The Department of International Law (DIL) of the OAS participated on August 10 in the official presentation of the Consolidated Annual Evaluation and Management Report 2020-2021 of the Guarantor Body of Access to Public Information of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.

During the virtual event, attended by almost 100 participants, the Head of the Body, Dr. Maria Gracia Andía highlighted that the context of the COVID-19 health emergency has demanded an enormous ability to adapt and respond, ensuring that the effective operation of the City's access to public information system and compliance with the statutory deadlines for resolving complaints received by the agency were guaranteed at all times.

Dr. Andía shared data such as the number of requests for access to public information received during 2020, the percentage thereof for which timely responses were given, the subject entities with respect to which more requests were received, and the number of complaints received against subject entities.

The presentation of the report was followed by the panel discussion "Strengthening the Right of Access to Information and Transparency in Governance: Contributions of OAS Model Law 2.0 ", in which the DIL provided an overview of the various ways in which the Inter-American Model Law 2.0 on Access to Public Information may help enable the largest possible number of people to obtain the public information they require in a complete, timely and accessible manner unencumbered by digital, cultural, economic, generational or social gaps, national origin or physical location.

During this presentation, the DILI highlighted the incorporation of a gender perspective to the Model Law 2.0 by design, as well as various provisions on the promotion of the right of access to information among the LGBTI community, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and groups in situations of vulnerability and the mechanisms that the Model Law 2.0 makes available to them for the exercise of this right.

Finally, Dr. María José Méndez Hernández, a consultant in transparency and access to information with extensive experience in Latin America, referred to the need for transparency, prevalent, to be effective rather than just prevalent, for which it must meet standards of intelligibility, quality, utility, bidirectionality and collaboration, among others.

» To visit the DIL’s web page on access to public information, click here.

» To view the Inter-American Model Law 2.0 on Access to Public Information, click here.