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.