Freedom of Expression
Press Release R110/15
Office of the Special Rapporteur Celebrates
the International Right to Know Day
Washington, D.C. – On the International Right to Know Day -also known as International Day for the Right of Access to Public Information- the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) welcomes the progress made in the legal recognition of the right of access to public information in the region and calls on the member States of the OAS to continue taking the necessary measures for the effective realization of this fundamental human right.
There is growing consensus in the member States of the OAS as to the high importance that the right of access to public information has as one of the pillars of the consolidation of established and robust democratic systems, and as an essential tool for the enforcement of other human rights.
Over the past decade, 22 countries of the hemisphere have enacted laws of access to public information and have established institutional proceedings and mechanisms to protect and guarantee it, largely thanks to the development and promotion of Inter-American standards on the principles that should govern every law on access to information and the obligations that are generated in the State for its successful implementation.
Despite these significant achievements, it is still essential to persist in creating robust supervision institutions with enough power to give life and meaning to the mandates of transparency of the respective laws on access to information. In the region not all bodies so far meet with Inter-American standards of independence, autonomy and power to resolve disputes. The existence of institutional mechanisms is crucial both to enforce the implementation of laws on access to information as to satisfy the right of persons to have a simple, expeditious and effective resource in case of refusal to provide information.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur reiterates the importance of those organizations responsible for defending the right to information to have a budget and human resources that enables them to fulfill the important mission assigned. In this regard, it would be desirable for States to adopt the recommendations made by this office in the report "The Right to Access to Public Information in the Americas: Specialized Supervisory and Enforcement Bodies."
States should also strengthen its actions to implement a culture of transparency, where the right to information is the rule and secrecy a real exception. To that end, the Office recommends to redouble efforts to adopt a systematic policy of training of public officials intended to meet, in each of its facets, the right of access to public information. It is also urged to take more and better policies for disseminating and raising awareness of the right of access to information among people, especially among journalists, human rights defenders and individuals belonging to groups in situations of vulnerability and discrimination, as a tool for the democratization of rights.
Finally, the Rapporteur calls upon States that do not yet have a law on access to information to pave the ways for its early adoption, in accordance with the highest Inter-American standards and regional best practices. Furthermore, the Office takes this day’s opportunity to urge States to ensure that rules limiting access to information for reasons of national security and terrorism comply strictly with the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality, besides having to be used for an imperious purpose, so as to respect the right of access to public information as wide as possible.
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.
R110/15