| The Council of Europe’s Access Info Group (AIG), an independent group of experts created to monitor parties’ compliance with the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, also known as the Tromsø Convention, will publish its first baseline evaluation reports on 11 states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, the Republic of Moldova, Sweden, and Ukraine. |
The Convention on Access to Official Documents is still open for signature
Strasbourg, Jul. 8 (DPnet).– The Convention, in force since 1 December 2020, was the first binding international legal instrument to recognise to everyone the right to access official documents held by public authorities.
Contact: Jaime Rodriguez, tel. +33 6 89 99 50 42
The Treaty to put into force the Council's Convention on Access to Official Documents is open for signature by the member States and for accession by non-member States and by any international organisation. So far it has 15 ratifications: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, Moldova, Slovenia, Spain, Suecia, and Ukraine.
This Convention is the first binding international legal instrument to recognise a general right to access official documents held by public authorities. Transparency of public authorities is a key feature of good governance and an indicator of whether or not a society is genuinely democratic and pluralist. The right of access to official documents is also essential to the self-development of people and to the exercise of fundamental human rights. It also strengthens public authorities’ legitimacy in the eyes of the public, and its confidence in them.
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