Dear
Mr. Keim,
I
refer to your emailed and faxed letter to
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of 17 November 2008.
In your
letter you asked for information related to the deliberations in November of the
Rapporteur Group on Human Rights of the Committee of Ministers regarding the
Opinion of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the
draft Convention on Access to Official Documents.
As
you will know the draft Convention on Access to Official Documents was discussed
for almost ten years before a compromise text was agreed by the member states.
During the examination of the Draft Convention in the
organs of the Council of Europe,
Norway’s general approach was guided
by a wish to arrive at an ambitious convention text with regard to openness and
access to public documents, combined with a text which would also allow for
broad acceptance by member states. On some points
Norway would
have liked go further than the final negotiated result. In the end, however,
Norway agreed to the compromise text,
believing that this text would allow for acceptance and ratifications by a
greater number of member states, and that a conclusion to the discussions needed
to be drawn after 10 years of discussions.
Norway welcomes the Parliamentary
Assembly's interest in this matter. However, the opinion of the Assembly presented
all delegations with a difficult dilemma. The proposals from PACE would have the
effect of reopening a delicate compromise on the text of the Draft Convention.
In the discussions of the Rapporteur Group on Human Rights a number of countries
considered that, although their respective national legal systems guaranteed a
broader right of access to official documents than that enshrined in the draft
convention, the latter instrument was an acceptable compromise and constituted a
good starting point for recognition of an effective right of access to official
documents in Europe. Norway stated that we would have
liked the convention to go further in guaranteeing access to official documents
in several respects. However,
Norway also took into consideration
that the work on this convention started 10 years ago, and that the compromise
text in the draft will allow for broad accession by member states. The
convention should be seen as the starting point for an effective right of access
to official documents in Europe. On this basis
Norway agreed with the proposal not
to reopen negotiations on the text of the Convention.
The
decision of the Committee of Ministers (27 November) on the Draft Convention can
be found on
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1377737&Site=CM&BackColorInternet=9999CC&BackColorIntranet=FFBB55&BackColorLogged=FFAC75
I
expect that the Spanish presidency of the Committee of Ministers will soon send
a letter to the Assembly in this matter.
Unfortunately I’m not at liberty to provide you with a
copy of the decision of the Rapporteur group on Human Rights due to the Council
of Europe’s regulations on confidentiality and the Norwegian regulations , cf.
the Freedom of Information Act 1970 (Offentlighetsloven) section 6 paragrah1
no1. 45 of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states supported the proposal not
to reopen negotiations on the Convention on Access to Official Documents.
We
are not in possession of a list of the participants at the meeting of the
Rapporteur group on Human Rights. Norway was represented by Ms. Elin Widsteen from
the Norwegian Permanent Delegation to the Council of Europe in
Strasbourg. In the
deliberations on the Draft Convention in the Steering Committee on Human Rights
(CDDH) Norway has been represented recently
by Ms. Tonje Ruud, Ministry of Justice and Police.
If you have any further questions, the contact person
in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is
Mr. Leif Arne
Ulland
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senior Adviser, Department of Security Affairs
Tel: +
47 22 24 3726
Cel: + 47 414 62280
E-mail office: lau@mfa.no
Yours
sincerely
Anita
Nergaard
Assistant Director
General