On September 28, 2002,
activists from around the world gathered in
Bulgaria to define strategies to promote the
protection and dissemination of the right of
access to information. In 2015, noting that
different civil society organizations and
government agencies from around the World had
been observing September 28 as the international
day of the right to know, UNESCO officially
proclaimed this date as the International Day
for Universal Access to Public Information.
This right enables and
promotes the enjoyment and exercise of other
human rights, such as the right to health,
education, and a healthy environment, since it
lends transparency to criteria used in
designing, implementing, funding, and evaluating
public policies. It may also be a tool for
investigative journalism, a means to obtain
documentary evidence for use in judicial
proceedings, and a tool to promote regulatory
improvements. Furthermore, this right is
especially relevant to the pursuit of 2030
Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG), particularly Goal 16.10, which refers to
guaranteed access to public information and the
protection of fundamental liberties.
The OAS has played a key role
part in disseminating the right of access to
information, creating and promoting
international standards and principles
guaranteeing access to information at all levels
of the State, including the three branches of
government, mainly through the adoption in 2010
of the
Model Inter-American Law on Access to
Information (2010), and the
Inter-American Program on Access to Public
Information (2016).
The implementation of both
the Inter-American Program and the Model
Inter-American Law in the countries of the
Hemisphere, as well as the modernization process
now under way, are led by the Department of
International Law (DIL) of the Secretariat for
Legal Affairs of the OAS.
Access to Information establishes
entitlement to seek, receive, and disseminate
data, ideas, and all types of information of
public interest. As a collective right, access
to information is relevant in strengthening the
democratic rule of law, since its exercise
ensures transparency and allows for free access
to information in the possession of State
institutions, thus constituting a mechanism for
societal control of government.
Since its adoption, the Model
Law has served as a referent for countries
wishing to improve their laws or adopt new
legislation in this area that reflects the
Inter-American standards. The Department of
International Law has supported many of these
processes and collaborated with reforms to
existing, and the enactment of, new legislation
and other measures promoting the right to obtain
information, especially in Argentina, Dominican
Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.
For further advancement of
this field, the highest body of the OAS, the
General Assembly, at its 2017 session requested
the DIL to identify thematic areas in which it
considers it necessary to update or broaden the
Model Inter-American Law. This was achieved
through a process of consultation with the
entities guaranteeing access to information of
the OAS Member States and civil society, which
concluded in April 2019.
The outcome of this process
was detailed in a document that was delivered
this past June to the Inter-American Juridical
Committee (consultative organ of the OAs in
juridical matters for which the DIL serves as
technical secretariat) as an input for its study
of the areas to be strengthened or expanded upon
in a new Inter-American Model Law on Access to
Public Information 2.0 The Committee will
undertake a discussion of the matter in its
upcoming regular sessions scheduled for March
2020.
The DIL thus reaffirms its
commitment to continue promoting opportunities
for collaboration that strengthen the right of
access to public information in the region, and
joins civil society, international organizations
and the OAS Member States’ initiatives to
highlight the importance of this date.
» For the Model Inter-American Law on
Access to Public Information,
click here
» For the Inter-American Program on Access to Public Information,
click here
For further information on this matter, please contact the Department of International Law of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs of the OAS +1 202 370 0743.