Initiatives for transparency and access to public information depend to a large extent on the quality, reliability and accessibility of the public archives that contain this information. In this sense, documents are the basis and foundation for open government, and underpin 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 does not currently have legislation that affords citizens complete, effective and direct access to specific State documents; nor does it have an efficient physical and digital storage system that aggregates handwritten and printed documents from all government agencies that would serve as a true national archive, despite the fact that the National Archive of Honduras was created in 1880.

In this context, the Institute for Access to Public Information  (IAIP), with the support of the Program EUROsociAL, a programme of the European Commission, held an international workshop in Tegucigalpa from 13th to 15th May 2015 to promote a new archives law in Honduras. The purpose of this event was to share the draft archives law and generate input on it.

Experts from Spain, Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador and Mexico participated in the workshop, in addition to civil society and various Honduran government institutions (Congress of the Republic, Supreme Court of Justice, General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic), associations representing the legal and academic worlds, and other private institutions. A number of professionals linked to the IAIP also attended.  

The purpose of the draft archives law is to define the legal framework applicable to the organisation, classification, recovery, restoration, conservation, expurgation, dissemination and protection of the Documentary Heritage of the Nation, and to guarantee citizens access to public information. The draft law contains 95 articles which regulate not only the custody and issuance of information requested from the National Archive but also prohibit access to certain documents, and include administrative and criminal penalties for current and former government employees responsible for each institutional archive.

This EUROsociAL working line is within the framework of its working lines on transparency and access to information, which are coordinated by the FIIAPP, with the CEDDET Foundation as its operational partner.