View previous stories
	People have the right to know what those in power are doing by COE, Access-Info, Article 19, agencies   Dec. 2020   On International Anti-Corruption Day 2020, a group comprised of leading economists, trade unions and civil society organisations tackling issues from human rights, to poverty, to business integrity, have come together to call for an end to the abuse of anonymous companies.   The UN General Assembly’s decision to hold a Special Session against Corruption in 2021 created a historic opportunity for the international community to address the global crisis of corruption.   The undersigned groups and individuals are united in the conviction that it is of the utmost urgency for the UNGASS 2021 to put an end to the abuse of anonymous companies and other legal vehicles that facilitate cross-border corruption and other crimes. We are calling on the UNGASS 2021 to commit to making centralised, public beneficial ownership registers a global standard.   Companies that exist only on paper, exploiting our legal systems and concealing their ultimate ownership, are tools for the diversion of critical resources needed to advance sustainable development and collective security.   For decades, as scandal after scandal has demonstrated, anonymous shell companies have been used to divert public funds, channel bribes and conceal ill-gotten gains, as part of corruption and money laundering schemes stretching across borders.   Beneficial ownership information – information on the natural persons who ultimately own, control or benefit from a legal vehicle – enables cross-border enforcement and the tracing of ill-gotten assets for confiscation and return. In public contracting processes, it helps in the detection of conflicts of interest and corruption. It also makes it easier for businesses to carry out due diligence, helps them know who their partners and customers are and meet reporting obligations.   A central, public register of companies and their ultimate beneficial owners – in addition to information on legal ownership and directors – is the most effective and practical way to record such information and facilitate timely access for all stakeholders.   We have come together to address government leaders currently preparing for UNGASS 2021 with one voice and one clear message: The “concise and action-oriented political declaration” to be adopted by the General Assembly should commit all countries to establish central, public registers of beneficial ownership as the new global standard.   This should be supplemented with efforts to verify the collected information in order to ensure the accuracy and reliability of beneficial ownership data.   Transparency in company ownership is more than a technical solution to a problem. It is a matter of social justice.   Corruption devastates the lives of billions of people around the world, while its deadliness has become all the more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis.   With only ten years left to achieve the 2030 Agenda targets, we need decisive reforms to ensure that the resources needed to pay for critical public services such as schools and hospitals are not simply misappropriated and hidden away in tax havens or property markets abroad. Centralised, public registers of beneficial ownership as a global standard is precisely that kind of change. The time for action is now.   http://www.transparency.org/en/ungass-2021-commit-to-transparency-in-company-ownership-for-the-common-good   Dec. 2020   Call to protect EU’s Number One Anti-Corruption Instrument: Open Company Registers!   On International Anti-Corruption Day 2020, 101 leading transparency, anti-corruption and open data organisations along with investigative journalists from across Europe have called on the European Commission and national governments to act to ensure that company registers, including ownership and corporate structure data, are freely accessible and published in open data format.   In an open letter sent today to Thierry Breton, Internal Market Commissioner, and Vera Jourová, Vice President for Values and Transparency, the organisations respond to threats to reduce access to company registers to only very basic data, without the names of owners, when the EU agrees on the details of implementation of the 2019 Open Data Directive.   The letter states that the commitment to open company registers, including ownership and corporate structure data, is the most critical transparency and anti-corruption measure that the EU will adopt in 2020.   “More than $11 trillion has already been spent by governments all over the world urgently responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and reliable information on who controls anonymous companies is central for identifying where this money goes and for preventing financial mismanagement, fraud and corruption,” said Laure Brillaud, Senior Policy Officer, Transparency International EU.   Addressing the importance of the open company data for investigative journalists, Drew Sullivan, Editor and Publisher of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project said: “The EUs plan to water down the Open Data Directive is a gift to organized crime and corrupt actors. Half-hearted transparency leaves loopholes which invite dark money into your system, undermining democracy, and ultimately promotes plutocracy. As a European directive, you need a rock hard standard that can serve as a bedrock for democracy.”   “High-quality and readily-accessible company ownership information is essential to carry out proper due diligence on potential fraudulent or false companies, and therefore is essential for both governments and other businesses operating in the European space,” said Robin Hodess, Director of Governance & Transparency at The B Team.   Emily Wigens, EU Director of The ONE Campaign, added: “Developing countries lose more than $1 trillion each year as a result of secrecy and shady deals. The public, including journalists and civil society organizations, plays a critical role in exposing corruption and bad deals, so must have full access to open company ownership data for the EU’s company registers to be effective.”   “We see that most big cases of fraud, corruption and tax evasion are uncovered by journalists and civil society. Unrestricted access to these data is essential for these organizations to play their part” stated Serv Wiemers, Director Open State Foundation.   Partial progress has already been made towards this goal, according to Jesse Renema, Senior Project Lead of the Open State foundation: “We are halfway there as the European Union’s 5th Anti Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5), already requires open registers of beneficial owners of companies. To complete the anti-corruption package, it is essential to commit to fully open company registers.”   Addressing privacy concerns, Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe explained: “When legislators determine – as they have done with the Open Data Directive – that certain data needs to be made public, including the names of company owners, to combat corruption, this has a legal basis and is proportionate and entirely consistent with data protection rules. There cannot be backtracking now because of lobbying by businesses not ready to be open.”   Addressing the concern that opening up company data will have an associated cost for national company registers, Thom Townsend, Executive Director, Open Ownership, stated: “It is evident that the cost of publishing this essential information is minimal compared to the significant economic savings and invaluable societal benefits that accrue from avoiding fraud and corruption.”   Chris Taggart, of the business Open Corporates, added: “This data is essential for entrepreneurs across Europe, such as the business that I run. If the EU is serious about supporting open data for entrepreneurship, they should start with pivotal data sets such as company registers. In a financial crisis and risks of increasing unemployment, the way ahead is to act on the EU’s digital strategy promises and keep this data open.”   The signatories to the letter call for the following company structure and ownership information to be the absolute minimum made public under the Open Data Directive:   Name of the company owner; Month and year of birth; Nationality; Owner identifier; Names of shareholders; Country of residence of shareholders/owners; Company insolvency status; All updates to the information submitted, including the date of the most recent update.   They note that standards have already been set in the UK and Denmark, with the information in these company registers available as open data.   The letter concludes by arguing that the European Commission and Member States should now guarantee full publication of companies and company ownership information as a high-value dataset in implementing the Open Data Directive, under a genuinely open licence without additional restrictions: “Anything less than full publication, would ultimately foster an environment where corruption is allowed to persist. This is the time for more transparency and accountability, not less.”   http://www.access-info.org/blog/2020/12/09/eu-open-company-reg/ http://www.transparency.org/en/news/international-anti-corruption-day-2020-things-can-really-get-better-next-year-ungass-2021   Dec. 2020   People have the right to know what those in power are doing, by Dunja Mijatovic - Human Rights Commissioner, Council of Europe   People have the right to know what those in power are doing. This was the basis on which the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents was adopted more than ten years ago in Tromso, Norway. This Convention is the first binding international legal instrument to recognise a general right of access to official documents held by public authorities.   It establishes minimum rules for the prompt and fair processing of requests for access to official documents, including an obligation for states to secure access to effective and independent review procedures when access is denied.   Under the Convention, all official documents are, in principle, public and can be withheld subject only to the protection of other rights and legitimate interests.   Following the ratification of the Tromso Convention by Ukraine, the tenth state to ratify, it will enter into force on 1 December 2020. This is a much anticipated development as access to official documents is essential for transparency, good governance and participatory democracy and a key means of facilitating the exercise of other human rights and fundamental freedoms.   The right to freedom of information   Although we are living in the age of the information society, in which we are exposed to huge amounts of opinions and data, access to quality information remains hard to come by in many Council of Europe member states.   In this context, I can only stress how important freedom of information requests are. Such requests are mainly used by organisations and journalists to ask questions about the conduct of public bodies.   Without these requests, a number of human rights violations would never have come to light. I am thinking for example about the way migrants are treated across Europe, especially at borders, or the existence of CIA rendition flights to Europe, involving the transfer and secret detention of suspected terrorists.   But the right of access to information is not only about exposing wrongdoing. It also helps to improve the quality of public debate on important issues and heightens participation in decision making, as highlighted in the 2018 Recommendation of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on the need to strengthen the protection and promotion of civil society space in Europe.   Yet, substantial barriers to the right to information are still in place. One obvious problem is that authorities are not always accustomed to dealing with the public or with journalists in an open manner. Privacy protection safeguards have also sometimes been invoked against freedom of information requests.   Some of the rules governing freedom of information requests can compromise the safety of journalists. In this respect, concerns have been raised that the requirement in some countries for requesters to identify themselves and provide personal data to be able to submit freedom of information requests makes journalists working on sensitive issues, such as organised crime, vulnerable.   For example, it has been suggested that the murder of the journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018 in Slovakia may have been the result of his freedom of information requests, through which he had obtained much of his information with regard to alleged tax evasion and misuse of EU funds.   Transparency of public authorities should be regarded as a precondition for the exercise and enjoyment of freedom of information, which has a bearing on freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.   In a case relating to the authorities’ refusal to provide an NGO with information relating to the work of an ex officio defence counsel, the European Court of Human Rights recognised that in specific circumstances individuals may have a right of access to state-held information, particularly when access to the information is crucial for the individual to exercise his or her freedom to receive and impart information.   Access to information in times of crisis   The right to know is even more vital in times of crisis. Yet, transparency regarding public services and their actions has clearly not been a top priority in Europe.   At a time when a large portion of the population is questioning the legitimacy and the proportionality of the measures taken by governments to deal with the pandemic, when trust in public authorities is declining and people are turning to alternative sources of information, which they deem to be more reliable, the right of access to information has been eroded.   Filtering of information and delays in responses to freedom of information requests have been observed in several member states, and there have been reports of journalists being prevented from asking questions, obtaining information from health authorities or documenting the operations of law enforcement officials.   However, promoting greater openness and transparency in the provision of information by public authorities would not only help to preserve public health, but also to build public trust and confidence in the public health measures and public authorities concerned.   As a means of ensuring access to information in general, freedom of information requests are crucial in fighting misinformation. During times of crisis national security arguments are often evoked to deny freedom of information requests, but it is precisely at such times that trustworthy information from official sources is needed.   Better management of information requests and the implementation of the principles set out in the Tromso Convention prior to the pandemic could have helped to avoid the ‘infodemic’.   Corruption and environmental issues   Access to information is highly relevant in a number of contexts. Opening up archives can play an important role in holding governments to account for their actions or lack thereof and in dealing with the past.   More recently, lack of transparency has also been a central concern where it comes to the use of AI systems in decision-making process. There have been calls for user-friendly public disclosure of algorithms used to allocate welfare payments – which may include an obligation for private parties to be transparent.   Another area where access to information is key is the protection of the environment. In this field, the United Nations Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, commonly referred to as the Aarhus Convention, expands the right of access to information on environmental matters, thus complementing the Tromso Convention.   Rights such as access to information and decision making are the primary tools that empower citizens and defenders to protect the environment we live in. I regret that there are still six Council of Europe member states that have not yet ratified the Aarhus Convention. Ratifying this key instrument is really the absolute minimum.   The right of access to information has a long history on the European continent, which starts with a Swedish law of 1766. But it is only in recent years that most Council of Europe member states have adopted such legislation. The constitutions of several European countries do indeed guarantee the fundamental right to information. Some good state practices also exist. In Estonia, for example, the Public Information Act provides for broad disclosure of public information.   While the vast majority of Council of Europe member states have adopted freedom of information laws, there are still problems with their practical enforcement, such as inconsistent levels of transparency among state institutions or a failure to meet the requirement for proactive disclosure.   Ten states have led the way and will embark on the process of monitoring the implementation of the Tromso Convention.   Once the Convention’s monitoring mechanism is established, as is expected in due course, there will be new opportunities to reinvigorate the right of access to information both in law and in practice.   Now it is up to the Council of Europe member states and non-member states which have not yet ratified the Tromso Convention to do so as soon as possible.   The entry into force of the Tromso Convention today provides a new impetus to make the right of access to official documents a reality for all and for governments to genuinely embrace transparency. They should not miss the opportunity.   http://www.article19.org/right-to-information-around-the-world/ http://www.access-info.org/blog/2020/11/17/council-of-europe-tromso-convention/ Visit the related web page
	Why gender parity and diversity are paramount to a just COVID-19 recovery by Maria Jose Moreno Ruiz Gender Justice Director, Oxfam International   To commemorate International Women’s Day, the United Nations has called for “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 World,” as the day coincides with the dark week when WHO declared the virus a global pandemic.   A year later, the virus has laid bare the stark gender inequality that continues to shape our world. Despite being at the forefront of COVID-19 response, women – particularly those in economic hardships and from marginalized racial and ethnic groups – have borne the brunt of this crisis.   On this day, we must reflect on why this happened and why it is absolutely critical for women and girls – in all their diversity – to have an equal voice and co-lead in rebuilding after COVID-19.   Forced to make impossible choices   Recent Oxfam research revealed that, while COVID-19 lockdowns have generally increased women’s and men’s unpaid care workload, it was women who continued to do the bulk of this work. The report also found that the crisis has forced women to make impossible choices - between abandoning paid employment and care, even when this meant risking facing further destitution.   Women living in poverty, single mothers, and essential and informal workers, many belonging to discriminated against racial and ethnic groups, have been pushed furthest to the margins.   As a result, it is not surprising that women reported feeling more anxious, depressed, overworked or ill because of the increased unpaid work, loss of income and other hardships during this period.   Violence against women also soared in many countries during lockdowns, with 243 millions of women and girls reporting sexual, physical and emotional violence during the pandemic.   Moreover, sexual and reproductive health and services were side-lined during the pandemic. Access to modern contraception, safe delivery or abortion has been reduced. Over the coming 5 years, it is estimated that at least 2.5 million girls will also be forced into early marriage due to poverty, affecting their overall development and exposing them more to unwanted, and in many cases physically dangerous, pregnancies and further gender-based violence from intimate partners who are often older and hold more power in the relationships.   These realities were not born just last year but are the result of longstanding systemic practices, cultural values, patriarchal norms, and political decisions that perpetuated inequality and discrimination.   Why things must change   Diverse and equal representation of all genders in decision-making is paramount to any healthy functioning society and sustainable economy. Collective problem-solving is even more essential at this critical post-pandemic juncture.   As we brace for the second year of the Coronavirus, we face common global challenges. How are we going to deal with the unrest caused by the COVID-19 economic fallout that has exponentially deepened inequalities and pushed millions, particularly women and marginalized racial and ethnic groups to poverty and hunger? How can we ensure everyone, not just rich nations and the privileged few, get the vaccine, so we can end this terrible disease?How can we rebuild a greener and more sustainable world and heal our beaten planet?   To address these challenges, we need the talent of all people. We need diverse perspectives, knowledge, experiences, and commitment to be valued equally, if we are to shape the way forward and rebuild a world that works for all and not just the privileged few.   For example, we want women who have been excluded from accessing land, to help propose new ways forward for land management. We would like women who migrate as domestic workers or nurses, to participate in re-imagining our national and global care systems. Without this diversity we will not be able to confront the complex global dilemmas ahead of us.   Our post-COVID-29 world will look very different if we turn this crisis into an opportunity to engage everyone, regardless of their class, race, religion - in our collective spaces at all levels: at presidencies, religious establishments, civil society organizations, boards, academic institutions or neighbour associations. Only together, we can brave COVID-19 and rebuild a more just world.   But sadly, the reality is far from this picture because many of our institutional machineries are broken and bankrupt. The protection of the common good is hitting new lows, with more citizens losing trust in their leaders to address their problems and concerns.   Many politicians appear regularly in our news feed mishandling facts or public resources, bending to suit big corporates interests, and promoting xenophobia and misogyny.   In many cases, politics has become morally and functionally compromised, since those most impacted by policies – the poorest, women and racial and ethnic minorities above all - are often excluded from decision making tables.   We will rebuild a better world only if we ensure everyone has a voice   We have seen how in Yemen, as in other post-conflict contexts, how women have been largely excluded from formal peace talks despite their courageous participation in peace building at the local level. We have observed how populist regimes around the world have blatantly disregarded women’s rights, and perpetuated a disrespectful rhetoric around migrants, sexual minority communities, ethnic, racial and religious minorities.   We have seen women farmers who lost everything to climate-fuelled events have no say in what rich nations decide at Climate Summits.   Today, we are at a critical crossroad. We have a moral choice to make. Are we going to protect the current broken global economic and social systems that favour the wealthy and privileged? Will we be able to centre our values and practices around equality and care for all people or only a few?   The issues we face together could not be more urgent, and only the collective intelligence, heart and experiences of our humanity can solve them.   I strongly believe that we can and will brave COVID-19 and rebuild a better world if we focus our efforts towards ensuring everyone has a voice. Only by fighting for universal human rights and guaranteeing equal and diverse representation of all genders is at the heart of any COVID-19 recovery, we can rebuild better and transform our societies.   Only then, on International Women’s Day, we can truly celebrate all people living with dignity and freedom.   http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/the-ignored-pandemic-the-dual-crises-of-gender-based-violence-and-covid-19-621309/ http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/ http://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/ Visit the related web page
	View more stories