Ramallah – 11th February 2014: A new Access to Information law draft is now published on the Council of Ministers and the Anti-Corruption Commission’s WebPages for public discussion “to gather any proposals that can enrich and develop the law to meet the aspirations of all segments of the Palestinian society”, a notion welcomed by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) because itconfirms the government’s desire to enrich the draft through Public participation.
Mousa Rimawi the general director of MADA stated that this notion indicated a firm desire by the Palestinian government to approve the law in Palestine, which is consistent with the global trend to enact laws that entrench Human’s right to knowledge, which leads to effective participation by citizens in public life, and enhances transparency and integrity.
Today there are 100 countries worldwide that enacted an access to information law, most recently were Bhutan, the Maldives, and the Ivory Coast according to sources by the international network of advocates for freedom of information, which points to the attention of governments in different continents to the human's right to knowledge, and are enforcing it in laws that guarantee citizens access to information by specific measures, yet only three Arab countries has enacted such law, and they are Jordan, Yemen and Tunisia. The Republic of Malawi and the Philippines are witnessing actions by activists who defend this human right opening the way for the adoption of an access to information law in their countries.
Palestine as well has witnessed groundbreaking actions specially by MADA, where we drafted a new Access to Information Law in partnership with The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed ForcesDCAF, after conducting a study, followed by a broad discussion through meetings, workshops, and a national conferenceon 9th October 2012, in which journalists, civil society organizations, governmental institutions representatives, local and international experts have participated.MADA formed a legal committee to draft a law that meets with international standards. The law drafted was based onthe draft submitted to the Legislative Council in 2005, and theytook into consideration the national conference recommendations, the study prepared by MADA portraying the reality of access to information in Palestine, the recommendations offered by journalists who participated in the workshops throughout the year in the West Bankand Gaza Strip, the AMAN (NGO) amendments, and a study byInternews.
MADA in partnership and DCAF held another conference to discuss the new draft access to information law, on Sunday 16th December 2012 in Ramallah city. Legal and human rights activists, representatives of civil society organizations, security officers, and international experts all praised the right of access to information draft law, compiled by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), and confirmed its compatibility with international standards on the right to access to information.
MADA also had officially handed a memo to the Legal Affairs Department in the Council of Ministers. The memo demanded for the inclusion of the draft law in the 2013 legislative plan. The head of the department Mr. Fawaz Abu Zir promised MADA to include the law on the legislative plan agenda.
On 5 December 2012, MADA launched a campaign “Information is power”to promote the new draft and the importance of the law. MADA Media Campaign has drawn attention of the Media outlets and Palestinian society. The campaign included visits to Ministries and government official’s offices to promote the law and gather supporters among politicians and government officials. MADA has met with both the Former Prime minister Dr. Salam Fayyad and the new Prime Minister Dr.Rami Alhamd Allah.
Then a committee was formed by General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers and the Anti-Corruption Commission to review the draft law, which included representatives from the different Ministers and government bodies, the Civil Commission to strengthen the independence of the judiciary (Istiqlal), and a representative of the Palestinian Center for Development and Freedoms Media (MADA), and it held its first meeting on the fourth of November, followed by a series of intensive meetings to complete the new draft. A new enriched draft of the Right to Information law was produced “based particularly on the law drafted by MADA”, after extensive discussions over weeks by the committee, which was then delivered by Mr. Rafik Natsheh head of the Anti-Corruption Commission to the Prime Minister, Dr. Rami Alhamd Allah in late December 2013.
MADA calls all Palestinian citizens, journalists, and civil society organizations to actively participate in the discussion of the draft to enrich and develop it, and we hope the law will be enacted in the first half of this year so that all segments of society can exercise their right to know, which will contribute effectively to the promotion of freedom of expression in Palestine.
You can find the draft on the Anti-Corruption Commission site
http://www.pacc.pna.ps/ar/cp/plugins/spaw/uploads/files/LawRightAccessInformation.pdf
Or the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers site
http://www.palestinecabinet.gov.ps/ar/Views/PageView.aspx?pid=1358
