Today, 24th of June, the Permanent Representative of Armenia – Ambassador Paruyr Hovhannisyan, in the office of Mrs Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe and in her presence has signed the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents.
The Council of Europe opened the Convention on Access to Official Documents for signature in 2009. It is the first binding international legal instrument to recognise a general right of access to official documents held by public authorities. As of today, the Convention has been signed by 18 states, including Armenia, and ratified by nine out of them. However, it has not yet entered into force. For this to become a reality, ten ratifications are needed. Therefore, as soon as one more signatory state ratifies the Convention, the document will enter into force, i.e. will become binding on those ten states that have ratified it.
This Convention is based on the principle that transparency of public authorities is a key feature of good governance and an indicator of whether or not a society is genuinely democratic and pluralist. The right of access to official documents is also essential to the self-development of people and to the exercise of fundamental human rights. It also strengthens public authorities’ legitimacy in the eyes of the public, and its confidence in them.
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This Convention lays down a right of access to official documents. Limitations on this right are only permitted in order to protect certain interests like national security, defence or privacy. The Convention sets forth the minimum standards to be applied in the processing of requests for access to official documents (forms of and charges for access to official documents), review procedure and complementary measures and it has the flexibility required to allow national laws to build on this foundation and provide even greater access to official documents.
Photo credit: Council of Europe