Access Info Europe challenges lack of transparency in Spain at European Court of Human Rights

Madrid, 14 April 2014.

Access Info Europe today presented a case against Spain at the European Court of Human Rights challenging the refusal to recognise a right of access to information following a seven-year legal battle to obtain information from the Ministry of Justice about anti-corruption measures.

The case has been presented to the Strasbourg Court after Spain’s Constitutional Court last year rejected an appeal based on the freedom of expression provisions of the Constitution (Article 20.1.a) and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“In a country plagued by corruption scandals, the failure to recognise a right of citizens to request information about anti-corruption measures is a particularly serious violation of the right to know,” commented Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe.

The case is based on a request filed by Access Info Europe in 2007 for information about how Spain is implementing the UN Convention against Corruption and the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The Supreme Court stated that this was “not a request for information” and that, “The Constitution gives only the [legislative] chambers such a right, precisely so that they can exercise political control over the Government”.