Applauding previous efforts by the World Assembly to enhance openness and transparency in government such as
GAR #506 (Public Access To Court Records);
Affirming that public access and transparency enhances the ability of citizens to participate in their government and should be encouraged;
Therefore, the following shall be enacted:
- For the purposes of this resolution:
- an infrastructural body is an entity that operates and maintains the network of facilities and public works that support regular public services within of a member state,
- a public body is an entity comprised of two or more individuals granted the right to exercise legislative, executive, or judicial authority on behalf of the government of a member state or its political subdivisions excluding infrastructural bodies and member state militaries, and
- a meeting is the convening of a public body to consider, enforce, or transact governance activities.
- Public bodies shall, to the best of their ability, provide public access to their meetings (which may be physically, digitally, or through any other means they deem appropriate) except as outlined in Article 3.
- Public access to a meeting may be restricted if said meeting:
- relates solely to internal personnel,
- discloses personal information whereby public access would constitute an invasion of personal privacy,
- discloses trade secrets whereby release would violate member state law or private non-disclosure agreements,
- involves national defense or foreign policy whereby revelation of said information would constitute a national security risk, or
- discloses information that, if released prematurely, may cause civil or financial instability of the member state.
- Transcripts must be retained of any meeting for which public access is restricted as outlined in Article 3. Such transcripts must be made publicly accessible after the public body in question is satisfied no undue harm would be done by its release, with redactions allowable for personal information or trade secrets as outlined in Article 3.
- Where a public body refuses public access to one of its meetings and Article 3 demonstrably does not apply, its member state shall act to ensure that the public can access that meeting through some means.
- Nothing of the above shall prevent a public body from removing a meeting attendant who obstructs the meeting through actions which would, regardless of the obstruction itself, otherwise violate member state law.
