On June 17, the Department of International Law (DIL) of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs of the OAS, together with the European Union's Cooperation Program with Latin America EUROsociAL+, the Transparency and Access to Information Network (RTA), and the Government of Spain’s Sub-Directorate of State Archives of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, held a virtual event to present the Inter-American Model Law on Document Management and its Implementation Guide.

Both the Model Law on Document Management and its Application Guide are annexes to the Inter-American Model Law 2.0 on Access to Public Information approved by the OAS General Assembly in October 2020, and were created as an additional input to allow Member States to better integrate their regulation on access to public information with the appropriate creation, preservation, classification and custody of the documentary heritage that contains said information.

In his opening remarks, the Director of the DIL, Dr. Dante Negro, stressed that the principle of maximum disclosure enshrined in Model Law 2.0 on Access to Public Information consists of the delivery of complete, timely and accessible information, for which it is essential to have appropriate document management that makes it possible, in practice, for subject entities to comply with this principle.

Likewise, Dr. Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena, Presiding Commissioner of Mexico’s National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Data Protection (INAI), speaking on behalf of the Chair of the RTA, referred to the important role played by national archives and archivists in an effective system of access to public information, while Dr. Marc Litvine, Senior Expert in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships reflected on the need for greater transparency and for increasing citizens’ ability to obtain public information at a time when their trust in government or political institutions must be reinforced.

Finally, Dr. Emma de Ramón Acevedo, President of the Latin American Archives Association highlighted the importance of people who specialize in archives management as a fundamental piece to preserve and keep archival heritage vital and useful and called for close coordination between guarantor bodies and general archives.

The event had two panels in which experts Severiano Hernández, Spain’s Deputy Director General of State Archives at the Ministry of Culture and Sports; Ricard Pérez, Spain’s Head of the Document Management and Electronic Archives Area at the Sub-Directorate of State Archives of the Ministry of Culture and Sports; Gloria de la Fuente, Presiding Councilwoman of Chile’s Council for Transparency; Josefina Román Vergara, Commissioner of Mexico’s INAI; Ángel Sánchez López, Coordinator of the Working Group on Access to Information and Transparency of the Latin American Association of Archives; Alejandra Villar, Head of Archives of Uruguay’s Unit of Access to Public Information; and Óscar Campos, Head of Archives at El Salvador’s Institute for Access to Public Information.

The nearly 200 participants from across the Ibero-American region also had the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists in real time.