The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is celebrating the 10th anniversary of International Right to Know Day by launching two comparative publications and by hosting a debate on the right to know. “Incredible progress has been made on the right to information in the last the years,” said CLD Executive Director Toby Mendel. “But far more needs to be done. Implementation languishes in many countries and much remains to be done in terms of pushing information out to citizens. Our Right to Know Day work reflects both of these recurring themes.”
Study on Better Practices by election commissions
CLD is today launching a study on better practice approaches to the provision of information by bodies which oversee elections (election commissions). The study provides a comparative view of how election commissions perform in seven key areas – including voter education, informing the electorate about parties and candidates, being open themselves and the controversial issue of releasing election resuts – along with recommendations for better practice.
Click here to read the Election Commissions Study (in English) (in Bahasa Indonesian)
Study on Canadian Jurisdictions
The RTI Rating is an objective and scientific tool for assessing the quality of legal frameworks for the right to information. CLD has rated the legal frameworks for information in all 14 Canadian jurisdictions (federal, provincal and territorial). All 14 jurisdictions fall seriously short in terms of protecting the right to information, with the federal system rating 55th globally when compared to other countries. It is time for Canadians to stand up and protest against this miserable performance.
Click here to see the Canadian Rating and accompanying Analysis
Debate on the Status of the Right to Know
To mark Right to Know Day, CLD is hosting a debate on the status of the right to know in Canada and globally. Join the conversation by sending comments to @law_democracy on Twitter or debate@law-democracy.org, or follow us on #righttoknow or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Centre-for-Law-and-Democracy/164303533623512. Those in Halifax can join us at the Hub, 1673 Barrington Street.
FOIAnet’s 10-10-10 Statement
CLD would like to thank the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet) for its tremendous work over the last ten years, and for serving as a centre of support and motivation for groups working on the right to information. FOIAnet’s 10-10-10 Statement on its achievements over the last ten years, the challenges that it faces and its priority goals for the next ten years encapsulates the work of the organisation.
