Brazil
What's New
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14 May 2012
Access to Public Information in Brazil: What Will Change With Law No. 12.527/2011?
By Marcelo Sarkis
Sarkis is a lawyer, Institutional and Governmental Affairs at ALCÂNTARA&HOLSTAD International Consultancy, Brasília – Brazil. www.alcantaraholstad.com
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to… -
17 February 2012
OGP and Brazil: Question About Consultation and Participation
By Greg Michener
This article first appeared in Michener’s blog: http://observingbrazil.com/
As co-chair of the Open Government Partnership, in a very few months Brazil will play host to a meeting among more than 50 countries participating in an unprecedented global initiative: a…
The Access to Information Bill in Brazil is a result of a six years advocacy campaign of civil groups and organizations. The initiative was spearheaded by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalists (Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo) which organized the First International Seminar on the Right to Access Public Information in September 2003. A number of media and journalist organizations took part in the event, among which the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Transparência Brasil, ANJ (Associação Nacional de Jornais ) and Fenaj (Federação Nacional dos Jornalistas ). The initiative resulted in the establishment of a coalition of organizations dedicated to the promotion of the right of access to information and the adoption of the respective legislation to guarantee it – the Brazilian Forum for the Right of Access to Public Information.
The initial number of organizations in the Forum was 18. Currently, there are 23 organizations in the coalition.
At the proposal of Transparência Brasil, in 2005 the Public Transparency and Corruption Combat Council, a body to the the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), formed a Work Group to make an analysis of legal and administrative regulations with the purpose of drafting an access to information bill.
The Work Group consisted of representative of the CGU juridical department, the Federal Public Ministry, the External Relations Ministry, the Association of Brazilian Nongovernmental Organizations (ABONG), the Brazilian Association of the Press (ABI), and Transparência Brasil. The activity of Transparência Brasil was essential for keeping the public debate alive and urging the government to act on the drafted bill.
In 2006, the draft bill was sent to the Council and to the CGU. According to the draft law, public bodies should actively provide to citizens information and documents, and also have a 30 days time period to answer any information request. The answer should include date, place and procedure to access the document asked. In case of total or partial refusal, government should state the reasons. And, there were the possibility of appeal after the refusal.
During the 2006 presidential campaigns, the Brazilian Forum for the Right of Access to Public Information sent a letter to the President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and to the other presidential candidates, asking the access of information draft bill to be sent to the National Congress in 2007. The coalition also demanded the active publication of information about budget and finances of public administration agencies in the Internet and the introduction of proper procedures for records management.
Although President Lula had put the passing of FOI legislation in his electoral campaign, it took him three years after his inauguration for a second mandate to send the access information bill to the National Congress. During that period, civil society groups and professional organizations joined efforts against government regulations for classification of documents.
In the end of 2007, the Brazilian Board of Lawyers filed a direct action of unconstitutionality to the Federal Supreme Court against provisions of the National Archive Policy Law (8.159/91) and the Documents Classification Law (11.111/05), which allowed for uncontrolled classification of documents.[1]
In the beginning of 2008, the Attorney General’s Office also wrote a direct action of unconstitutionality against those laws, arguing that they allow for the unlimited extension of the period of time archives should remain secret. The Forum published an official statement to support the action.
In December 2008, the media undertook the campaign for sending the access to information bill to the National Congress.
In April 2009, the Forum organized the Second International Seminar on the Right of Access to Public Information. The event gathered experts from United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, as well as government representatives. In the opening ceremony, the chief of staff to President Lula (officially the Minister of the Casa Civil in the Presidency), Dilma Rousseff, said the access of information bill would be sent to the National Congress before the end of April. The proposed legal text would obligate ministries to disclose information on secret archives. The agencies should also state the reasons for classification and make a list of documents subject to declassification. According to the project, there would be a reduction of the period of time files remain secret. The ministry also declared that the new law would not allow the secrecy in matters of human right violation.
On May 13, 2009, the president sent the access of information bill to the National Congress.
Although the bill is a big step forward to guaranteeing the right of access to information in Brazil, FOI advocates warn about the lack of measures for the creation of an independent body to oversee implementation or agency compliance with the law.
The other government initiative for opening to the public was the launch of a website with the secret records from the Brazil’s dictatorship (1964-1985). The National Archive launched the website Memrias Reveladas (Memories Revealed) on May 13, 2009.
[1] Brazilian Forum for the Right of Access to Public Information
