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Key Text Our Rights, Our Information: Empowering People to Demand Rights through Knowledge

Author: Maja Daruwala, Venkatesh Nayak
Date: 2007
Size: 141 pages (2.82MB)

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Summary

Why is the right to information important? How can it be used, and how can it be effectively implemented by governments? This Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative report provides case studies to show that information empowers people to demand adherence to the whole range of their human rights. By establishing the right to information in domestic law and by setting up public information systems, governments can enhance citizens' participation in governance, advance equitable economic development, reduce poverty and fight corruption.

Legal access to information is central to democratic reform. It transfers some of the government's knowledge and power to the people and facilitates participative governance. An effective information access system can fundamentally change the way that a government interacts with its citizens. The right to information can best be effected at national level by means of a right to information law. A law should involve maximum disclosure, minimum exemptions, simple access procedures, and independent appeals mechanisms. Its implementation should be monitored.

The right to information is recognised as a fundamental human right in international and regional human rights law. Information is a public good, and this means that governments must store and organise it so as to promote easy public access. Governments should provide information proactively, as well as in response to requests. The report also finds that:

Legal access to information enables citizens to participate more effectively in governance by helping people to develop and express informed opinions and influence policies.
The right to information further promotes democracy by supporting a free and independent media and by making elections fairer. Voters are enabled to support candidates on the basis of their records rather than hearsay or criteria such as ethnicity or religion.
Information provision can be used to defuse social tensions that may otherwise escalate into violence by facilitating inclusion in governance, showing that minorities' concerns are acted upon and that equal treatment is given to different groups. Divulging information previously covered up on past human rights abuses can reduce resentment in post-conflict situations.

Right to information laws at national level increase government responsiveness to requests for information. The implementation of such a law needs to be monitored and enforced. Governments should also train officials in how to deliver it and educate the public in how to use it. A right to information law should provide for:

Maximum disclosure: all people should have access to all types of information, including that held by private bodies, and the government must regularly disseminate important information.
Minimum exemptions: non-disclosure is only permissible if necessary to protect the public, and all exemptions must be scrutinised. The exemption of broad categories of information and of all information held by particular departments should be avoided.
Simple access procedures: information access should be quick, easy and affordable. Governments must adhere to strict, enforced time limits in providing requested information, and must charge only the cost of reproducing the information. They must ensure that application procedures are simple and that illiterate, disabled or poor people can easily use them.
Independent appeals mechanisms: an independent, impartial appeals and oversight body must be established to monitor and enforce adherence to the law. Sanctions must be actioned, refusals to disclose information should be fully explained, and the appeals process must be cheap, quick and simple.

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Source: Daruwala, M. and Nayak, V. (eds), 2007, 'Our Rights, Our Information: Empowering People to Demand Rights through Knowledge', Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi