Open Government Partnership Transparency Policy Needs Significant Improvement
25 November 2011, Madrid/Halifax – The Open Government Partnership , a global transparency initiative jointly sponsored by US President Obama and Brazilian President Rousseff, must significantly improve its internal access to information policy to meet the standards it is advancing according to an analysis launched today by two specialist organisations, Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy.
Two months after its launch in September 2011 when 46 countries pledged to work towards greater openness, the OGP is struggling with its own transparency rules according to the expert analysis submitted as part of a one-month public consultation that ends today.
"The Open Government Partnership risks missing the opportunity to set high standards which can serve as a model for all the participating countries," commented Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe. "The policy should be reformed to incorporate basic open data principles such as that information will be made available in a machine-readable, electronic format free of restrictions on reuse."
Civil Society Calls for Greater Transparency in International Negotiations on the Fight against Corruption
Marrakesh, 28 October 2011 – Transparency International Spain and Access Info Europe have joined civil society organisations from around the world in calling on governments signatory to the UN Convention against Corruption to show greater commitment to fighting corruption and to be more open in what they are doing to tackle it.
The 154 countries which have committed to United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) are currently meeting at the 4th Conference of States Parties, making it the world’s largest forum for adopting measures to combat corruption and to evaluate advances in reducing it.
Access Info Calls for an End to Closed Negotiations on Fighting Corruption
Marrakesh, 27 October 2011 – Access Info Europe, participating in the Marrakesh negotiations of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), today made a formal intervention in the plenary session calling on States Parties to end discussions behind closed doors about how the treaty is implemented.
The UNCAC is the strongest international anti-corruption convention and its comprehensive and transparent implementation is vital to the fight against corruption. States Parties will meet tonight (27 October) between 9pm and midnight to discuss opening these meetings to civil society and therefore bringing necessary transparency to the implementation review process.
A copy of the intervention can be found here. 
To watch a video of the intervention click here.
Photo by Andrea Figari
The Anti Corruption Transparency Monitoring Methodology
Practical guide released with full results from monitoring in Croatia
Marrakesh, 25 October 2011 – A new guide on how to test levels of transparency in areas of government prone to corruption was released by Access Info Europe today, together with the results of the first large-scale monitoring conducted using the methodology in Croatia, conducted by Transparency International Croatia.
The "Anti-Corruption Transparency Monitoring Methodology" was presented today at the UN Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption currently taking place in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The data from Croatia, where 200 answers were received to 560 questions (35% or around one third), shows that there are areas where huge progress has been made on transparency in some areas such as anti-corruption policies, conflict of interest, and licensing procedures.
Corruption-prone areas still closed to public scrutiny included public procurement, financing of political parties, and privatisation of state assets – not one single question on privatisation, a controversial area in Croatia, was answered.
Anti-Corruption Transparency Monitoring Methodology with results from Croatia 
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