2023-10-01

ًWest Bank and Gaza

West Bank / Gaza / position paper

Time to Fulfill Citizens’ Right to Acquire, Disseminate and Access Information

This week, the world celebrates the international day of the right to access, acquire and disseminate information. This right has been legalized in many nations, most notably Sweden, which issued a law safeguarding this right in 1776, 257 years ago; yet, our people continue to be denied the legalization and official recognition of this right, even though it is contained in the Social Contract (The Declaration of Independence and The Basic Law), and in many covenants and international declarations to which Palestine acceded and is therefore bound by their provisions. The legalization of this right allows citizens to enjoy it, as it is the backbone and heart of the freedom of expression and opinion.

For years, people and civil society organizations have raised and continue to raise their voices advocating for the passing of special legislation that guarantees the right to access, acquire, and disseminate information. Dialogues and meetings were held with relevant government agencies, and agreement was even reached with them on the foundations and elements of this legislation. The government, however, continued to follow its usual trajectory of unilateral power control, inward-looking, information-control, and closed-door discussions, ignoring the axioms and tenets of community participation that are guaranteed and explicitly stated in Article (26) of the Basic Law.

A picture was leaked three months ago of a draft decree-law on access to information that is drafted in such a way that restricts this right to the point of almost eliminating it!

It contradicts what the government and CSOs agreed to, and instead of guaranteeing this right, which is a constitutional right closely linked to the integrity of the citizen and an essential component of his/her right to citizenship, it disregarded the need to entrust an independent body with the authority of monitoring the extent to which the executive authority and all of its departments respect citizens' right of access to information, and has instead delegated this authority to an information department that reports to the general secretary of the Council of Ministers. This department is authorized to decide whether or not information is available based solely on its own judgment and without regard to any standards, thereby maintaining the government's information monopoly.

We, MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, demand the immediate fulfillment of the official duty, and the constitutional right that guarantees the freedom to acquire, disseminate, and access information, free of any restrictions that involve discrimination, restriction, or elimination of this right, for the time has come to fulfill this long-overdue right.