2004 freedominfo.org Global Survey Results - Armenia
Text from the freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World, by David Banisar (updated 12 May 2004)

The Parliament unanimously approved the Law on Freedom of Information on September 23, 2003. (1) It has not yet gone into effect due to government plans to replace it and political instability in the country.

The law allows any citizen to demand information from state and local bodies, state offices, organizations financed by the state budget, private organizations of public importance and state officials. Bodies must normally provide the information in five days. Oral requests are required to be responded to immediately.

There are mandatory exemptions for information that contains state, official bank or trade secrets, infringes the privacy of a person, contains pre-investigative data, discloses data that needs to be protected for a professional activity such as privilege, or infringes copyright or intellectual property rights. Information cannot be withheld if it involves urgent cases that threaten public security and health or national disasters and their aftermaths, presents the overall economic, environmental, health trade and culture situation of Armenia, or if withholding the information will have a negative impact on the implementation of state programs related to socio-economic, scientific, spiritual and cultural development.

Appeals can be made to the Human Rights Ombudsman which has just been set up or a court.

Public bodies must appoint an official responsible for the law. They must also publish information yearly relating to the activities and services, budget, forms, lists of personnel (including education and salary), recruitment procedures, lists of information, program of public events, and information on the use of the Act. If the body has a web site, then they must publish the information on the site.

The Law on State and Official Secrets sets rules on the classification and protection of information relating to military and foreign relations. (2)

Armenia signed the Aarhus Convention in June 1998 and ratified it in August 2001. (3)

Notes

1. Law on Freedom of Information. http://ija.hetq.am/en/f-bill.html

2. Law on State and Official Secrets. 1996. http://www.internews.am/legislation/russian/laws2001-arm/gaxtniq.zip (in Armenian)

3. See Regional Environmental Centre, Doors to Democracy, Current Trends and Practices in Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking in the Newly Independent States, June 1998. http://www.rec.org/REC/Publications/PPDoors/NIS/cover.html