Cairo July 26, 2012

ANHRI welcomes the issuance, after a long debate, a law organizes the right to obtain information. Yemen is the third Arab country to issue a legal text that deals with such right. The issuance of the said law delayed because the temporary president “Abduraboh Mansour Hadi” objected some articles of the draft law, as the Yemeni Constitution stipulated that the president ratification to be an enforced law.

The Law stipulates the establishment of “Office for the General Commission for Information”, and enjoys the legal person as well as the required independence to exercise its work and appoint an office for independent budget and shall be included in the public budget.

The law stipulates granting the national information center powers to give people the information they desires in cheap cost, the administrative unquestioning  of the employee who give information and in case of refrains, the employee shall declare the reasons in written.

The law stipulates the principle of privacy protection, therefore, no entity may not collect, process, save or use the personal data of the citizen by violating of constitution and laws.

ANHRI said that “although some reservations on the recent amendments, but we welcome the issuance of the law, the approval of the right to obtain information to the Yemeni citizens and answers the claims of the civil society organizations, journalists and rights advocates”.

ANHRI added “the law facilitates obtaining of the information, promotes transparency, helps in corruption-combat and the good utilization of the information, in application with the right of every human to obtain information. Furthermore, the law will support the media-staff to perform their work in a better way and depending on accurate information”.

ANHRI welcomes the step on the exchange of information freedom and also it calls all the Arab countries to take the same step and issue law approve the right of obtain and freedom of exchange of information.