GAP to the Kosovo Assembly: the Law on Access to Public Documents is not properly implemented

This hearing was organized by the Parliamentary Commission for Education, Culture, Sport, Public Administration, Local Governance and Media. GAP Institute presented a written report about the implementation of this law in practice, where certain problems were identified and a number of recommendations were provided. 

The Parliamentary Commission began to monitor the implementation of this Law in early May 2011, or six months since the Law entered into effect. In May GAP officially submitted to the Commission this report.  In this report GAP has shown evidences about the problems with regard to the implementation of this Law, such as the unequal treatment of the electronic requests versus paper requests, the lack of officials to handle such requests, the poor content of official websites, the small progress in adopting sub legal acts, etc. 

GAP report “The Implementation of the Law on Access to Public Documents” presented at the Commission is mainly based on GAPs experience on requests for access to public documents. Other organizations from the civil society and other public institutions also showed their evidence at the Commission.  

In September 2011, the Commission will finalize its assessment report on the progress of implementation of this law which will later be presented at the Assembly. 

Apart from the Parliamentary Commission, GAP will submit the same report also at the Liaison Office of the European Commission in Prishtina, in order to contribute on the content of the 2011 Progress Report on Kosovo, which is expected to come out in November. 

Click HERE to download the report.

(Read the news at the Kosovo Assembly website:http://kuvendikosoves.org/?cid=1,128,3926).