21 December 2016
Irina Bokova
Director General
UNESCO
CC:
Getachew Engida, Deputy Director General
Eric Falt, Assistant Director General for External Relations
Frank la Rue, Assistant Director General for Communication and Information
Dear Irina Bokova,
We are writing to you as organisations and individuals working on the right to information, i.e. the right to access information held by public bodies. This has been clearly recognised as a human right under international law, as well as in all three regional systems for human rights in Africa, the Americas and Europe.
We believe that, just as States need to adopt laws to give effect to this right, inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) also need to adopt right to information policies. This flows from the obligation of IGOs to respect human rights guarantees, as well as the benefits that flow from transparency, including building public trust, combating corruption and mismanagement, and fostering democratic engagement and accountability. We are, therefore, pleased to hear that UNESCO is currently developing an access to information policy. This follows developments at a number of other IGOs and is clearly better practice.
We would, at the same time, like to highlight the cardinal importance of engaging in genuine consultations with external stakeholders as part of the process of developing a policy in this area. Such consultations are important for a number of reasons, including to ensure that the final policy reflects the concerns of those for whose benefit it has been developed and to take advantage of the considerable expertise that exists globally on this issue. For such a consultation to be genuine, it must take place early enough in the policy development cycle for the comments received during the consultation to be reflected in the final policy.
We therefore urge UNESCO to release a draft version of its access to information policy as soon as possible rather than trying to reach consensus internally before releasing it, at which point the document would be unduly ‘fixed’ or final for the consultation to be genuine. We, in turn, commit to engaging fulsomely during the consultation process with a view to ensuring that the final policy is as robust as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Organisations
- Access Info Europe, Spain
- Access Now, United States
- Access to Information Programme, Bulgaria
- Advocacy Academy of Timisoara, Romania
- Advocacy and Policy Institute, Cambodia
- Africa Freedom of Information Centre, Uganda
- AfroLeadership, Cameroon
- Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información, the Americas
- ARTICLE 19, United Kingdom
- Asociación Nacional de la Prensa, ANP, Bolivia
- Asociación por los Derechos Civiles, ADC, Argentina
- Cainfo, Uruguay
- Cameroon FOIA Coalition Voice
- Campaign for Freedom of Information, United Kingdom
- Carter Center, United States
- Center for Independent Journalism, Romania
- Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law, Ukraine
- Centre for Law and Democracy, Canada
- Centre for Media Freedom, Morocco
- Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, Pakistan
- Citizens’ Campaign for Right to Information, Nepal
- Code for Croatia
- COLLECITF 24, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, India
- DATA Uruguay
- Directorio Legislativo, Argentina
- Diritto Di Sapere, Italy
- Espacio Público, Venezuela
- Forum Informationsfreiheit, Austria
- Foundation Open Society – Macedonia
- Freedom of Information Center, Armenia
- Fundación Democracia sin Fronteras, Honduras
- Fundación Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaragua
- Fundamedios, Ecuador
- Fundar, Mexico
- Fusades, El Salvador
- Global Forum for Media Development, Belgium
- GONG, Croatia
- Hungarian Civil Liberties Union/Társaság a Szabadságjogokért
- Info House Slovenia
- Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development, Pakistan
- Instituto de Derecho y Economía Ambiental, IDEA, Paraguay
- Integrity Action, United Kingdom
- Lex Enterpreneur, Nigeria
- Life Line to Citizen, India
- Moroccan Access to Information Network
- n-ost, Germany
- National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, India
- Open Knowledge Foundation Germany
- Open Society Foundation, Serbia
- Palestinian Center For Development & Media Freedoms, MADA, Palestine
- Privacy and Access Council of Canada — Conseil du Canada de l’Accès et la vie Privée
- PRO MEDIA, Macedonia
- Research Initiatives, Bangladesh
- Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association, Canada
- Satark Nagrik Sangathan, India
- Transparencia por Colombia, Colombia
- Transparency International
Individuals
- Muhammad Aftab Alam, Legal Expert, Media Law and RTI, Pakistan
- Mukhtar Ahmad Ali, Information Commissioner Punjab, Pakistan
- Linda Austere, RTI Activist
- Staffan Dahllöf, Freelance Journalist, Denmark
- Dr. Fatima Diallo, Academic, Senegal
- Shushan Doydoyan, RTI Expert, Armenia
- Said Essoulami, Morocco
- Francesca Fanucci, Lawyer – Consultant on Freedom of Expression, United Kingdom
- Dr. David Goldberg, Director Project Forsskal, United Kingdom
- Dwight Hines, Ph.D., United States
- Gabriela Edith Morales Martínez, Specialist on Access to Information and Accountability, Mexico
- Lourdes Morales, Accountability Network, Mexico
- Venkatesh Nayak, RTI Activist, India
- Sharon Polsky MAPP, Privacy & Access-to-Information Advocate, Canada
- Dr. Jeannine Relly, The University of Arizona, United States
- Dr. Andrew Scott, Associate Professor, LSE, London
- Yahia Shukkeir, Media Expert and RTI Activist, Jordan
- Santosh Sigdel, RTI Activist, Nepal
- Peter Timmins, Lawyer, Open and Shut, Australia
- Professor Kalim Ullah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Commission, Pakistan
- Roger Vleugels, Legal Advisor and FOI Lecturer, the Netherlands
- Dirk Voorhoof, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University, Belgium
- Dr. Mark Weiler, Librarian, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada