Centre for Law and Democracy

The Centre for Law and Democracy has published its analysis of the draft Kenyan Freedom of Information Bill. The draft Bill was prepared following a wide stakeholder consultation in November 2011, and it represents a harmonised version of earlier government and civil society drafts. It is hoped that the current process will finally bring to fruition the long-standing campaign for right to information legislation in Kenya
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The Centre for Law and Democracy is very pleased to note that the Burmese government has just announced that it is freeing 691 prisoners in a general amnesty, including a large number of high profile dissidents. Although this is a positive development, it is important to note that up to 1500 political prisoners remain in jail in Burma.
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In recent years, the openness of international financial institutions (IFIs) has improved considerably. An ongoing problem area, however, is the overbroad regimes of exceptions in IFI transparency policies and, in particular, the exceptions relating to internal deliberations and third-party commercial information. A new report by CLD – Openness Policies of the International Financial Institutions: Failing to Make the Grade with Exceptions – examines how these exceptions are dealt with at the national level, contrasting that with the much more secretive approach of the IFIs.
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Although the human rights situation in Iraq improved in the aftermath of the removal of Saddam Hussein, recent years have witnessed a troubling erosion of the fundamental freedoms which the new constitution was meant to have established. This report examines five pieces of legislation (one of which has already been passed) which have the potential to negatively impact freedom of expression and the right to assembly, and contrasts the restrictions and regulations contained therein with constitutional and international human rights standards. CLD hopes that this report will bring attention to the problems with these laws, particularly with regards to the legislative proposals that are still up for debate.
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As part of the continuing consultation process over Cambodia’s proposed Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO law) CLD and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) have drafted an open letter to senior officials in the Cambodian government. CLD and LRWC note that this newest version of the law, the fourth such draft, includes some improvements. However, the law as currently proposed still violates the fundamental right of freedom of association, and contains problematic provisions, particularly surrounding registration requirements. This letter, like its predecessors, offers substantive critiques of the proposed law. We hope its recipients in the Cambodian government will take heed of these problems before the proposal is passed into law.

Click here to read the Open Letter

An international conference hosted by the Centre for Law and Democracy and Yayasan SET called on the Indonesian government to drop its long-standing initiative to adopt a secrecy law. In the one-day meeting on 5 December 2011, several speakers noted that Law No. 14 of 2008 on Public Information Disclosure already provided sufficient protection to legitimate confidentiality interests.
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The Open Government Partnership, a global transparency initiative jointly sponsored by US President Obama and Brazilian President Rousseff, must significantly improve its internal access to information policy to meet the standards it is advancing according to an analysis by CLD and Access Info Europe.
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Having previously commented on the need for the Cambodian government to reconsider passage of their draft Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations, the Centre for Law and Democracy welcomed news that the Ministry of the Interior is inviting representatives of civil society to present comments on its newest (fourth) draft of the Law.
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The Centre for Law and Democracy today published its analysis of a draft Sri Lankan Freedom of Information Act. The draft Act was prepared by UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya, an opposition Member of Parliament. Mr. Jayasuriya has been trying for some time, so far without success, to have this Bill introduced into Parliament. Although the draft Act is unlikely to move forward, it has generated important debate in Sri Lanka about this key human rights issue and will be discussed at a National Seminar on the right to information to be held on 18 November 2011.
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The Centre for Law and Democracy and the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe brought together a range of groups working on different issues in Bvumba, Zimbabwe on November 10 to discuss a broad-based campaign on the right to information. The groups – working on issues such as HIV-AIDs, the disabled, media freedom, faith-based groups and economic rights – agreed to work together to build a strong network of support for law reform in this area.
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The Centre for Law and Democracy today published its analysis of a draft Afghan Access to Information Law. The draft Law was created from two previous drafts, one prepared by civil society and one by government. The aim is to present a consensus version in the hope that this will help ensure that it becomes a legislative priority.
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The Centre for Law and Democracy today released Version 2 of a Commentary on the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, providing a detailed analysis of the implications of a range of fundamental human rights for the Internet. The Charter itself was prepared by the Internet Rights and Principles Coalition, which in turn arose out of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a tri-partite gathering bringing together civil society, governments and the commercial sector to discuss regulatory issues relating to the Internet.
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A legal analysis of the cases of five Burmese video-journalists, who remain in prison despite the release of some 200 political prisoners by the Burmese government, discloses flagrant breaches of human rights. The Note, by the Centre for Law and Democracy, found widespread abuses of the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom from torture. The violations result from both the Burmese government’s abusive application of laws that restrict freedom of expression, and their capricious application of broader legislation to target political opponents.
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The largest global monitoring of the right of access to information in practice, the Ask Your Government! 6 Question Campaign has found widespread violations of the right to information with only 1 in 4 requests resulting in provision of full information.
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On International Right to Know Day, the Centre for Law and Democracy, in cooperation with Access Info Europe, are launching the first detailed analysis of the legal framework for the right to information (RTI) in 89 countries around the world.

Click here to access our project website, including an interactive map displaying the state of RTI in the world.

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The Centre for Law and Democracy and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada have co-authored an open letter to the Cambodian government urging them to reconsider passage of their draft Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations. The letter points out that the law in its current form violates international standards and serves to undermine the fundamental right of freedom of association. By imposing unduly broad and onerous requirements on all NGOs, the law has serious potential for abuse and is a particularly troubling development within the context of recent reports of administrative and judicial harassment of government critics in Cambodia.

The draft Model Law for African Union Member States is being prepared by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, in partnership with the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is calling for feedback on the draft Model Law and CLD, in partnership with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), prepared these comments on it.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is currently holding consultations with interested stakeholders regarding the ongoing review of its 2005 access to information policy. As part that process, a new draft policy, the African Development Bank Group Policy on Disclosure and Access to Information, was posted on the Bank’s website in June 2001. The Global Transparency Initiative (GTI) is a global network of civil society organisations, which includes CLD, and which advocates for greater transparency at the international financial institutions (IFIs). GTI has provided these Comments. As the Comments make clear, the new draft is a significant advance over the existing policy, but still fall far short of better practice by other IFIs and certainly the GTI’s own standards, as set out in the Transparency Charter for International Financial Institutions: Claiming our Right to Know.

The parliament of Kazakhstan is preparing a right to information law, following on from years of discussion about this important issue. These Comments by CLD analyse the most recent draft, noting that it has a number of important positive features, but also highlighting some significant shortcomings, such as the lack of an oversight body and an overbroad regime of exceptions (link to draft law).

Click here for a powerpoint version of the Comments

Almost 90 countries around the world have enacted access to information (ATI) legislation, and in many of these countries, reforms and amendments are either being considered or have been passed. However, even minor adjustments to the legal framework around ATI laws can have substantial impact on how the law is implemented and used.

While access to information laws are increasingly a key subject of studies on governance reforms, within the literature there has been less emphasis placed on the impact of amendments to ATI laws and little analysis done to understand the processes that propelled such reforms forward.

Targeted for practitioners working in governance and transparency issues and as part of its Governance Working Paper series, the World Bank Institute has recently published Amending Access to Information Legislation: Legal and Political Issues by Toby Mendel, Executive Director of Centre for Law and Democracy.

The working paper looks at the main substantive issues ATI reform attempts have targeted and what legal forms they may take. It also examines the role different actors—civil society, the media, oversight bodies, parliaments, and political leaders—can play in helping support the adoption of reforms that promote openness and defeat those that erect barriers.