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 12