Transparency and the right of access to public information reinforce democracy and foster trust in public administration through citizen participation and greater accountability.

Transparency and access to public information initiatives depend to a large extent on the quality, reliability, and accessibility of the public archives that safeguard this information. In this sense, documents are the basis and foundation of open government, and a means of support for the principles of transparency. Properly managed documents also represent an added value for government agencies and for protecting the rights and interests of citizens.

Honduras is one of the countries that have collaborated most actively with EUROsociAL, a European Union programme for social cohesion in Latin America, in improving its national archives system. Using the Document and Archive Management Model created by EUROsociAL within the framework of the Transparency and Access to Information Network (RTA) as starting point, the Institute for Access to Public Information and the Honduran National Archives exchanged experiences with their counterparts in Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, and El Salvador, and particularly with Spain's Sub-Directorate-General of Archives.

As a result of this collaboration, on 20th October 2015, a Draft Law on Archives was introduced in the Legislative Assembly of Honduras for consideration in coming weeks. A prior draft had been agreed upon through a process of open debate with institutions and civil society. This debate included representatives of Honduran state institutions (Congress of the Republic, Supreme Court, Attorney General's Office of the Republic) and associations representing the legal and academic worlds and other private institutions, as well as a significant contingent of professionals linked to the IAIP.

The regulation seeks to define for the first time in the Central American country a legal framework applicable to the organisation, classification, retrieval, restoration, dissemination, and protection of the country's documentary heritage, and guarantee citizens the right of access to public information.

This working line is part of the EUROsociAL action on transparency and anti-corruption, which is coordinated by FIIAPP with the CEDDET Foundation as its operational partner.