Global RTI

Supplied by
Amitabh Thakur, President, National RTI Forum
In France, Article 14 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man called for access to information about the budget to be made freely available. The Conseil d’Etat found in April 2002 that the right of administrative documents is a fundamental right under Article 34 of the Constitution. The Law on Free Access to Administrative Documents (Law No. 78-753 of 17 July 1978) enables citizens to exercise a constitutional right to be informed of how tax money is spent and to hold the administration accountable. The law, however, exempts other branches and organs of the French state, including the parliamentary assemblies, State Audit Office and Conseil d’État, from providing access to documents. A nine member oversight body, the Commission on Access to Administrative Documents (CADA), supported by 10 rapporteurs and a nine person secretariat, meets fortnightly to review complaint.
In Germany, the Act to Regulate Access to Federal Government Information was adopted in June 2005 and went into force on 1 January 2006. There are extensive exemptions in the law. Drafts or notes are not included in the definition of official information. While in Japan, after a 20-year effort, the Law Concerning Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs was approved by the Diet in May 1999 and went into effect in April 2001. The law allows any individual or company, Japanese or foreign, to request administrative documents held by administrative agencies in electronic or printed form. There are six broad categories of exemptions. Exempted information can be disclosed by the head of the agency “when it is deemed that there is a particular public-interest need.” Appeals are referred by the agency to the Information Disclosure Review Board.
In South Africa, Section 32 of the South African Constitution of 1996 states that Everyone has the right of access to – (a) any information held by the state, and; (b) any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights. The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) was approved by Parliament in February 2000 and went into effect in March 2001 . It implements the constitutional right of access The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has been designated to oversee the functioning of the Act.
The UK has the Freedom of Information Act adopted in November 2000 and into effect in January 2005. The Act gives any person a right of access to information held by over 100,000 public bodies. The bodies are required to respond within 20 working days. The Official Secrets Act, which still includes provisions originally adopted in 1911, criminalizes the unauthorized release of government information relating to national security. It has been frequently used against government whistleblowers and the media for printing information relating to the security services. The Information Commission is the external appeals body.
Finally, in the USA, Congress enacted the Administrative Procedures Act in 1946, section 3 of which required that government bodies to publish information about their structures, powers and procedures. Following a long period of hearings and unsuccessful bills, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted in 1966 and went into effect in 1967. It has been substantially amended several times, most recently in 1996 by the Electronic Freedom of Information Act. There are nine categories of discretionary exemptions: national security, internal agency rules, information protected by other statutes, business information, inter and intra-agency memos, personal privacy, law enforcement records, financial institutions and oil wells data. Appeals of denials or complaints about extensive delays can be made internally to the agency concerned. The federal courts can review de novo (without respect to agency decision) and overturn agency decisions.