celebration amman center on the occasion of the World Day of the right to knowledge

A seminar on: “The benefits of law to guarantee the right of access to information”

Minister Maaytah: the door is not closed for additional amendments to the law.

Tarawneh: The Center completed voluntarily, the first annual report of its kind “on the right of access to information”

Abadi: Information Council works to promote access to information

Shuqair: 5 years after the approval shows that it did not work as hoped on the flow of information

Amman Center for Human Rights Studies organized on Sunday September 30, at the Jerusalem International a festive symposium on the occasion of World Day of the right to knowledge, which marks the September 28th, and the celebration was sponsored by the Information Minister Samih Maaytah presented, and during the seminar two working papers were presented by Professor Muhammad Yunus Abadi, Information Commissioner and the Secretary of the National Library, entitled ‘Information Council (missions, authorities, and achievements)’ and the second working paper prepared by Mr. Yahya Shuqair entitled “Proposals to amend the law to guarantee the right of access to information”.

The ceremony began with the organizers speech delivered by Dr. Mohammed Tarawneh, member of the Scientific Council of the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, and, who welcomed the Minister of Information and the audience of the seminar. He explained in his speech the importance of reviving the occasion, adding that the world marks the twenty-eighth of September every year as the World Day of the Right to Knowledge, as one of the basic human rights, it is closely linked to the freedom of access to information, circulation, and dissemination.

Dr. Tarawneh reviewed the activities of Amman Center for Human Rights Studies over the past years, as it organized many courses on the right to access to information, in which men and women from various sectors, public and private, have participated, and added that the center has voluntarily completed the first annual report of its kind “on the right to access information in the Arab countries “in 2009. He pointed out the activity of this year on the right to knowledge, funded by the World Bank, which is represented by holding this symposium and organizing a small contest for journalism and law students in Jordanian universities about the benefits of “the law guaranteeing the right to access to information”, passed in 2007, in addition to presenting the World Day of the Right to Knowledge through promotional materials. Finally, he thanked the audience for their participation to make this event a success.

The Minister of Information, Samih Maaytah, improvised a speech in which he said that the civil society organizations play a key role in the process of raising awareness on human rights, in the forefront of which is the right to obtain information, alluding to the cooperation that prevailed during the previous period between official bodies and civil society organizations which resulted in the recent amendments proposed on the law of the right to access to information, which was recently approved by the government, and is now in its legislative stages.

Maaytah stressed that the door is not closed for more positive changes that facilitate access to information.

The Minister urged the active use of the law, which suffers lack of use, to help develop it qualitatively, to help Jordan rank with developed nations.

Professor Muhammad Yunus Abadi, the Information Commissioner and the Secretary General of the National Library, gave a lecture on: Information Council (missions, authorities, and achievements), where he presented an extensive review of the law and a summary of the work of the Council of information, the method to consider complaints from information seekers over the past years, which reached (13) complaint, and were settled in accordance with the instructions issued for this purpose, and he also adopted models to seek information, issued bulletins , and held appropriate activities to promote a culture of the right to knowledge and access to information. This culture was strengthened in ministries, departments, and institutions of the government which indexed and classified documents in accordance with the law. The Council also works to enhance access to information and access to documents owned by the state for all people. Among the initiatives undertaken by the Jordanian government and through its library, the State Library (National Library), is work on archiving laws, regulations, and instructions published in the Official Gazette since the founding of the emirate, specifically in (1923), until now, which is available on the website of the library. The site has also uploaded more than half a million documents representing government documents obtained from the state ministries and institutions, dealing with all the details of life, and especially the political, economic, and social decisions.

He said in his closing remarks that Jordan advanced strides in the field of transparency, believing that the freedom of access to information with high transparency is a cornerstone of the press and public freedoms.

Prof. Yahya Shuqair presented a working paper entitled (proposals to amend the law to guarantee the right of access to information (.

He emphasized that the public’s right to know and access to information is one of the most important pillars of the democratic structure of any country in the world, the active participation of citizens rely on the information. As that information is the “oxygen of democracy” that “in order for democracy to work, you must enable citizens to obtain information to be able to take valuable decisions.”

He pointed out that the law after more than 5 years of the approval shows that did not work as hoped on the flow of information from the point of administration to journalists, as the most widely used of the law, and the ultimate beneficiaries of it citizens.

Therefore there is a need to amend the law so that it is guided by the principle of maximum disclosure means that all information available to the public bodies that are exposed to detect, without requiring access to information to make strenuous efforts, and ensure access to information via the Internet Access to online information and went to call the institutions of civil society to participate to explain and promote its use, and demanded training law officer to enable them to know its provisions accurately and facilitate the giving of information to the seekers.

Urged to speed up the archives and classified government documents to allow easy reference when applying the law.

The seminar participants recommended the establishment of a civilian alliance until use and development of the law of the right of access to information, and agreed to send their comments about it to Amman center in two weeks.

In conclusion the names of winners were announced on “the benefits of the law to ensure the Jordanian right of access to information “, of media and law students in Jordanian universities. The Information Minister, Samih Maaytah, handed the prizes to the first place winners, and they are Amer Alhalasa and Abdulkarim Al Rayyan, and the second place winner Zarin eras, and in the third place Enas Zayed.