The Information Access Law as a Full Constitutional Citizenship Instrument

2022 ◽  
pp. 166-179
Author(s):  
Marcilio Barenco Correa de Mello

This chapter addresses the right of access to information, reinforced as a fundamental rule for citizens in the Brazilian constitutional norm of 1988, now regulated, more closely, from the enactment of the law on access to information in 2011. It represents an important legislative instrument of reinforcement of the principle of publicity, as well as the main infraconstitutional standard guaranteeing access to information. The requirement of a clear and transparent accountability environment by the public manager is a republican assumption of massive participation by society. This is because the right of access to information of a public nature provides a better control of public expenditures, while allowing, on the other hand, promotion of social control of a diffuse nature. It should be pointed out that, with greater knowledge of their own rights, the citizen goes through a faster inclusion process, either in the subjectivation of a minimal role of rights that he does not know, or in the clarification of his duties as a participant in the process of state maintenance.

Author(s):  
Marcilio Barenco Correa de Mello

This chapter addresses the right of access to information, reinforced as a fundamental rule for citizens in the Brazilian constitutional norm of 1988, now regulated, more closely, from the enactment of the law on access to information in 2011. It represents an important legislative instrument of reinforcement of the principle of publicity, as well as the main infraconstitutional standard guaranteeing access to information. The requirement of a clear and transparent accountability environment by the public manager is a republican assumption of massive participation by society. This is because the right of access to information of a public nature provides a better control of public expenditures, while allowing, on the other hand, promotion of social control of a diffuse nature. It should be pointed out that, with greater knowledge of their own rights, the citizen goes through a faster inclusion process, either in the subjectivation of a minimal role of rights that he does not know, or in the clarification of his duties as a participant in the process of state maintenance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianne Brito de Cal Athias ◽  
Gabriela Ohana Rocha Freire

A lei de acesso à informação e a tutela de improbidade administrativa   The information access law and the administrative improbity guarantee [1]Gabriela Ohana Rocha Freire* Arianne Brito de Cal Athias** REFERÊNCIA FREIRE, Gabriela Ohana Rocha; ATHIAS, Arianne Brito de Cal.  A lei de acesso à informação e a tutela de improbidade administrativa. Revista da Faculdade de Direito da UFRGS, Porto Alegre, n. 38, p. 154-177, ago. 2018. RESUMOABSTRACTA Constituição da República de 1988 assegura, no bojo do art. 5º, XVI, que o acesso à informação é um direito de todos, sendo resguardado o sigilo da fonte quando necessário ao exercício profissional. Ademais, a própria CF/88 institui por meio do seu art. 37 o princípio da publicidade como um elemento basilar para reger a Administração Pública. Nesse contexto, insurge a Lei 12.527/2011, conhecida como Lei de Acesso à Informação - LAI, reforçando o cumprimento do direito de acesso às informações, priorizando a ideia de Estado Democrático de Direito a fim de garantir a ampla transparência aos atos públicos. Como todo texto normativo, em caso de descumprimento de um direito, a LAI prevê apuração de possível ato de improbidade administrativa e a aplicação de medidas sancionatórias. Desta feita, o presente artigo digna-se a analisar a tutela de improbidade com fundamento nas Leis nº 12.527/2011 e 8.429/92, demonstrando se todo ato administrativo tido, em tese, como improbo será capaz de ensejar punição processual nas esferas administrativas e/ou judicial, partindo da observância dos critérios avaliativos para a concretização e/ou descaracterização do ato. The Republic Constitution from 1988 assures in the bulge of 5th art., XVI that the access to information is a everyone’s right, and the confidentiality of the source is protected when necessary for professional practice, in addition, the FC/88 itself establishes, through its art. 37, the publicity principle as a basic element to govern the Public Administration. In this context, it insures the Law 12,527/2011, known as the Access to Information Law- AIL, reinforcing compliance with the right of access to information, prioritizing the idea of a Democratic State of Law in order to guarantee the broad transparency of public acts. Like any normative text, in case of noncompliance of a right, the AIL provides for the clearance of possible administrative improbability and the application of sanctioning measures. As a result, this work aims to examine the guardianship of impropriety based on Laws no.12.527/2011 and 8.429/92, demonstrating whether any administrative act held in theory as improbable will be capable of inducing procedural punishment at the administrative and/or judicial sphere, starting from the observance of the evaluation criteria for concretization and/or de-characterization of the act. PALAVRAS-CHAVEKEYWORDSEstado Democrático de Direito. Lei de Acesso à Informação – 12.527/2011. Transparência. Improbidade Administrativa.  Lei 8.429/92.Democratic State. Access to Information Act – 12.527/2011. Transparency. Administrative Dishonesty. Law 8.429 / 92.* Mestranda em Direito pelo PPGD da Universidade Federal do Estado do Pará. Especialização em Direito Público pelo Centro Universitário do Estado do Pará. Membro da Comissão de Defesa dos Direitos do Consumidor da OAB/PA. Bacharel em Direito pela Universidade da Amazônia. Advogada.** Professora Adjunta III da Universidade Federal do Pará, cedida ao Ministério Público do Estado do Pará para exercer o cargo em comissão de Assessor do Procurador-Geral de Justiça. Professora Titular I da Universidade da Amazônia e Coordenadora Adjunta do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direitos Fundamentais (Mestrado). Professora da Faculdade Metropolitana da Amazônia. Doutora em Direito Administrativo pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (2007). Mestre em Direito pela Universidade da Amazônia (2001).


Author(s):  
Tsangadzaome Alexander Mukumba ◽  
Imraan Abdullah

The Regulation of Gatherings Act (RGA) places strict guidelines on how to exercise the right to protest, with particular emphasis on the submission of a notice of gathering to the responsible person within a municipality in terms of sections 2(4) and 3 of the Act. However, municipalities do not proactively make the notice of gathering templates available for public use (or may not have these at all), and often do not publicise the details of the designated responsible person. To test municipalities’ compliance with the RGA, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) enlisted the help of the South African History Archive (SAHA) to submit a series of Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) requests to every municipality in South Africa. PAIA requests were also submitted to the South African Police Service (SAPS) for records relating to public order policing. The initiative aimed to provide these templates and related documents to interested parties as an open source resource on the protestinfo.org.za website. The results of these efforts show that compliance with the RGA is uneven. This article explores the flaws in the regulatory environment that have led to this level of apathy within government, despite the crucial role of the right to protest and the right of access to information as enabling rights in our constitutional democracy. An analysis of the full PAIA request dataset shows the extent of government’s resistance to facilitating these enabling rights, and provides insights into remedial interventions. The article concludes with a series of recommendations, which centre on statutory reforms to the RGA and PAIA to ensure appropriate sanction for non-compliance by government, proactive disclosure of relevant information, and emergency provisions allowing curtailed procedural requirements. The intention of the proposed amendments is to minimise the possibility that these fundamental, enabling rights might be frustrated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-172
Author(s):  
Abdulkader Mohammed Yusuf

Information plays a vital role, both in terms of its importance for a democratic order and as a prerequisite for public participation. Many countries have made provisions for access to information in their respective constitutions. The FDRE Constitution explicitly provides that everyone has the right to seek and receive information. The Freedom of Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation –which entered into force in 2008– gives effect to this Constitutional guarantee. Moreover, the number of laws on different environmental issues is on the rise, and the same could be said of the multilateral environmental agreements that Ethiopia has ratified. Many of the laws incorporate the right of the public to access environmental information held by public bodies. Despite the existing legal framework, there are still notable barriers to access to environmental information. By analyzing the relevant laws, the aim of this article is to contribute to the dialogue on the constitutional right of access to information with particular emphasis on the legal framework on, and the barriers to, access to environmental information within the meaning of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Zureik

“Economic Corruption” is one of the most serious problems facing Lebanon, which led to an increase in the economic deficit and in the ratio of public debt. This phenomenon is due to historic, religious and favoritism reasons. This paper will address the issue of economic corruption in Lebanon based on historical facts and scientific data. This study suggests options to end economic corruption in Lebanon, which include "controlling the finances of associations and parties, adoption of the law of the right of access to information, activating the illicit enrichment law, election monitoring, adoption of the protection of whistleblowers corruption law, development of the judiciary, amendment of the central inspection law, amendment in the tax procedure code, amendment of the law of the audit bureau, strengthening financial decentralization, and the creation of e-government; in addition to the important role of youth and means of social media.


Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith

This chapter examines the role of taxation in the culture of contentment. In the age of contentment, macroeconomic policy has come to center not on tax policy but on monetary policy. Higher interest rates, it is hoped, will curb inflation without posing a threat to people of good fortune. Those with money to lend, the economically well-endowed rentier class, will thus be rewarded. The chapter first considers the role of monetary policy in the entirely plausible and powerfully adverse attitude toward taxation in the community of contentment before discussing the relationship between taxation and public services, and between taxation and public expenditures. It shows that public services and taxation have disparate effects on the Contented Electoral Majority on the one hand, and on the less affluent underclass on the other.


Author(s):  
John T. Cumbler

When James Olcott spoke before Connecticut farmers for “anti-stream pollution,” he urged the public to mobilize to stop water pollution by “ignorant or reckless capitalists.” In identifying the “ignorant and reckless capitalists,” Olcott focused the attention of the farmers on industrial waste and the role of manufacturers in their search for profits in causing pollution. Although manufacturers and the courts argued that industrialization brought wealth and prosperity to New England and hence was a general good, Olcott challenged this idea. He saw the issue as a conflict between industrialization and its costs on the one hand and the public good on the other. Concern over industrial pollution and the potential conflict between it and public health had already arisen in Massachusetts. Although the Massachusetts State Board of Health realized that the interests of the “capitalists” and those of the public health officials might be in conflict, in 1872 it hoped that with improved knowledge, “a way will be eventually found to joining them into harmonious relations,” much as Lyman believed science and technology would resolve the conflict between fishers and mill owners. The board's interest in “harmonious relations” also reflected a realization that at least for the last several years, the courts had seen pollution as an inevitable consequence of civilization and had been favorable toward industrialists, especially if no obvious alternative to dumping pollution existed. In 1866, William Merrifield sued Nathan Lombard because Lombard had dumped “Vitriol and other noxious substances” into the stream above Merrifield's factory, “corrupting” the water so badly that it destroyed his boiler. Chief Justice Bigelow ruled that Lombard had invaded Merrifield's rights. “Each riparian owner,” the judge wrote, “has the right to use the water for any reasonable and proper purpose. . . . An injury to the purity or quality of the water to the detriment of the other riparian owners, constitutes in legal effect, a wrong.” In 1872, Merrifield again went to court, claiming the City of Worcester regularly dumped sewage into Mill Brook, by which the waters became greatly corrupted and unfit to use.”


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 357
Author(s):  
Fatbardha Doçi

In Albania reality are made a lot of surveys to predict the result of elections. It is so important to have the exactly result of the election of another items to predict. A prestigious company has done the survey in Albania reality, but they have “Forgotten“ that the Albania reality is different from the reality, because they have used the same questionnaires in Albania reality.It is so important to have the right measurement and to have the reliability and the validity of the survey. So we have types of measurement and in my research I have used one of them. If we used the right measurement, we can have a small margin of error and the result of the surveys should be the reliability than the other cases. I have decided to make the survey in Albanian reality lot of survey in two different realities. One of them I have used two kinds of sample, when one of them is systematic sample and another is quota sample. A comparison between two surveys is made providing the same questionnaire (with delicate questions) in the same place and time. The only difference was in the last step of the sample: one of the surveys has made the interviews based on the quota (gender, group age), whereas the other has used the systematic schema (with step – door by door). The margin decided by this way included also the one produced by the used of the quota. The expectation was a determination of differences between answers by this distinction.


Author(s):  
Estela Mastromatteo

This contribution emphasizes that in order to achieve a real and sustainable human development in Latin America, and for this region to be part of the information society is extremely important to create conditions for a free access to information, education for everyone and  permanently, and a development in science and technology destined to serve society. Access to information and information technology are major promises in this era, but at the same time, become new forms of exclusion. In Latin America the two realities coexist. Is crucial in the solution, to rethink the ethics of information and values that underlie it, respect for human rights, the commitment of societies and our leaders. Highlights the role of libraries as mediators in the production process, organization and retrieval of information access, in safeguarding the freedom of information and the right to free expression through technology, with ethics and values into a real development in Latin America.


Author(s):  
Estela Mastromatteo

This contribution emphasizes that in order to achieve a real and sustainable human development in Latin America, and for this region to be part of the information society is extremely important to create conditions for a free access to information, education for everyone and  permanently, and a development in science and technology destined to serve society. Access to information and information technology are major promises in this era, but at the same time, become new forms of exclusion. In Latin America the two realities coexist. Is crucial in the solution, to rethink the ethics of information and values that underlie it, respect for human rights, the commitment of societies and our leaders. Highlights the role of libraries as mediators in the production process, organization and retrieval of information access, in safeguarding the freedom of information and the right to free expression through technology, with ethics and values into a real development in Latin America.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document