Unlock the doors: How greater transparency by public and private bodies can improve the realisation of environmental rights

The realisation of the Constitutional right to a healthy environment is dependent on the ability of individuals, communities, civil society organisations, companies and decision-makers to access information about the state of the environment and the impact of human activities. In July 2010, the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), with the support of the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, began investigating and assessing the extent to which information about environmental decision- making and impacts was accessible to communities and civil society organisations. While we anticipated some difficulty in obtaining certain types of environ- mental information, we could not have predicted the astonishing results of this project: with a few notable exceptions, both public and private bodies failed to give access to even the most basic environmental information, in violation of their obligations under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA) and the principles of environmental governance set out in the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (NEMA). The CER’s report Unlock the doors: How greater trans- parency by public and private bodies can improve the realisation of environmental rights is an analysis of 98 PAIA requests and 42 formal requests for information made to 17 public and 35 private bodies. The report also analyses and describes the hundreds of phone calls made and emails sent following up on requests for information, and the matters that eventually ended up in applications to the High Court.

Publisher: Centre for Environmental Rights
Year of Publication: 2012