAnet has been elected, it was announced July 26, 2010.
A new chair has not yet been decided because of a tie between the two top candidates, Toby Mendel and Eduardo Bertoni. The first meeting of the FOIAnet will be via conference call in September when the committee will elect a new chair and share their ideas for the developent of the FOIAnet.
The new committee members are:
Eduardo Bertoni, Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, Argentina
Toby Mendel, Centre for Law and Democracy, Canada
Gergana Jouleva, Access to Information Programme, Bulgaria
Andrea Figari, Transparency International, Germany
Emilene Martínez, MoralesNational Security Archive, Mexico
Codru Vrabie, Advocacy Academy, Romania
Shushan Doydoyan, Freedom of Information Center of Armenia, Armenia
Filed under: What's New