scholarly journals The Legal Framework and Barriers to Access to Environmental Information in Ethiopia

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):  
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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1029-1051
Author(s):  
Rashri Baboolal-Frank ◽  
Fola Adeleke

Abstract In South Africa, the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA) gives effect to the right of access information in Section 32 of the South African Constitution (the Constitution). Section 7 of PAIA provides that PAIA does not apply to records required for criminal or civil proceedings after commencement of proceedings where access to that record is already provided for in any other law. Where records are obtained in contravention of Section 7, they are not admissible as evidence in criminal or civil proceedings. The aim of this paper is to determine whether the discovery rules of Court limit the constitutional right of everyone to access information. Consequently, the methodology employed in this paper involves a legal analysis namely: a limitations analysis utilising Section 36, the limitations clause of the Constitution. This paper further engages in case law analysis interpreting the exercise of the right of access to information before PAIA was passed and after PAIA was passed to highlight the anomaly of the application of Section 7. This paper argues that Section 7 unconstitutionally limits the ambit of the right of access to information and a direct constitutional challenge on this provision is necessary.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Whittaker

AbstractThis article analyzes the potential for legal transplant theory to strengthen the legal regimes that guarantee the right of access to environmental information in England and China. Guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, the right has a substantial impact on how individuals can act as environmental stewards. However, despite the framework provided by the Aarhus Convention, there are shortcomings in how these states guarantee the right when compared with the obligations set by the provisions of the Convention. The article applies Alan Watson’s legal transplant theory to the environmental information regimes in England and China and considers the likelihood of each jurisdiction sourcing legal reforms from the other. It also seeks to identify common trends shared by each jurisdiction and the impact of the Aarhus Convention on such transplants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (91) ◽  
pp. 116-122
Author(s):  
E. D. Makritskaia ◽  

The study analyzed some provisions of the Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters directly related to the right to access to environmental information (in particular, articles 4 and 5 of the Convention, which regulate directly access to environmental information and the collection and dissemination of environmental information, respectively). The components of this right have been studied and described, as well as the main legal terms relating to the law in the text of the Aarhus Convention, such as “environmental information”, “as short as possible”. The work also analyzed and identified those types of information that, based on the provisions of the Convention, relating to environmental information. The paper provides examples of the impact of the Aarhus Convention on the national legislation of some States, as well as a mechanism for implementing the right of access to environmental information in the Republic of Belarus. Based on the study, general provisions on the right of access to environmental information are described, as well as the fact that the language of the Aarhus Convention is widely used in the legislation of States parties to the convention, and the right of access to environmental information itself is integral and multidimensional.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-104
Author(s):  
Meera Mathew

People's right to know, to hold opinions, right to access, to seek and receive information, as well as to disseminate and impart ideas, despite frontiers, are protected under all democratic nations' constitutional right of freedom of expression. This duty to inform and disseminate news is undoubtedly the responsibility vested with media as the fourth estate and as a watchdog thereby enabling it to exert due checks and monitors on the working of the nation. By this, it mandates a strong, independent and adequately resourced media to operate in order to serve the general public interest and to place and keep up high standards of journalism. With the changing notions of media and with the prevalence of social media and interactive entertainment platforms, where users write the content, edit the same and disseminate it to the public, the question arises if social media does indeed actually function as ‘media’ as envisioned by our constitutional drafters. Disseminating information accurately to the public is a sacrosanct duty and if such a duty gets affected, the edifice of democracy is devastated. From the traditional media having reliance on what had been circulated, it moved to a system where the ordinary citizen has the capability to manage media technologies and notify own stories creating trends more for a business purpose. This change as named as media-morphosis has also crushed the right to be informed accurately. Against this backdrop, this article addresses the rising frequency of disinformation ‒ occasionally indicated as ‘misinformation’ or ‘fake news’ in social media, inflamed by both states and non-state stakeholders, plus the diverse issues to which they perhaps are a causative part or key source. It also critically evaluates the obligation states have to enable a conducive environment for freedom of expression that comprise encouraging and defending diverse media however, simultaneously, to curtail any sort of misinformation being disseminated to its people. As is evident from the title of this article, the jurisprudential aspects of freedom of information vis-a-vis the freedom to disseminate are examined where the primary examination focus is on – if media that is used to keep a watchful eye on the dealings of government and act as a champion of the public's right to know, has departed from this constitutional duty with the emergence of social media. Moreover, the nexus between ‘contours of expression to disseminate the information’ and ‘extent of limitations as to such information dissemination’ will be analysed. To illustrate, Indian legal framework is used and applied. In its conclusion the author endeavours to question the unwarranted benefit social media enjoys as ‘intermediary’ and as ‘media’ thereby ponders if the current Indian legal framework is adequate to deal with the ramifications.


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).


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