From: mkaranico...@gmail.com <mkaranico...@gmail.com> Date: Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 7:28 AM Subject: [ogp] CLD: Joint Letter Regarding UNESCO’s Access to Information Policy To: OGP Civil Society group <o...@dgroups.org>
[image: http://law-democracy.org/live/email/law-logo-email.jpg] <http://www.law-democracy.org/live> For Immediate Release ⚬ 21 December 2016 Joint Letter Regarding UNESCO’s Access to Information Policy <http://www.law-democracy.org/live/joint-letter-regarding-unescos-access-to-information-policy/> Please find attached the final version of a Joint Letter to UNESCO, regarding their Access to Information Policy (sorry about the false start yesterday): Irina Bokova Director General UNESCO 21 December 2016 Via email: i.bok...@unesco.org CC: Getachew Engida, Deputy Director General (g.eng...@unesco.org) Eric Falt, Assistant Director General for External Relations ( e.f...@unesco.org) Frank la Rue, Assistant Director General for Communication and Information ( f.la-...@unesco.org) 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* 1. Access Info Europe, Spain 2. Access Now, United States 3. Access to Information Programme, Bulgaria 4. Advocacy Academy of Timisoara, Romania 5. Advocacy and Policy Institute, Cambodia 6. Africa Freedom of Information Centre, Uganda 7. AfroLeadership, Cameroon 8. Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información, the Americas 9. ARTICLE 19, United Kingdom 10. Asociación Nacional de la Prensa, ANP, Bolivia 11. Asociación por los Derechos Civiles, ADC, Argentina 12. Cainfo, Uruguay 13. Cameroon FOIA Coalition Voice 14. Campaign for Freedom of Information, United Kingdom 15. Carter Center, United States 16. Center for Independent Journalism, Romania 17. Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law, Ukraine 18. Centre for Law and Democracy, Canada 19. Centre for Media Freedom, Morocco 20. Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, Pakistan 21. Citizens' Campaign for Right to Information, Nepal 22. Code for Croatia 23. COLLECITF 24, Democratic Republic of Congo 24. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, India 25. DATA Uruguay 26. Directorio Legislativo, Argentina 27. Diritto Di Sapere, Italy 28. Espacio Público, Venezuela 29. Forum Informationsfreiheit, Austria 30. Foundation Open Society - Macedonia 31. Freedom of Information Center, Armenia 32. Fundación Democracia sin Fronteras, Honduras 33. Fundación Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Nicaragua 34. Fundamedios, Ecuador 35. Fundar, Mexico 36. Fusades, El Salvador 37. Global Forum for Media Development, Belgium 38. GONG, Croatia 39. Hungarian Civil Liberties Union/Társaság a Szabadságjogokért 40. Info House Slovenia 41. Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development, Pakistan 42. Instituto de Derecho y Economía Ambiental, IDEA, Paraguay 43. Integrity Action, United Kingdom 44. Lex Enterpreneur, Nigeria 45. Life Line to Citizen, India 46. Moroccan Access to Information Network 47. n-ost, Germany 48. National Campaign for People's Right to Information, India 49. Open Knowledge Foundation Germany 50. Open Society Foundation, Serbia 51. Palestinian Center For Development & Media Freedoms, MADA, Palestine 52. Privacy and Access Council of Canada — Conseil du Canada de l'Accès et la vie Privée 53. PRO MEDIA, Macedonia 54. Research Initiatives, Bangladesh 55. Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association, Canada 56. Satark Nagrik Sangathan, India 57. Transparencia por Colombia, Colombia 58. Transparency International *Individuals * 1. Muhammad Aftab Alam, Legal Expert, Media Law and RTI, Pakistan 2. Mukhtar Ahmad Ali, Information Commissioner Punjab, Pakistan 3. Linda Austere, RTI Activist 4. Staffan Dahllöf, Freelance Journalist, Denmark 5. Dr. Fatima Diallo, Academic, Senegal 6. Shushan Doydoyan, RTI Expert, Armenia 7. Said Essoulami, Morocco 8. Francesca Fanucci, Lawyer - Consultant on Freedom of Expression, United Kingdom 9. Dr. David Goldberg, Director Project Forsskal, United Kingdom 10. Dwight Hines, Ph.D., United States 11. Gabriela Edith Morales Martínez, Specialist on Access to Information and Accountability, Mexico 12. Lourdes Morales, Accountability Network, Mexico 13. Venkatesh Nayak, RTI Activist, India 14. Sharon Polsky MAPP, Privacy & Access-to-Information Advocate, Canada 15. Dr. Jeannine Relly, The University of Arizona, United States 16. Dr. Andrew Scott, Associate Professor, LSE, London 17. Yahia Shukkeir, Media Expert and RTI Activist, Jordan 18. Santosh Sigdel, RTI Activist, Nepal 19. Peter Timmins, Lawyer, Open and Shut, Australia 20. Professor Kalim Ullah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Commission, Pakistan 21. Roger Vleugels, Legal Advisor and FOI Lecturer, the Netherlands 22. Dirk Voorhoof, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University, Belgium 23. 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