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Freedom of Information Law: In Kuwait!
17/10/07 22:19 Filed in: Politics
For an extremely long time, Kuwaiti legislators have failed to focus on their most important job description: Legislating. Today, however, I came across one of the most important parliamentary bill proposal, probably in the history of the State. Ahmad Al-Mulaifi, will be introducing a bill in the upcoming parliamentary session that allows for Kuwaiti citizens to retrieve information from any government agency, regarding any issue they wish to learn about. The bill obliges the government to provide the information in no more than 15 days (renewable for another 15 pending that the application requires information from other governmental entities), provided that the information required is not barred.
This legislation is by no means new. Over 200 States have enacted similar laws, collectively referred to as Freedom of Information Legislation. While a constructive and pivotal addition to Kuwaiti law, the peril to the current draft is that it does not specifically indicate the type of information that can be retained. An additional hindering factor is if the applicant does not receive the information in 15 days, (or 30 maximum) their request is rejected, de facto.
While the bill is an important step, I do hope that it will be revisited to take into account the importance of specifying the type of information that can be withheld, and the need to inform applicants directly that there request has been denied.
Sources:
Link 1, 2
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Posted By:
MHG
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