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Access to Information
The Law on Freedom of Access to Information at the institutional level of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2023.
This law prescribes the right to access information and reuse documents in the possession of BiH government institutions, legal entities that establish BiH institutions in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Registration of Legal Entities that Establish BiH Institutions and Independent Bodies of BiH established by a special law, which is exercised on manner and in the procedure prescribed by this law. The law takes over the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the reuse of public sector information.
The aim of this law is to enable and ensure the realization of the right to free access to information for natural and legal persons through the openness and publicity of the activities of BiH institutions, in accordance with international treaties on human rights and freedoms and generally accepted rules of international law, this and other laws, and in order to achieve protection of public interests and realization of free and democratic order and open society.
The BiH institution is obliged to provide access to information:
a) timely publication of information about its work in an appropriate and accessible manner, i.e. on the websites of BiH institutions, the Central Public Information Portal of BiH institutions or publication in an official or public gazette;
b) by providing information to the user who submitted the request in one of the following ways:
1) by directly providing information;
2) providing information in writing;
3) enabling inspection of documents and making a copy of the document containing the requested information;
4) by submitting a copy of the document containing the requested information;
5) otherwise suitable for exercising the right to access information.
The applicant can indicate in the request for access to information the appropriate method of receiving the information, and if this is not the case, the information will be delivered in the manner in which the request was submitted, that is, in the most economical way.
The BiH institution that is the owner of the requested information shall decide on the request for access to information.
The written request contains: the name and seat of the BiH institution; data essential for identifying the requested information, the name, surname, and address of the natural person who is the user of the information, or the name and seat of the legal entity. A request submitted by electronic mail is considered a written request, if it contains all the elements listed in the written request.
The applicant is not obliged to state the reasons for requesting access to information.
If the institution of BiH that received the request is not the owner of the information, it is obliged, within eight days of receiving the request, to transfer the request to the institution of BiH that, in accordance with its competences, owns the information and inform the applicant thereof, and in that case the deadline for resolving the request runs from the day the request was received by the BiH institution to which it was addressed.
If the BiH institution does not possess the information and cannot, with a reasonable effort, determine which BiH institution is the owner of the information, within eight days it will issue a conclusion on the request by which it will reject the request due to lack of jurisdiction, with an instruction on the right to appeal to the Appeals Council at the Council of Ministers of BiH.
Based on the request for access to information, the BiH institution is obliged to decide with a decision on the request for access to information without delay, and no later than within 15 days from the date of submission of the formal request.
In case of an incomplete or incomprehensible request, the BiH institution will invite the applicant to correct it within five days from the day of receipt of the request for correction.
The deadline of 15 days can be extended by another five working days, counting from the day when the institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina should have decided on the request for access to information in the event that one request contains a large number of different information, of which the institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is obliged to inform the applicant without delay and state the reasons for which the deadline was extended.
If the institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not decide on the request for access to information within the prescribed deadlines, the applicant has the right to file an appeal due to the administration's silence.
The applicant can file an appeal against the decision of the BiH institution made on the occasion of the request for access to information to the Appeals Council of the Council of Ministers of BiH within 15 days from the date of receipt of the decision.
The request for access to information is submitted to the information officer appointed by the BiH institution.
Access to information may be restricted in order to protect private natural persons, to protect personal data of users and third parties, in accordance with the law governing the protection of personal data.
In addition to the rest stated in the Law, access to information may be limited if it can be expected that by enabling access to information, serious damage would occur with respect to the following interests:
a) of national security and international relations, if the information is classified as confidential in accordance with the law or a general act passed on the basis of the law prescribing data confidentiality;
b) of public order, if the information is classified as confidential in accordance with the law or a general act passed on the basis of the law prescribing the confidentiality of data;
c) during the inspection, control and supervision carried out by the institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if its publication would prevent the work of the body that carries out administrative supervision, inspection supervision, i.e. supervision of the legality of work and acts;
d) commercial and other economic interests and economic, monetary and exchange rate policy and
e) environment.
Until the adoption of the Law on Freedom of Access to Information at the level of the institutions of BiH, the Law on Freedom of Access to Information in BiH was applied, which was adopted in 2000 and amended several times.
The content is available in the official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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