Information obligation law
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Information obligation law |
| Long title: | Federal Act of 15 May 1987 on the Federal Administration's Obligation to Provide Information and an Amendment to the Federal Ministries Act 1986 |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Republic of Austria |
| Legal matter: | Administrative law |
| Reference: | Federal Law Gazette No. 287/1987 |
| Date of law: | May 15, 1987 |
| Effective date: | January 1, 1988 |
| Last change: | BGBl. I No. 158/1998 |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version ! | |
According to the Federal Law on Information Requirement , full title Federal Law of May 15, 1987 on the Federal Administration's Obligation to Provide Information and an amendment to the Federal Ministries Act 1986 , all organs of the Federal Republic of Austria are obliged to provide information in writing, orally or by telephone. In the Federal Constitutional Act , the information obligation for authorities is anchored in Article 20, Paragraph 4. The obligation to provide information Act serves to administrative transparency , which in other countries through freedom of information laws and the principle of public access is achieved. With the Information Obligation Act, the federal states have implemented largely identical laws at state level.
Application of the law
The information can only be refused in the event of willful inquiries or if the information conflicts with an obligation of confidentiality , such as official secrecy , or if this hampers the office in the performance of its duties (Sections 1 and 2 of the Law on Obligation to Provide Information). The information must be given without undue delay, but at the latest within eight weeks. In the event of a postponement, the person asking the question must be informed (Section 3 Law on Obligation to Provide Information). It should be noted that it is difficult to refer to oral statements later.
Inquiries on environmental issues can be made in accordance with the Environmental Information Act (and the corresponding federal state laws), which grants citizens a more far-reaching right to information and faster response times than the Information Obligation Act.
Inquiries to authorities according to the Duty to Provide Information Act and the corresponding federal state laws can be processed via the civil society platform Frag Den Staat and made publicly comprehensible upon request.
International context
An international comparison shows that the Information Obligation Act does not meet the standards of a Freedom of Information Act. In an assessment of national laws on the right to access information, the Information Obligation Act is the weakest regulation among more than 110 countries.
In 2013, the Republic of Austria was convicted by the European Court of Human Rights in the landmark complaint 'Austrian Association for the Preservation, Strengthening and Creation of Economically Healthy Agricultural and Forestry Property Against Austria' for violating Article 10 (2) of the European Convention on Human Rights . A Tyrolean state authority had denied an NGO that was classified as a 'social watchdog' access to anonymized information about the designation of second homes.
Discussion about freedom of information law
The introduction of a freedom of information law has been discussed since 2013, and a draft was approved by the constitutional committee in November 2015. A resolution of the law, for which a 2/3 majority is necessary, would make the Information Obligation Act obsolete.
The discussion was driven in particular by the civil rights organization Forum Freedom of Information, which advocates the abolition of official secrecy as a fundamental right to access information from authorities.
See also
Web links
- Information Obligation Act as amended, ris.bka
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://FragDenStaat.at
- ^ Right to Information Rating , produced by Access Info Europe and the Center For Law And Democracy. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
- ↑ Judgment of the ECHR in the Austrian Association for Preservation, Strengthening (...) vs. Austria ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. RIS , accessed October 14, 2016
- ↑ Parlament.gv.at - Assessment of the Freedom of Information Act in the Constitutional Committee
- ^ Forum Freedom of Information - Timeline of the discussion for a transparency law
