Civil society organizations have written to the BiH Ministry of Justice, asking for changes to the Law on Freedom of Access to Information

Public institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina currently have no legal obligation to publish information of public interest, and the struggle of citizens, NGOs and the media to publish it often takes years. Therefore, civil society organizations in BiH sent an initiative to the competent institutions with a request to amend the Law on Freedom of Access to Information in BiH as soon as possible.

The main goal of the initiative is to introduce the principle of proactive transparency in the law, where clear standards would be established, including a catalog of information that all public institutions will have to publish on their websites. In addition, this principle envisages the consistent application of the law through strengthening the capacity of civil servants acting in accordance with the law, but also the establishment of effective supervision over compliance with the law and the introduction of sanctions for violating it.

In BiH, currently public institutions do not publish numerous information on spending budget money, public companies hide data on operations, and judicial institutions information on completed court proceedings. Most of this information should be made public, because long-term lawsuits for their delivery prevent the timely reaction of the public, which often causes damage to the interests of citizens.

Therefore, civil society organizations remind that one of the planned measures of the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform for the period 2018-2022 refers to increasing the availability of information where the principle of maximum transparency should be respected. Also, BiH is 2014. joined the Open Government Partnership Initiative (OGP Initiative), which is based on the idea that open government is more accessible and accountable to citizens. BiH is still 2012. ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents , which encourages public authorities to publish official documents on their own initiative whenever possible, thus promoting transparent and efficient public administration.

That is why BiH civil society organizations invite authorized nominators at all levels of government, primarily the BiH Ministry of Justice, to prepare a proposal for a new Law on Freedom of Access to Information, respecting SIGMA’s principles for public administration relating to proactive transparency, as well as the Council Convention. Europe on access to official documents, and strategic commitments from public administration reform and the OGP Initiative.

The law should define the obligation to proactively publish operational information, information on organizational structure, budget and other information on the work of public authorities. A narrow range of exceptions to access to information should also be clearly defined, with a mandatory public interest test. Civil society organizations are also proposing the introduction of inspections and sanctions in case of non-compliance with legal provisions, as the current law does not have a disincentive effect on public institutions that hide information of public importance.

The initiative was signed by: Transparency International in BiH, Advisory Council of the Open Government Partnership Initiative, Association of BH Journalists, Center for Investigative Journalism, Center for Civic Advocacy, Sarajevo Open Center, UG Why Not, BH Foreign Policy Initiative, Center for the Promotion of Civil Society and the United Women Foundation Banja Luka.

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