PROJECT “CIVIL ACTIONS TO IMPROVE THE SITUATION WITH HUMAN RIGHTS IN UKRAINE”

The purpose of the discussions was to develop a strategy for implementing existing mechanisms for providing information on the current activities of local authorities and full public participation in decision-making by local authorities.

The opening remarks were made by Dmytro Ostrik, an expert from the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, and Yaroslav Zhukrovsky, an expert from the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, Honorary Chairman of the Center “Our Law”.

During her speech, the head of the Regional Charitable Foundation “Resonance” Olena Grabovska briefly introduced the audience to the main national and international standards of access to information, emphasized the key principles and assessment criteria for compliance with this right.

“Authorities are obliged to create all conditions so that everyone can freely exercise their right to information. The very first step should be the publication and wide dissemination of information that is of significant public interest. We are talking primarily about access to decisions of authorized bodies, resolutions, orders that directly concern the interests of citizens. This is information that is not secret or strategic in nature, the disclosure and provision of which does not require special agreements or permits, and therefore there can be no legal grounds for denying access to such information.”

An expert from the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, Yaroslav Zhukrovsky, outlined the problems of implementing the right to access information about the activities of public administration bodies. Mr. Zhukrovsky expressed concern that the Lviv City Council does not submit annexes to its resolutions, motivating this by the fact that they contain personal data about a person or for technical reasons. As an example, the resolution of the Lviv City Council “On regulating the placement of small architectural forms in Lviv” was given, the refusal to publish which was also justified by the presence of personal data in them.

“In order to publish the “Charter of the Territorial Community”, I had to photocopy this document and “decipher” it for a long time. Now we are waiting for official confirmation,” said Yaroslav Zhukrovsky.

Legal advisor of the Lviv city organization “Union of Consultants “Expert Group” Oleg Matiytsiv acquainted the attendees with the theoretical and practical aspects of the public’s influence on the implementation of state regulatory policy.

The chairman of the administrative council of the Lviv city public organization “Union of Consultants “Expert Group” Adrian Fityo outlined the possibilities of a social contract as a tool for forming regional policy, proposed schemes for implementing the procedure for concluding a social contract in the region.

Expert of the Lviv public organization “Center for Local Self-Government Studies” Ihor Yanchuk made a report “Openness of information of local authorities as a guaranteed right of the territorial community to participate in solving issues of local importance”.

During the discussion, issues were raised regarding the quality of information services provided by the Lviv City Council, in particular, responding to information requests, as well as publishing information about the activities of local authorities that is of public interest. During the discussions, proposals were made to amend the current Law “On Information”. In particular, it was proposed to take into account international standards for access to information, in particular in the area of ​​​​restricting access to information, namely to note that such restrictions must be necessary in a democratic society and be temporary, which means that the information will eventually become publicly available. In addition, it was proposed to review the terms of preliminary study and response to information requests, reducing them to 5-7 days.

Next week, a coalition of public organizations will be created in Lviv to monitor the openness of local authorities. This coalition will include the NGO “Center for Local Self-Government Research”, the regional charitable foundation “Resonance”, the center “Our Law” and others. The coalition of public organizations will, in particular, study the openness of local authorities’ responses to citizens’ information requests. It is possible that lawsuits will also be prepared based on the results of incomplete responses to information requests.