{"id":38720,"date":"2025-01-17T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T11:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/?p=38720"},"modified":"2025-01-17T12:44:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T11:44:42","slug":"legal-recommendations-to-strengthen-access-to-documents-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/2025-01-17\/legal-recommendations-to-strengthen-access-to-documents-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Recommendations to Strengthen Access to Documents in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1144px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p><strong><i>17 January 2025 &#8211;\u00a0 Access Info and Open Knowledge France today release recommendations on how to align the French Access to Documents Law with international standards.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Access to documents is recognised as a constitutional guarantee in France and is governed by the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration (CRPA).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite its constitutional status, the current legal framework regulating this right falls significantly short of the benchmarks established by the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (Troms\u00f8 Convention) and other international best practices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Key Gaps Identified in the CRPA<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A detailed analysis, carried out under the ATI Network Project, reveals several critical shortcomings in France\u2019s access to documents framework, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Lack of Scope: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Draft documents and documents held by the Legislative Branch are out of scope of the law, leaving significant categories of public information inaccessible;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Absolute Exceptions: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law contains absolute exceptions that are not subject to a harm or a public interest test;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Weak Oversight Mechanism<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents plays an advisory role, therefore lacking the power of binding decisions and sanctioning authority.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite being a member of the Council of Europe, France has yet to sign or ratify the Troms\u00f8 Convention, a step strongly recommended by GRECO in its Fifth Evaluation Report on France. To align the French legal framework with the Convention and global standards, various reforms are urgently needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rachel Hanna, Executive Director of Access Info:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe right to documents must be upheld by a robust legal framework. Gaps and weaknesses in France\u2019s current law create significant barriers that prevent citizens from fully exercising this essential right. Addressing these shortcomings is crucial to enhancing transparency, fostering trust, and promoting democratic engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Xavier Berne, Executive Director of Open Knowledge France :\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn the face of the dangers of conspiracy theories and fake news, it is more important than ever for administrations to comply with the constitutional requirements of transparency. Unfortunately, French law has been poorly enforced for many years and remains insufficient in many respects.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"group\/conversation-turn relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\">\n<div class=\"flex-col gap-1 md:gap-3\">\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col flex-grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 whitespace-normal break-words text-start &#091;.text-message+&amp;&#093;:mt-5\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"71c20a04-ff41-4c1c-9624-41f25dcd9be9\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-4o\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-&#091;3px&#093;\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose w-full break-words dark:prose-invert light\">\n<p>Access Info and Open Knowledge France have today published legal recommendations to strengthen the CRPA, bringing it into alignment with international transparency standards. They also call on the French Government to sign and ratify the Troms\u00f8 Convention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Download the legal recommendations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Access-to-Documents-in-France_-Recommendations-for-Legal-Reform-1.pdf\">here\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>About the ATI Network Project<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Access Info Europe, along with mySociety and Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, are partners of the ATI Network Project. This three-year project aims to build a cohesive, wide, and activated community that is working to strengthen the right of access to information across the European region.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":38730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38720"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38737,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38720\/revisions\/38737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}