On 1st December 2020 the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents has officially entered into force. The Convention is informally called the Tromsø Convention after a small city in northern Norway, the world’s important cultural hub above the Arctic Circle, where it was concluded on 18th of June 2009.
The Convention enters into force in respect of ten Council of Europe Member States – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, the Republic of Moldova, Sweden and Ukraine. It has become possible after the Parliament of Ukraine has ratified the Convention in May 2020.
The Tromsø Convention is the first international treaty guaranteeing a general right to access to official documents held by public authorities. This right is essential to transparency, good governance, freedom of speech and participatory democracy and it facilitates the exercise of other human rights and fundamental freedoms. Access to official documents enables citizens to form an opinion on the state of the society which they live and the governing authorities. It enables citizens’ awareness of public affairs and their informed participation in decision-making processes. It is also very important for free and independent media outlets, journalists and other media actors to have legal and guaranteed access to information and official documents in order to inform the public and conduct journalist investigations.
The current Covid-19 crisis has underscored not only the need for good record- keeping but also the imperative of providing transparent, reliable and clear information by public authorities.
The Tromsø Convention provides a framework of legal principles in respect of all these democratic goals and sets out a number of basic guarantees regarding the right to access of official documents.
On this occasion, Mr Patrick Penninckx, head of the Council of Europe’s Information Society Department, has recorded a video address about prospects which this Convention opens for the Republic of Moldova which ratified it on 2 September 2016.
To ensure public implementation of the Convention in the Republic of Moldova and help Moldovan’s citizens more effectively to enjoy this right, the Council of Europe will support the Moldovan authorities and all concerned stakeholders through awareness raising and capacity building activities, Mr Penninckx said.
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Adopted texts
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