Wednesday, February 2nd at the Hotel Montana (Pétion-ville), in the presence in particular of Me Renan Hédouville, Protector of the Citizen, Me Hans Jacques Ludwig Joseph, Director General of the Fight against Corruption (ULCC), lawyers and representatives of various civil society organizations, the Minister of Culture Emmelie Prophète Milce participated in the workshop for the presentation and validation of the draft law on free access to information, organized by the ULCC.

The Minister of Culture welcomed the ULCC's approach to providing the country with a document that fills a need to show and a need to know, absolutely necessary for the balance of the Republic. A document that will help citizens to participate in public life and contribute to transparency.

For Me Renan Hédouville, the Protector of the Citizen, this initiative is commendable, it will help his institution to carry out this fight against corruption in Haiti. A fight upstream and downstream according to the Protector who will be responsible, if the law is adopted in the proposed terms, to prosecute on behalf of the citizen whose request has not been satisfied.

For Me Hans Jacques Ludwig Joseph, Director General of the ULCC, this text written by the experts of his institution is in line with transparency and accountability, clearly defined, promoted and supported by the Government in place..

This document of five titles, seven chapters and 43 articles, concerns both private and public actors. Me Joseph believes that in a democratic society, the people have the right to take an active part in public life.

In summary, this working document produced by the ULCC prohibits prior censorship, interference, direct or indirect pressure on any information disseminated by any means of oral, written, artistic, visual or electronic communication.

Through this draft law, access will be granted to documents of the Public Administration, by enshrining the principle of the public's right to their communication.

According to Article 3 of this draft law, public institutions and local authorities are required to disclose, by the means available, all the information they hold, subject to the provisions of Article 31, which states "Are Excluded informationd relating to :

- National defense;

- Internal and external State security;

- The privacy of individuals;

- The deliberations of the Council of Ministers and the Council of Government."

HL/ HaitiLibre