Comments on the Bhutanese draft Right to Information Bill

The Government of Bhutan has posted a draft of the Right to Information Bill, 2013, for comment. The draft Bill sets out procedures and other rules to give practical effect to citizens’ right to access information held by public authorities, as guaranteed by Article 7(3) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan. As part of a joint project with International Media Support, CLD has prepared Comments on the draft Bill based on the RTI Rating, a methodology for assessing the strength of legal frameworks for the right to information, developed by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and Access Info Europe. The RTI Bill measures up extremely well, garnering 125 points out of a possible total of 150. This score would place Bhutan in 5th place globally in terms of the legal framework for RTI, behind Serbia (135 points), India and Slovenia (each with 130 points) and Liberia (126 points). The Comments provide an assessment of the RTI Bill against international standards and better national practice, as reflected in the right to information laws of democracies around the world.

Click here to read the Comments