The Valparaíso Court of Appeals rejected the claim of illegality presented by the Municipality of Valparaíso against the decision of the Council for Transparency (CPLT), which partially accepted an amparo filed before the agency requiring the delivery of information on proceedings and other background information.
The municipality had resorted to this judicial instance to oppose the Council’s decision, alleging the violation of the privacy of those affected, by forcing them to submit records on all the proceedings initiated against municipal officials and former officials, for mistreatment at work, workplace harassment, sexual harassment and discrimination between 2017 and 2022.
The building house presented the claim “despite the fact that the CPLT in its decision establishes that all personal and context sensitive data contained in the documentation that is delivered must be recorded,” the Council said in a statement.
The Board of Directors of the CPLT agreed to admit this amparo for processing by establishing that “it is information of a public nature” and by ruling out the cause alleged by the municipality of undue distraction from its functions as it deals with data that contemplate a period of six years.
The president of the CPLT, Francisco Leturia, commented that “there are few things in which there is a jurisprudence as uniform as the indictments for cases of harassment. They must be public, they are one of the things where transparency is most justified”.
He added that in the case of the decision made by the Council, the cause to which the agency alluded was dismissed and commented that the undue distraction of functions is widely used by the institutions, and not only should it be alluded to, but it should prove.
Regarding the actions taken by the municipality, he said that “everyone has the right to go to court and defend themselves. But the State bodies must have a higher standard.”
“Spending public resources and occupying court time in cases with little support, and which end up causing delays and affecting people’s rights, is something that should be taken more seriously,” he added.
The Municipality of Valparaíso has a period of 5 days from being notified of the court’s decision to appeal the complaint to the Supreme Court.
