The Right of Access to Information in Cyprus Project

The democratic ideal has moved beyond mere procedural democracy. International standards recognised access to information as a key right to fully enjoydemocratic values and civil liberties. Further, a great number of national and international courts have confirmed that access to information is a fundamental human right because access to information held by public bodies is an inherent part of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, both of which protect freedom of speech.

In 2009 the European Court of Human Rights recognised that there is a fundamental right of access to information protected by Article 10 on Freedom of Expression of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court ruled that to deny a right to access information would violate Article 10 in cases where public bodies have an information monopoly on documents that are indispensable for the media and civil society organizations to participate in public debate and hold governments accountable.

In the European region, clear standards for access to information laws have been established by the Council of Europe, which is the major European human rights promotion institution. The Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (2009) is now open for signature and ratification. The Convention establishes a framework for all 47 members of the Council of Europe, which includes current European Union members and candidate states.

The right of access to information (or documents) has also been recognized as a stand-alone right in the Constitutions of at least 51 countries around the world (for more information, see www.Right2Info.org).

The right of access to information is also endorsed by an increasing number of international bodies and supranational bodies. In Europe the right of access to documents is enshrined at Article 15 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and the EU has a legal framework for access to documents held by all institutions and agencies, Regulation 1049/2001. Similarly, global institutions such as the World Bank have adopted access to information policies to disclose documents they hold.

In sum, many governments and public institutions around the world accept today that the right of access to information is a fundamental right because it is a precondition for public debate and transparency, all of which are key values for twenty-first century democracies.