THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY AGENCY PARTICIPATED IN THE 3RD REGIONAL CONFERENCE “INITIATIVE 2020”

The Commissioner of the Agency for Information and Privacy, Mrs. Krenare Sogojeva Dërmanku, together with the delegation from the Agency, participated in the 3rd consecutive conference of “Initiative 2020”, which gathers independent authorities for freedom of access to information from the countries of former Yugoslavia.

During the proceedings of the conference, which this time was held in Struga, the Republic of North Macedonia, the independent bodies for freedom of access to information from Kosovo, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia North agreed that in the future the main focus of the Law on Access to Public Documents as a tool for transparency, accountability and openness of institutions, will be proactive transparency. The topic is particularly important, Proactive publication, i.e. the active publication and updating of data published on the websites of public entities, should be a primary obligation and duty, whereas reactive transparency, i.e. the procedure foracting upon  requests for access to information to be a secondary obligation of the holders of information of state bodies.

On this conference, for the first time, the counterpart authority from Albania participated as an observer, which will be a potential candidate in the next year for membership in “Initiative 2020”.

On the Conference it was also concluded that the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (CETS No. 205), also known as the Tromsø Convention, recognizes the general right of access to official documents held by state authorities, in other words enables the government in promoting democratic governance, openness,and enhances participatory democracy in the realization of other human rights and basic freedoms.

The application of these principles and the importance of the application of European standards and the Tromsø Convention, has been used as a result of the power to ratify it as an additional application for the implementation of laws on access to information of a public nature and a reliable pillar for the protection of the constitutionally guaranteed human right: ” I HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!!!”.

The host for next year its is agreed to be Croatia.