1.1. The purpose of this PAIA Guide
This Guide provides information on the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) 2 of
2000. This PAIA Guide will assist people in making requests for information under the Act,
and provide examples on how the Act has been used in the past to advance human rights,
by providing:
An easy to understand overview of PAIA
A breakdown of how PAIA can be used to advance
other human rights
A list of types of information which can be
requested using PAIA
A step-by-step guide on how to use PAIA to make
an information request
An overview of lessons learnt from past
information request and PAIA court cases
This Guide was developed the through the collaborative joint experiences of the staff of the
SAHRC who have been working with PAIA and assisting people with making requests since
2000.
South African Human Rights Commission
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