Colombia

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  • 29 July 2011

    Colombia: ATI Movement Rolls Out Draft FOI Bill

    By Michael Evans
    Director, Colombia Documentation Project, National Security Archive
    For more than two years, a coalition of transparency advocates in Colombia has been developing draft language for what might someday become the country’s first right to information law.
    The…

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  • 31 December 2010

    Andean Group Evaluating Freedom of Information

    The Andean Group of Freedom of Information (GALI) has begun a project to evaluate national legislation on freedom of expression and access to information.  
    GALI plans to identify the strengths and weaknesses freedom of expression of laws in each of…

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Text from the freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World, by David Banisar (updated July 2006)

The Constitution provides for a right of access to government records.(1) Article 74 states “Every person has a right to access to public documents except in cases established by law.” Article 15 provides a right of “habeas data” that allows individuals to access information about themselves held by public and private bodies. Article 78 regulates consumer product information, and Article 112 allows political parties the right of “access to official information and documentation”. Article 23 provides for the mechanism to demand information, “Every person has the right to present petitions to the authorities for the general or private interest and to secure their prompt resolution.”

The Constitutional Court has ruled in numerous cases on the fundamental right of information as an essential part of democracy.(2) The Court has also ruled in over 110 cases relating to habeas data since 1992.(3)

Colombia has a long history of freedom of information legislation. In 1888, the Code of Political and Municipal Organization allowed individuals to request documents held in government agencies and archives, unless release of these documents was specifically forbidden by another law.(4)

The Law Ordering the Publicity of Official Acts and Documents was adopted in 1985.(5) This law allows any person to examine the actual documents held by public agencies and to obtain copies, unless these documents are protected by the Constitution, another law, or for national defense or security considerations. Information requests must be processed in 10 days.

If a document request is denied, appeals can be made to an Administrative Tribunal.

The law also requires the publication of acts and rules. The Constitutional Court ruled in December 1999 that under the 1985 Act and a 1998 amendment, legislative acts would only be in force against individuals once they were published.(6)

The law seems little used. Access to information is more common under the constitutional right of Habeas Data than under the 1985 law. There are longstanding problems with implementation and enforcement.(7) A project of law to adopt a stronger law was introduced in 2004 and is current pending in the Congress.(8)

Under the General Law of Public Archives, after 30 years, all documents become public records except for those that contain confidential information or relate to national security.(9)

2004 freedominfo.org Global Survey Results – Colombia

NOTES

1. Constitution of Colombia, 1991, revised 2001.http://www.georgetown.edu/pdba/Constitutions/Colombia/col91.html

2. See Sentencia C-641/02, Sentencia T-216/04;Sentencia T-053/96.

See EPIC and Privacy International, Privacy and Human Rights 2004: Colombia.http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/

Alberto Donadio, Freedom of Information in Colombia, Access Reports, 16 February 1994.

Ley 57 de 1985 (Julio 5) Por la cual se ordena la publicidad de los actos y documentos oficiales.http://www.privacyinternational.org/countries/colombia/ley57-foi.doc

C-957, 1 December 1999.

Donadio, Id.

Proyecto de Ley 154 de 2004 Senado por medio de la cual se reglamenta el derecho a la Información.http://www.alfa-redi.org/privacidad/legislacion.shtml?x=5266

Ley 594 de 2000 (julio 14) por medio de la cual se dicta la Ley General de Archivos y se dictan otras disposiciones.

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News Archive

  • 7 October 2009

    Saber Mas: New Report on Access to Information in Latin America

    Open government advocates offer first-hand accounts of FOI promotion in Latin America
    Latin America’s leading open government advocates recently released a report, bringing together data from 17 countries and offering new findings on the status of freedom of information in…

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links

LEGAL DOCUMENTS

Constitution of Colombia, 1991, revised 2001

Law Ordering the Publicity of Official Acts and Documents

General Law of Public Archives

ORGANIZATIONS

Transparencia por Columbia


measuring openness

Freedom House, Freedom in the World, 2009
(On scale of 1-7, with 1 representing the highest level of freedom and 7, the lowest)

Political Rights: 3
Civil Liberties: 4
Status: Partly Free

Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity Report, 2008
Civil Society, Public Information and Media (rating 1-100):

71 (Moderate)

World Bank, Governance Matters, 2008
(Percentile rank - indicates rank of country among all countries in the world. 0 corresponds to lowest rank and 100 corresponds to highest rank.)

1) Voice and Accountability: 39.4
2) Political Instability and Violence: 8.1
3) Government Effectiveness: 60.5
4) Regulatory Quality: 59.4
5) Rule of Law: 37.8
6) Control of Corruption: 50.2

Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index, 2009
(Relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 10 - highly clean and 0 - highly corrupt.)

CPI Score: 3.7

Freedom House, Countries at the Crossroads 2005
(On scale of 1-7, with 1 representing the highest level of freedom and 7, the lowest)

Accountability/Public Voice: 5.02
Civil Liberties: 4.39
Rule of Law: 4.21
Anticorruption/Transparency: 3.88

"Sufficient transparency is lacking in public access to government information. Article 23 of the constitution guarantees the right to obtain information about the acts of the state. The government must reply to such petitions unless the information is classified for reasons of national security or for the confidentiality of judicial processes. Article 15 guarantees the right to know the personal information that data banks have collected about one. Legislative review takes place at some points of the budget-making process but is not comprehensive."

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2004
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor)

"The Constitution and laws permit public access to government information. The Constitution allows all persons to access public documents. The Administrative Code addresses the right to access public documents and the right to review government information. The Code also provides for the right to consult public documents and receive expedited copies, unless the information relates to defense or national security and could be used to intimidate or embarrass private citizens.

In 2003, the GOC launched the "Colombia Online" program, which focuses on transparency, efficiency, and clarity in government procurement practices. Increased Internet use helped create a climate of greater transparency by making public the terms of reference of bidding processes and eliminating onerous registration fees.

There were no prohibitive fees to access government information, and there were no reports of serious abuses of the public information system. However, small-scale graft, in which low-level officials insisted on bribes to speed up access to information, was a problem."