The
Information
Act (Upplysingalög) governs the release of records
held by state and municipal administrations and private
parties exercising state power that affects individual rights
or obligations.(1)
The Act was adopted in 1996 and went into effect in 1997.
Under the Act, individuals, including nonresidents, and
legal entities, have a legal right to documents and other
materials without having to show a reason why they are asking
for these documents. Government bodies must explain in writing
if they have not processed a request in seven days.
•
Undernourished people (% of total population),
2000/03: N/A
•
Population with sustainable access to an improved
water source (%), 2002: 100
Source:
UN Development Program, Human Development Reports
Data
Exempted
from the Act are materials relating to meetings of the Council
of State and the Cabinet, memoranda recorded at ministerial
meetings and documents which have been prepared for such
meetings, correspondence prepared for court proceedings,
working documents before a final decision is made, and applications
for employment. The Act also does not apply to registrations,
enforcement proceedings, property attachments, injunctions,
sales in execution, moratoria on debts, compositions, liquidations,
divisions of estates at death and other official divisions,
investigations or prosecutions in criminal cases, information
under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Personal
Data Act, and cases where other provisions are made in international
agreements to which Iceland is a party. Access to this information
is available once the measures are complete or after a period
of 30 years (80 years for personal information).
Information
about a person's private life or important financial or
commercial interests of enterprises or other legal persons
is withheld unless the person gives permission. Information
relating to security or defense of the state, relations
with other countries, commercial activities by state bodies
and measures by state bodies that "would be rendered
meaningless or would not produce their intended result if
they were known to the general public" prior to the
measures being conducted can be withheld if there are "important
public interests". Copyrighted material can be released
with the provision that those obtaining them must respect
copyright rules.
Denials
can be appealed to the Information
Committee which rules on the disputes.(2)
Government bodies are required to comply with the decisions
but can appeal to the courts. The Committee made 139 rulings
between 1997 and 2001.(3)
A
working group is currently reviewing laws on institutions
such as Statistics Iceland and the Meteorological Office
to revise them to allow for database access to implement
the EU Directive on the re-use and commercial exploitation
of public sector information (2003/98/EC).(4)
The
Council of Europe GRECO anti-corruption committee review
of Iceland in 2003 found a high level of transparency:
Generally,
the GET's review of relevant laws, standards, policies,
and practices, as well as discussions with public officials
and representatives of civil society, relating to pertinent
issues of public administration, established that the
systems in place have a high degree of safeguards to ensure
integrity and in particular, transparency. The Information
Act and the policy on egovernance facilitate appropriate
access to public information. Iceland should be commended
for that.(5)
Individuals
can obtain records that contain their personal information
from public and private bodies under the Personal
Data Act.(6) The Act is enforced by
the Persónyvernd
(Data Protection Authority).(7)
The
Criminal Code provides for of up to sixteen years imprisonment
for disclosing "secret agreements, contemplations or
resolutions of the State relating to matters on which its
fortune or rights against other States depend or which are
of major financial or commercial importance for the Icelandic
nation" and up to ten years for military secrets.(8)
Iceland
signed the Aarhus Convention in June 1998 but has not ratified
it. Access to environmental information is available under
the Act on Public Access to Environmental Information.(9)
The Minister of the Environment is also obliged to publish
information.
Under
the Act
on the National Archives of Iceland, files are transferred
to the archives after 30 years.(10) Access
to archives is under the Information Act and denials can
be appealed to the Information Committee.
3.
Council of Europe, Responses to the Questionnaire on
National Practices in Terms of Access to Official Documents
- Iceland, Sem-AC(2002)002 Bil, 18 November 2002, p.157.
4.
Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information, Update
on current status of Implementation in European Union member-states,
4 January 2005.
5.
Second Evaluation Round - Evaluation Report on Iceland.
Adopted by GRECO at its 19 th Plenary Meeting (Strasbourg,
28 June - 2 July 2004). Greco Eval II Rep (2003) 7E
1)
Voice and Accountability: 1.41
2) Political Instability and Violence: 1.77
3) Government Effectiveness: 2.18
4) Regulatory Burden: 1.82
5) Rule of Law: 2.01
6) Control of Corruption: 2.43
