The activity of the Ombudsperson in the field of ensuring the right of access to information has been developed at a new stage

In the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and international legal documents on human rights, the right of access to information enshrines the freedom of everyone to legally seek, obtain, transmit, prepare and disseminate any information.

The Commissioner supervises over execution of duties by the information holding state bodies, municipalities and state officials in accordance with the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On access to information".

According to Article 1.3 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan", the Commissioner supervises over execution of duties by the information holding state bodies, municipalities and state officials in accordance with the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On access to information".

In accordance with the Decree No. 1361 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated May 3, 2017, on the approval of the "List of officials authorized to draw up protocols on cases of administrative offenses heard by district (city) courts" within the framework of this activity of the Ombudsperson, proceedings are being conducted on the administrative offenses provided for in articles 371, 374, 382 and 554 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Administrative proceedings were initiated in more than 30 cases related to the violation of the right of  access to information, proceedings were conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Code of Administrative Offenses, protocols were drawn up, and appeals were responded to.

Thus, within the framework of administrative proceedings, it was found that the requirements of the right to access information were violated by information owners-the officials of the state bodies educational, health and social institutions, departments and enterprises, public legal entities, municipalities, commercial and non-commercial legal entities, accordingly, a protocol on an administrative error was drawn up and sent to the relevant courts, and requests were solved.

In the process of administrative proceedings, it was observed that the cases when information owner gave different and unsubstantiated answers to the applicant's request were not investigated by the court, and thus the administrative offense, which is part of Article 374.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, was not given a legal assessment.

Also, as a result of the investigations of applications, the fulfillment of the duties of disclosing the information by the information owners was ensured.

At the same time, monitoring was carried out and recommendations were made on the the official websites of state institutions and ensuring access to information. Despite the fact that the online application sections of the official websites have been updated taking into account the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Access to Information" and the creation of Internet information resources, there are still shortcomings in this area.

Analyzes of information provided by information owners show that this approach, in addition to ensuring the access of the requesters to the relevant institutions, forms an important experience in ensuring the right to access information and preventing negative situations that may arise in relation to the institutions.

In addition to the above, taking into account the importance of promoting everyone's right to access information freely, unhindered and under equal conditions for all, a series of awareness raising events on the topic "Ensuring the right to access information in the context of human rights" are held for information owners and requesters covering the regions of the country, social videos and educational publications addressed to different groups of population are prepared.

The extensive activity conducted in the direction of promoting this right aims to support reforms carried out for more effective provision of the right to access information, development of the information society and promotion of open government in our country.