Freedom of Expression
Press Release R 58/15
New report
Comparative Study of Specialized Supervisory and Enforcement Bodies for Access to Public Information in the Hemisphere
Washington, DC. – The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression is pleased to present the thematic report "The Right to Access to Public Information in the Americas: Specialized Supervisory and Enforcement Bodies", recently approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). More than twenty countries of the region have passed access to public information laws, encouraged by Inter-American standards on this issue. However, the creation of institutions to implement and enforce these laws has not followed common standards[1].
In this report, the Office of the Special Rapporteur analyzes the institutional design of the bodies responsible for implementing and enforcing laws on access to public information in ten countries of the hemisphere. This comparative study includes the varying degrees of independence and autonomy of each of these agencies, the mechanisms for appointing their authorities, their attributes or functions addressed to ensure access to information, access to its mechanisms and efficiency in resolving disputes.
Thus, there is a variety of organizations in the region, with different degrees of autonomy, various features and functions to meet the other state agencies with transparency obligations, which results in varying degrees of protection for people and organizations seeking to exercise their right to information in the countries of the hemisphere.
In some States the laws provide for a specialized mechanism for the guarantee of the right to access to information before an autonomous, independent, and specialized administrative agency; in other places, the law provides for the creation of specialized administrative agencies that do not issue binding decisions, or assign the defense of this right to authorities such as the Ombudsman of the People or Office of the Attorney General as part of their duties.
In short, the countries of the Americas have begun to develop—slowly and laboriously—a community of public entities for the promotion and protection of access to public information. The paragraphs below provide descriptive information on the design and practices of several such supervisory bodies in the hemisphere, in terms of their features, powers, and duties that are considered key to the effective exercise and enforcement of the right to access to information, such as: the independence and autonomy of the bodies; their composition and mechanisms for the appointment and removal of their authorities; the duties they perform; the mechanisms they have developed to manage requests, monitor compliance with transparency obligations, compile statistics, and to classify and declassify information.
Finally, in this document the Office of the Special Rapporteur also puts into the member States consideration a set of recommendations and principles that are intended to be a guide for governments, legislative and administrative bodies, courts and civil society, to adopt legislation and practices, aiming to reach full respect of the right of access to public information.
To read the full report, click here.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression was created by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to encourage the defense of the right to freedom of thought and expression in the hemisphere, given the fundamental role this right plays in consolidating and developing the democratic system.
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