Model letter to the Chairman of Council of Europe
Below is an example of the letter to be sent to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, current Chairman of the Council of Europe. You can open it by
clicking here
and send directly, OR you can copy and paste the text into an e-mail, OR you can print it and send by post.
If sending by e-mail, please send to
and please be sure to copy
. Thanks in advance.
Mr. Carl Bildt
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden,
and Chairman of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Gustav Adolfs torg 1
SE-103 39 Stockholm
e-mail:
Fax +46 8 723 11 76
CC: Terry Davis
Secretary General
Council of Europe
e-mail:
Dear Minister Bildt
I am writing to raise serious concerns about the draft Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, due to be adopted during your Chairmanship.
The future Convention will establish a right of access to “official documents” held by the administration. I believe that the right of access to information – being a human right – applies to all information held by all branches of government and all private bodies exercising administrative authority, performing public functions or operating with public funds. The draft Convention should be changed to reflect this.
I also call for the future Convention to enshrine the basic standards of most access to information law: it should require that States set maximum time-limits for processing requests, and that States guarantee that requestors have access to an appeals body with the power to make decisions that are binding on public authorities. There should be no special exceptions for specific government institutions such as the head of state.
I urge the Council of Europe to reconsider the draft Convention and to ensure that it establishes a strong right of access to information for all 800 million Europeans.
I also call on the Council of Europe and its member governments to ensure that the future Convention has a strong and well-resourced monitoring mechanism that promotes full respect for the right in practice.
