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PRESS RELEASE - INTERNATIONAL

23 August 2004

Commonwealth parliamentarians adopt recommendations that promote access to
information

SOURCE: ARTICLE 19, London

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - The following is a 20 August 2004 ARTICLE 19 press
release:

PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT

A group of Commonwealth parliamentarians meeting recently in Accra, Ghana,
adopted a very progressive set of Recommendations for Transparent Governance
(1).

A group of Commonwealth parliamentarians, meeting in July under the auspices
of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the World Bank Institute,
adopted a set of Recommendations for Transparent Governance. The
Recommendations address a wide range of important measures to be taken to
promote access to information and openness more generally. Some of the key
Recommendations include the following:

- States should adopt legislation providing for a right to access
information held by all public bodies, as well as for these bodies to
actively publish key categories of information.
- Effective systems of record management should be put in place to ensure
that the right of access may be implemented properly.
- Public education campaigns should be undertaken to ensure wide public
awareness of the legislation.
- The whole regime should be overseen by an independent body.

The Recommendations also foresee an important role for parliament, including
passing the legislation, and overseeing its implementation and the
operations of the independent body. They also call for concrete measures to
promote parliamentary openness, including by establishing a strong
presumption that all parliamentary committee meetings are open to the
public.

1. The Memorandum is available on the ARTICLE 19 website at:
http://www.article19.org/docimages/1829.doc.

For further information, contact Toby Mendel, Law Programme Director, tel:
+902 431 3688, e-mail [email protected], or ARTICLE 19, 33 Islington High
St., London N19LH, U.K., tel: +44 207 278 9292, fax: +44 207 713 1356,
e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.article19.org

The information contained in this press release is the sole responsibility
of ARTICLE 19. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please
credit ARTICLE 19.
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