A
Call for Securing Citizens’ Rights in Free Access to
Information at the Judiciary System
December 5, 2006
In
a workshop organized by AMAN Coalition and MUWATIN, law
experts, officials, and representatives of civil society
organizations, stressed the importance of securing
citizen’s rights to free access to information at the
judiciary system. The workshop aimed at discussing a
draft report produced by AMAN in cooperation with
MUWATIN on citizens’ right to free access to judiciary
information. The workshop comes as part of AMAN’s and
MUWATIN’s joint endeavor towards enhancing the public
sector’s capacity in providing free access to
information for citizens in the society through
producing a series of reports and studies on free access
to information at the various sections of the public
sector. AMAN seeks to involve all stakeholders in a
continuous dialogue over such reports and studies to
have their input and to incorporate it in the final
draft which would then be disseminated to all partners
and stakeholders.
It
was noted at the workshop that the Palestinian court
rooms are designed in a way that does not allow for the
public to witness and be part of the ruling sessions.
The small size of these rooms only allows for the
convicted, judiciary, and lawyers to attend these
sessions. Participants also stressed the importance of
identifying the sphere for ‘discreet information’ and
making it the exception not the case. A freedom of
information law at the judiciary system should be
enacted in order to ensure justice and objectivity in
the system and to enhance the public’s monitoring
capacity over the courts.
The
report stressed that the citizens’ rights to free access
to information does not encompass the right of the
judiciary or the convicted part alone; but rather, the
right of citizens to a just ruling and the right to
information to all society sections; including,
academics, law centers, law experts, civil society
organizations, private sector, and the media.
