African Development Bank: The African Development Bank has called for nominations of suitably qualified individuals to serve on the Appeals Panel created by its disclosure policy. The call has been extended until Jan. 31. “The candidates should have extensive experience dealing with issues of governance, transparency, access to information and related-matters. They should have a good working knowledge of freedom of information policies from a national, regional or international perspective, a good understanding of the functioning of multilateral development finance institutions, and independent judgment and demonstrated integrity. Preference will be given to candidates who are fluent in either English or French, with a good working knowledge of the other language. African experience will also be considered favorably during the evaluation process. Citizenship of a member state of the African Development Bank is mandatory. Successful candidates will be appointed by the President of the Bank Group, in consultation with the Boards of Directors, to serve on a case-by-case basis for a two-year term renewable once. Nominations should be addressed to Ms. Cecilia Akintomide, Vice President Secretary General, African Development Bank. E-mail: c.akintomide@afdb.org and cc: dai@afdb.org, There is an FAQ for the panel nominations.
European Union: Maarten Hillebrandt, Deirdre Curtin and Albert Meijer have just published an article on Transparency in the EU Council of Ministers in the European Law Journal. The article is available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eulj.2014.20.issue-1/issuetoc
Abstract
The development of access to documents and open meetings provisions by the Council of Ministers of the European Union shows an interesting pattern: before 1992 no formal transparency provisions existed, between 1992 and 2006 formal transparency provisions dramatically increased, and since 2006 this increase has come to a halt. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of these shifts by conducting a historical institutional analysis of policy change. As explanatory factors, we consider the preferences and power resources of Member States, as well as external catalysts and social structures. We conclude that the current revision deadlock is more stable than the situation before 1992 because now the pro-transparency coalition and transparency-sceptic Council majority have entrenched their positions. Nevertheless, and in spite of Council entrenchment, we expect that Council transparency will continue to develop in the longer term, under the pressure of increasingly influential outside actors, particularly the European Parliament.
Kurdistan: The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have prepared a Note analyzing the Right to Access Information Law, No. 11 of 2013, adopted recently by the government of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Law is a relatively progressive piece of legislation, garnering 98 points out of a possible 150 on the RTI Rating (www.RTI-Rating.org), which would put it in 28th place globally out of 95 countries.
Commentary: Stephen Wells, executive director of the US Animal Legal Defense Fund writes in the Huffington Post on “How Freedom of Information Can Protect Animals.”
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