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In July 2002, the president of Paraguay signed a highly controversial law on access to information (ATI) that had been passed by Congress. The law, which imposed restrictions on citizens and journalists seeking to obtain public information, drew an outcry from civil society and the international community. In less than three months, the law was repealed.

Paraguay remains one of the last countries in Latin America without an access to information law on the books. For more than 20 years, Paraguay’s 1992 constitution has stipulated the right of citizens to public information, but the country has spent those two decades without a law allowing citizens to exercise that right.

This might change in 2014.

On December 19, the Senate passed an ATI bill, which now awaits action from the lower house. The bill, initially drafted by civil society partners, did not pass without amendment or controversy, but remains a clear attempt to move the country forward on issues of government transparency. It’s also a powerful example of collaboration between citizens and legislators and the impact of a new global open government community.

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News from the OpeningParliament.org community:

In India, one of the newest PMO endorsers, Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), was featured in an article on right to information efforts. Here is an older article on their important efforts. Elsewhere in India, Chaksu Roy of PRS Legislative Research published an article about the need to simplify the language of legislation. The Hindu recently considered the impact of open government data in India.

In Mexico, Eduardo Bohórquez from Transparencia Mexicana and Melissa Ortiz from Fundar appeared on the Congressional Channel’s Pesos y Contrapesos (checks and balances) to discuss Open Parliament.  A study done by Visión Legislativa and Animal Político found that the Senate failed to release complete information to a request about the amount of contracts made between September 2012 and July 2013.  Visión Legislativa wrote an article about budget transparency and how to apply its principles in the context of Mexico. Curul501, in partnership with Visión Legislativa and Borde Político, launched Presupuesto Abierto (Open Budget). We recently highlighted the work of Curul501 in a case study on OpeningParliament.org

In Italy, citizens are demanding more transparency in the work of parliamentary committees. TechPresident recently covered participatory democracy efforts in the country.

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News from the OpeningParliament.org community:

In Argentina, a number of CSOs, including Directorio Legislativo, Poder Ciudadano, and Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ) have partnered with the newspaper La Nacion to launch an interactive website revealing the financial statements of MPs, public officials, and judges. This video (Spanish) explains more about the project, which was 10 years in the making.

In Germany, the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany organized a youth civic hacking event. OKFN Germany’s August activities report is available here. Meanwhile, Parliament Watch examined extra income received by German politicians.

In the United States, the Sunlight Foundation announced procurement open data guidelines to help shape how governments release data on their procurement process. Elsewhere in the U.S., GovTrack founder Josh Tauberer was featured in a profile, the city of San Francisco will test online participatory budgeting, Code For America discussed why civic hacking matters, Fast Company profiled PopVox, and the makers of Politify (now called Outline) finalized a deal to create a “public policy dashboard” for the state of Massachusetts. Outline was also a winner of a Knight Award (the most recent of which went to community-focused open government projects).

In Georgia, Transparency International Georgia detailed key aspects of the new “personal data protection inspector” position and pushed for a proactive publication of government information. JumpStart Georgia also issued a similar call, highlighting its work to make election and parliamentary data open and accessible.

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This update was compiled by my colleague Dustin Palmer, who will be taking over the regular duties of putting this post together. 

News from the parliamentary monitoring community:

In Bangladesh, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) expressed optimism at the opposition party’s decision to join the upcoming budget session of parliament.

In Belgium, the software division of Gov2U was acquired by Scytl, a company focused on election modernization efforts. Also in Belgium, the Open Knowledge Foundation of Belgium took over stewardship of the OpenBelgium website.

In Egypt, the Egyptian Democracy Institute (EDI) released a report on the April 2013 activities of the Shura Council (or Upper House).

In India, a brief profile of the president of PRS Legislative Research was published, amid other news coverage of the country’s parliamentary stalemate.

In Kenya, the PMO Mzalendo published an article detailing the possibly illegal actions of the police during the recent “Occupy Parliament” protest.

In Malaysia, the Sinar Project posted an internship opening in Subang Jaya.

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