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UNESCO Conference Calls
on Governments to Adopt FOI Laws
DAKAR, TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2005: The 2005
UNESCO-sponsored World Press Freedom Day conference today adopted a
Declaration asking governments around the world to provide comprehensive
legal guarantees for the right of access to information for their
citizens.
The “Final Declaration” called on member states of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to
“ensure that government bodies respect the principles of transparency,
accountability and public access to information in their operations.”
Held in Dakar, Senegal, from May 1 to 3, 2005, the
conference focused on the theme of “Media and Good Governance” and was
attended by government officials, representatives of inter-governmental
bodies, media professionals, human rights activists, and other
participants from around the world.
The Declaration recalled the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals, which set out a human rights-based approach to
development, in which participation and transparency in decision-making,
empowerment and accountability play a key role.
It also noted that greater participation by citizens in
democratic processes, the rule of law, transparency and accountability,
access to information, poverty reduction and human rights are key elements
of good governance.
It emphasized the right to freely access information held
by public bodies as a vital component of good governance.
The Declaration therefore called on UNESCO’s member states
to “provide for comprehensive legal guarantees for the right to access
information recognizing the right to access information held by all public
bodies, and requiring them to publish key categories of information and to
introduce effective systems of record management.”
It also enjoined them to promote wide public awareness of
laws and policies relating to access to information held by public bodies
and to follow the principle that legislative bodies should be open to the
public.
The Declaration asked UNESCO to sensitize governments,
parliamentarians and public institutions about the importance of freedom
of expression, including freedom to access, to produce and to share
information.
It urged UNESCO to promote the adoption of national access
to information legislation and to develop international principles on
access to information while adopting its own organizational policy
providing for access to the information it holds. |
