Peruvian High Court Urged to Disclose Officials' Assets Declarations

NEW YORK—The Open Society Justice Initiative intervened recently in a case before Peru's constitutional tribunal, urging full disclosure of the assets declarations of public officials.

The case, brought by the Lima-based Press and Society Institute, arose from the Ministry of Transportation's refusal to provide full access to the assets declarations of the minister and his deputy. This is the latest in a series of assets declaration cases, which have led to conflicting decisions by various levels of the Peruvian judiciary.

"Transparency of officials' assets and income is a key part of government ethics," said Robert O. Varenik, acting executive director of the Justice Initiative. "Governments must be transparent about this information if they are to be serious about fighting corruption."

The Press and Society Institute has repeatedly argued that Peru's constitution and the 2001 asset declaration law provide for full disclosure of the declarations. However, a June 2001 executive decree limits public disclosure to a brief summary of the declarations, rendering confidential the detailed breakdown of the data provided by the officials.

The friend of the court brief filed by the Justice Initiative with Peru's highest court provides an overview of how countries in Latin America and around the world have reconciled the publication of assets declarations with privacy concerns and other competing interests. The brief argues that assets declarations are an important tool of anticorruption policies adopted by many democratic countries, enhancing accountability and the public's trust in government. Publication of the detailed declarations is essential to ensuring they are credible and effective.

In February 2006, a different section of the Constitutional Tribunal ruled, in a brief opinion, that withholding the detailed assets declarations was consistent with the protection of the right to privacy. In August 2007, however, a lower Lima court, in another case brought by Press and Society Institute, refused to apply the 2001 decree, holding that publication of the detailed declarations is a reasonable and justified restriction of the officials' privacy. The case pending before the constitutional tribunal is expected to help settle the divergent case law.

The current case also gives the Peruvian tribunal an opportunity to elaborate on some of the key principles enunciated in the Inter-American Court of Human Right's 2006 landmark judgment in Claude Reyes v. Chile, which was the first international ruling to recognize the right of access to information as a basic human right.