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October 2019

The Department of International Law Marks International Day for Universal Access to Public Information


The Department of International Law Marks International Day

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.

» For additional information about the Department of International Law (DIL), please visit our Website

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