Centre for Law and Democracy

16 November 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) has submitted Observations on the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI’s) draft Access to Information Policy. This draft would replace the current Access to Information Policy, which dates from 2020. The Observations welcome a number of positive proposed changes to the Policy but also call for further improvements, including significant changes to the regime of exceptions and putting in place an independent appeal option.

“CABEI’s Access to Information Policy lags significantly behind better practice in this area among international financial institutions,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director, CLD. “The new proposals incorporate some important positive changes but do not go nearly far enough. We urge CABEI to introduce further reforms before adopting the new policy so as to bring it into line with the transparency commitments of peer institutions.”

The draft Policy introduces some notable improvements, including establishing a clearer presumption in favour of the disclosure of information subject only to defined exceptions. There are also new provisions on accessibility and the draft formalises the existence of the internal Access to Information Unit.

However, in other areas the draft Policy should be improved, of which some key recommendations in our Observations include:

• • Several exceptions need to be further narrowed and all need to include a stronger harm test, while a public interest override needs to be introduced which would apply to all exceptions.

  • The relationship of the Policy to CABEI’s internal classification system is still unclear. The Access to Information Policy should override any system of administrative classification.
  • The draft Policy removes rules on the structure of the Access to Information Committee, a disappointing change from the current Policy.
  • The draft Policy adds the possibility of appeal to the CABEI’s Board but does not provide for an appeal to an independent body, such as an external appeals panel.

The Observations are available here.

For further information, please contact:

Laura Notess
Senior Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: laura@law-democracy.org
+1 782 234 4471
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

23 October 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is today launching its Note on the Right to Information (RTI) Act of the Maldives. Originally prepared to support a planned official review of the RTI Act, which may now be on hold, CLD is disseminating the Note in the hope of stimulating further discussion about possible reforms. The RTI Act is already very strong, earning 113 out of a possible total of 150 points on the RTI Rating, putting it in 20^th position from among the 138 countries currently assessed there. But there is always room for improvement and the Note by CLD puts forward a number of recommendations to this end.

“CLD welcomed the Maldivian RTI Act from the very beginning as one of the stronger laws globally,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “But we always support efforts to improve RTI legislation and we hope that this Note helps promote further debate in the Maldives on this issue.”

Some of the key recommendations in the Note include the following:

• All bodies which are owned or controlled by government should fall within the ambit of the Act.
• The time limit for responding to requests should be reduced to ten working days and requesters should not be required to provide their name, address or phone number when making a request.
• The Act should override inconsistent secrecy provisions in other laws, to the extent of the inconsistency, and the exceptions in the Act should be amended to protect only legitimate interests and to include harm tests for all exceptions.
• Public authorities should be required to publish a list of the documents they hold and to ensure that their staff receive appropriate training on RTI.

The Note is available here.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

28 September 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) would like to wish everyone a happy International Right to Know Day (IRTKD), 2023. First established in 2002 by a group of leading right to information civil society organisations meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, IRTKD has grown in stature and recognition, being formally recognised by UNESCO in 2015 as International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) and then by the United Nations General Assembly as a formal UN day by the same name in 2019. The purpose of IRTKD is to reflect on the importance of the right to access information held by public authorities or right to information (RTI), to welcome advances in recognition and implementation of this cross-cutting human right and to consider the many challenges for its full realisation that still lie ahead.

“This is essentially a day to celebrate the right to information, its recognition as an official UN day and the inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of RTI as an aim for all States”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “At the same time, we must also recognise that only approximately two-thirds of all States have even adopted RTI laws, while many of those that have done so are struggling to implement them properly.”

This year, to celebrate IRTKD, CLD is participating in UNESCO’s main event, being held in Oxford, United Kingdom, under the title The Importance of the Online Space for Access to Information; specifically, Toby is moderating Panel 2 on Internet Connectivity as an Enabler of the Ability to Exercise Rights Online, with a Particular Focus on ATI. CLD has also, as it does every year, updated the RTI Rating to include countries which have adopted laws since the last IRTKD. As of today, the RTI Rating covers all 138 countries which have national RTI laws, along with a growing number of international and sub-national jurisdictions.

Happy International Right to Know Day!

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

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[Текст українською йде далі]

11 September 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) has developed a detailed Manual for Journalists on Collecting and Preserving Information About International Crimes, along with a short pamphlet, Preserving Information for International Criminal Convictions: A Pocket Guide for Journalists. The week before last, we issued a statement about the training we provided in collaboration with our local partner, the Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI), and based on the Manual. We are now launching the Manual itself, along with the Guide, in English and Ukrainian. This programme aims to help journalists, especially those reporting from the frontlines, recognise when international crimes have been committed and how to take some simple steps to capture pertinent information so that it can be used for both reporting and judicial proceedings.

“While the Manual was designed primarily as a support document for the formal training programme we have developed, we hope it will also be useful as a stand-alone resource”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “International criminal law is a complex area of law, as is the law of evidence, but hopefully the Manual will give readers the basic knowledge and skills they need in this area.”

The Manual is divided into four main sections providing, respectively, an overview of international crimes, a focus on crimes against journalists, a review of practical steps that can be taken to document crimes so that the information can be used for criminal justice purposes and a final section setting out some additional resources. Although the Manual was specifically designed for Ukraine, the core material is relevant to other situations, so we encourage those with an interest in this from anywhere in the world to have a look at it.

Kyrylo Ovsyany, journalist with Radio Liberty’s programme Schemes: Corruption in Detail, who took part in the training programme, shares his views: “The Manual should be read at least once by every journalist who works with war reporting. It will help to have a better understanding of the legal issues involved and will explain what details need to be paid extra attention to.”

Yevheniya Motorevska, who also joined the training and leads the war investigations department of The Kyiv Independent, is convinced that the Manual “gives an understanding of the key principles of the International Criminal Court. And also explains how to correctly record shelling of cities, killings of civilians and soldiers, looting, etc., so that these facts can be used in international courts in the future. Special thanks to the authors and translators for using ordinary language terms and providing detailed explanations.”

Liudmyla Pankratova, Regional Press Development Institute Executive Director and one of the trainers on the ground, notes: “The training course and the Manual are extremely useful not only for Ukrainian reporters. It is a simple, convenient and, most importantly, an effective tool that allows you to understand and distinguish war crimes in order to document them. And the collected information can be added to the materials of the International Criminal Court. I believe that the application of the Manual will seriously increase opportunities for journalists to gather evidence of appropriate quality. Documenting war crimes in Ukraine is a job that is our responsibility, because no one knows better and has more access to such unique and important information than us.”

The Manual is available here in English and Ukrainian and the Guide is available here in English and Ukrainian. For those interested, we can also share the slides we used for the training upon request.

For further information, please contact:

Документування міжнародних злочинів: презентуємо посібник для журналістів

11 вересня 2023 р.

Центр права та демократії розробив детальний “Посібник зі збору та зберігання інформації про міжнародні злочини”, а також коротку брошуру “Зберігання інформації для міжнародних кримінальних вироків: кишеньковий посібник для журналістів”. Два тижні тому ми вже розповідали вам про тренінґ, який ІРРП провів у співпраці з нашими канадськими колегами. Тепер власне презентуємо документи англійською та українською мовами. Програма, в рамках якої проводили навчання, має на меті допомогти журналістам, особливо тим, хто працює на передовій, розпізнавати міжнародні злочини й не лише висвітлювати їх, а й фіксувати у форматі, який приймуть під час судового розгляду. 

“Якщо посібник і розробляли як супровідний документ для тренінґової програми, ми сподіваємося, він буде корисним й автономно, – каже Тобі Мендель, виконавчий директор Центру права та демократії. – Як і доказове, міжнародне кримінальне право є складною галуззю, проте маємо надію, що посібник надасть читачам базові знання та навички, яких вони потребують”.

Документ містить чотири головні секції: огляд міжнародних злочинів; фокус на злочинах проти журналістів; практичні кроки з документування інформації, що уможливлять їхнє використання для цілей кримінального правосуддя; та фінальний розділ про додаткові ресурси. Посібник спеціально розробляли для України, проте основний матеріал може бути актуальним і в інших ситуаціях. Тож ми заохочуємо зацікавлених із усього світу ознайомитись із запропонованими матеріалами.  

Кирило Овсяний, журналіст програми “Схеми: корупція в деталях”, Радіо Свобода, узяв участь у тренінґовій програмі й ділиться враженнями: “Посібник варто хоча б раз прочитати кожному журналістові, що працює з висвітленням воєнних злочинів. Це допоможе краще розуміти специфіку роботи юристів та пояснить, на які деталі потрібно звертати додаткову увагу”.

Євгенія Моторевська, що також приєналася до навчання й очолює відділ воєнних розслідувань видання “The Kyiv Independent”, переконана, що посібник “дає розуміння ключових принципів роботи Міжнародного кримінального суду. А також пояснює, як правильно фіксувати обстріли міст, убивства цивільних і військових, мародерства тощо, щоби ці факти могли в майбутньому використати в міжнародних судах. Окрема подяка авторам і перекладачам за “людську” мову та доступні пояснення”.

Людмила Панкратова, виконавча директорка Інституту розвитку регіональної преси, зазначає: “Навчальний курс і посібник є надзвичайно корисними не лише для українських журналістів. Це простий, зручний і головне – ефективний інструмент, який дає змогу розібратися й розрізнити воєнні злочини для того, щоби задокументувати їх. А зібрану інформацію можуть долучити до матеріалів МКС. Вважаю, що застосування посібника серйозно збільшить можливості журналістів у зборі доказів належної якості. Документування воєнних злочинів в Україні – це робота, яка є нашим обов’язком, оскільки ніхто, крім нас, не знає краще та не має більшого доступу до такої унікальної та важливої інформації”.

Посібник доступний українською й англійською мовами, а з порадником можна ознайомитися тут. Будемо раді поділитися слайдами презентації, яку демонстрували на тренінґу.

Із будь-яких питань щодо проєкту контактуйте із:

30 August 2023.

[Текст українською йде далі]

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and the Regional Press Development Institute (RPDI) provided a training programme for Ukrainian experts and journalists last week based on our Manual for Journalists on Collecting and Preserving Information About International Crimes. The core idea behind the programme is that journalists reporting from the frontlines are often the first to come across information about the commission of international crimes, including war crimes. The focus of the training was on how to recognise international crimes in the first place and then to capture information about them such in a manner that it might be accepted as evidence by courts.

“The idea is not to divert journalists from their core reporting role, which is particularly important during armed conflicts”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “Rather, we are trying to promote the idea that the information can, with relatively little additional effort, essentially be used for both reporting and criminal accountability purposes.”

Journalists in Ukraine have already demonstrated the potential of their work to contribute to international crimes prosecutions. The project seeks to expand and further professionalise that work.

The training programme started with a training of trainers delivered by CLD experts and was followed up by having the trained trainers deliver training to frontline journalists with support from the CLD experts. The idea is that this will be followed up by having the local experts deliver further training sessions. The Manual has been translated into Ukrainian and the translation is currently being reviewed; we will distribute both the English and Ukrainian versions shortly.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

30 серпня 2023 року.

Україна: Тренінг з документування міжнародних злочинів для журналістів

Минулого тижня Центр права та демократії (CLD, Канада) та Інститут розвитку регіональної преси (RPDI, Україна) провели тренінг з документування міжнародних злочинів для українських експертів і журналістів. Програма базувалась на інформації з Посібника для журналістів зі збору та фіксації інформації про міжнародні злочини.

Журналісти, які працюють на передовій, часто першими стикаються з інформацією про вчинення міжнародних злочинів, зокрема воєнних. Тому під час тренінгу основна увага була приділена тому, як розпізнати міжнародні злочини та зафіксувати інформацію про них таким чином, щоб вона могла бути прийнята судами як доказ.

«Важливо не заважати журналістам виконувати свою основну задачу, яка є особливо важливою під час збройних конфліктів», — говорить Тобі Мендель, виконавчий директор CLD. «Натомість ми намагаємося просувати ідею того, що інформація може, якщо докласти невеликі додаткові зусилля, бути використана і для притягнення до кримінальної відповідальності винних у скоєнні міжнародних злочинів».

Українські журналісти вже продемонстрували, що їх діяльність може сприяти міжнародному правосуддю. Наш проєкт дозволить розширити та професіоналізувати цю роботу.

Перший етап навчальної програми включав тренінг для тренерів, проведений експертами CLD. На другому етапі підготовлені тренери за підтримки експертів CLD організували власний тренінг для українських журналістів. Подібні навчальні заходи будуть надалі проводитись місцевими тренерами самостійно.

Посібник для журналістів зі збору та фіксації інформації про міжнародні злочини перекладено українською мовою; англійська та українська версії будуть незабаром оприлюднені та розповсюджені.

Для отримання додаткової інформації звертайтеся до:

Тобі Мендель
Виконавчий директор
Центр права і демократії
Електронна адреса: toby@law-democracy.org 
+1 902 431-3686
http://www.law-democracy.org
Твіттер: http://@law_democracy

21 August 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) released today its Analysis of the Organisation Registration Law, or NGO Law, which was adopted in late 2022 by Myanmar’s military junta, which has claimed lawmaking authority since the February 2021 coup. The NGO Law imposes substantial restrictions on both domestic and international NGOs. It makes ordinary NGO operations administratively complex and dependent on the whims of the military, undermining NGOs’ ability to respond to the widespread humanitarian needs in Myanmar.

“The NGO Law is only the latest in a long series of attacks on independent civil society in post-coup Myanmar,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director, CLD. “This Law provides a legal basis for existing practices of harassment and sends a message that NGOs are expected to align their activities and views with those of the military.”

The Analysis assesses the NGO Law based on international human rights standards governing freedom of association and expression. It highlights numerous areas where the NGO Law fails to respect those standards, including:

• • Mandatory registration requirements for all NGOs, with criminal penalties for operating an unregistered NGO.
  • NGO registration boards which are not independent and are vulnerable to military interference.
  • Burdensome registration requirements, including government letters of recommendation.
  • Broad authority for NGO registration boards to sanction NGOs on ambiguous grounds, including to cancel their certificate to operate.
  • New crimes which could cover ordinary NGO activities and peaceful advocacy.
  • Mandatory quarterly activity reports and other intrusive oversight requirements.
  • Prohibitions on any activity which relates even indirectly to political, religious or economic matters.

The full Analysis, including an Executive Summary, is available in both English and Burmese.

For further information, please contact:

Laura Notess
Senior Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: laura@law-democracy.org
+1 782 234 4471
www.law-democracy.org
twitter: @law_democracy

[Burmese text follows]

14 August 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and the Hope Organization are today launching a baseline Study on Access to Information in Myanmar: Changes in How Health CSOs Access Information. The Study, which relied on a survey of 60 CSOs operating in Myanmar, assessed the state of access to health information since the 1 February 2021 coup. Some of the key findings were that 91% of respondents indicated that they feel less safe accessing information than before the coup, 85% found it more difficult to access information and 75% had changed the way they accessed information.

“This is the first empirical survey of changes in access to information in Myanmar since the coup, and it provides unprecedented insight into those changes”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “While the results vary by survey question, the overall conclusion is clear: it has become more dangerous and more challenging to access both information in general and the core professional information health CSOs need to do their work.”

The Study contains a wealth of detailed information about access of CSOs to health information. 92% of respondents indicated that information was only partially reliable, including due to the spreading of propaganda and false information by official sources. However, 77% said they had the means to validate information, mainly via other CSOs, trusted local contacts and peer-to-peer networks. A very concerning 60% indicated that they could not access the information they needed to do their work including, in some cases, because they were not willing to ask the government for information in “sensitive” cases. A number of respondents noted security measures they were taking currently, for example installing better digital security systems. Some of these highlight the repressive nature of the current situation in Myanmar, such as using different devices when leaving the home, changing SIM cards and social media accounts regularly, and hiding or removing apps on their devices.

The Study is available in English and Burmese.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

၁၄ ဩဂုတ်လ ၂၀၂၃

အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင်း သတင်းအချက်အလက်ရယူမှုကို ကနဦးလေ့လာဆန်းစစ်ခြင်း

ဥပဒေနှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီရေးရာဌာန (Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD)) နှင့် The Hope Organization တို့ ပူးပေါင်း၍ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင်း သတင်းအချက်အလက်ရယူမှုကို လေ့လာဆန်းစစ်ခြင်း – ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာ လူထုအခြေပြု အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၏ သတင်းအချက်အလက်ရယူမှုအပြောင်းအလဲ ကနဦးလေ့လာဆန်းစစ်မှုအစီရင်ခံကို ယနေ့တွင် ထုတ်ပြန်ပါသည်။ ဤလေ့လာဆန်းစစ်မှုတွင် ပြည်တွင်းလူထုအခြေပြုအဖွဲ့အစည်း ၆၀ ၏ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် စစ်တပ်အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက် ကြုံတွေ့ရသည့် ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာသတင်းအချက်အလက်ရယူမှု အခြေအနေများကို အဓိကထား လေ့လာထားခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ လေ့လာဆန်းမှုအရတွေ့ရှိသည့် ထင်ရှားသောအချို့အချက်များအနေနှင့် အာဏာသိမ်းမှု မဖြစ်ခင်နှင့် ဖြစ်ပြီး အခြေအနေကို နှိုင်းယှဉ်ရာတွင် ဖြေဆိုသူများ၏ ၉၁% က ယင်းတို့အနေနှင့် သတင်းအချက်အလက်များကို ရယူရာတွင် အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်းတွင် လုံခြုံမှုပိုမိုကင်းမဲ့လာကြောင်း၊ ၈၅% က သတင်းအချက်အလက်များ ရယူရန် ပိုမိုခက်ခဲလာကြောင်းနှင့် ၇၅% က ယင်းတို့၏ သတင်းအချက်အလက်ရယူသည့် ပုံစံနည်းလမ်းများကို ပြောင်းလဲရကြောင်း စသည်တို့ကို တွေ့ရှိရသည်။

CLD ၏ အမှုဆောင်ဒါရိုက်ဖြစ်သူ Toby Mendel က “ဒီလေ့လာဆန်းစစ်မှုဟာ စစ်တပ်ကအာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ သတင်းအချက်အလက်ရယူခြင်းနဲ့ပတ်သက်တဲ့ ပြောင်းလဲမှုတွေကို နည်းလမ်းတကျနဲ့ပြုလုပ်တဲ့ ပထမဆုံး စစ်တမ်းဖြစ်ပြီး ထိုပြောင်းလဲမှုများအပေါ် တမူထူးခြားတဲ့ အမြင်တွေကို ပေးစွမ်းနိုင်မှာပါ“ “အချို့တွေ့ရှိချက်တွေက စစ်တမ်းမှာအသုံးပြုတဲ့ မေးခွန်းတွေအပေါ်မူတည်ပြီး ကွဲပြားပြောင်းလဲမှုရှိနိုင်သော်လည်းပဲ အဓိကတွေ့ရှိချက်တော့ ရှင်းလင်းပါတယ် – အဲဒါကတော့ သာမာန်ပြည်သူလူထုအတွက်ရော ကျန်းမာရေးကိစ္စဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနေသူတွေအတွက်ပါ သတင်းအချက်အလက်တွေရယူတဲ့ နေရာမှာ အန္တရာယ်ပိုများလာပြီး ပိုမို ခက်ခဲလာတယ်ဆိုတာပါပဲ“

ဤလေ့လာဆန်းစစ်မှုတွင် လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်းများအနေနှင့် ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာသတင်းအချက်အလက်ရယူခြင်းနှင့် ပတ်သက်သည့် ကိစ္စရပ်များကို ကျယ်ပြန့်စွာတွေ့နိုင်ပါမည်။ ဖြေဆိုသူ ၉၂% က ယင်းတို့ ရရှိသော သတင်းအချက်အလက်များသည် တစိတ်တပိုင်းသာ ယုံကြည်ရပြီး ထိုသို့ဖြစ်ရခြင်းမှာလည်း တရားဝင်သတင်းရင်းမြစ်များ ကိုယ်တိုင်က ဝါဒဖြန့်ခြင်းနှင့် သတင်းမှားဖြန့်ချိခြင်းတို့ကို ဆောင်ရွက်လာသောကြောင့်ဖြစ်သည်ဟု ဆိုကြသည်။ သို့ရာတွင် ဖြေဆိုသူ ၇၇% က ယင်းတို့တွင် ထိုသတင်းအချက်အလက်များကို တိုက်ဆိုင်စစ်ဆေးရန် နည်းများရှိကြသည်ဟုဆိုကြပြီး အများစုမှာ အခြားအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ ယုံကြည်စိတ်ချရသော ဒေသခံအဆက်သွယ်များနှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်ထားသော ဒေသကွန်ရက်များကို မေးမြန်း၍ တိုက်ဆိုင်စစ်ဆေးကြသည်ဟု ဆိုကြသည်။ အလွန်စိုးရိမ်ရသည့်တွေ့ရှိချက်တခုမှာ ဖြေဆိုသူ ၆၀% က ယင်းတို့ လုပ်ငန်းနှင့်သက်ဆိုင်သည့် သတင်းအချက်အလက်များကို ရယူနိုင်ခြင်းမရှိ ဆိုသည့် တွေ့ရှိချက်ဖြစ်ပြီး အချို့အခြေအနေများတွင် သက်ဆိုင်ရာ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကို လိုအပ်သော သတင်းအချက်အလက်များ တောင်းဆိုခြင်းသည်ပင် ‘အကဲဆတ် ထိရှလွယ်သော’ အန္တရာယ်ရှိသည့်အခြေအနေတရပ်ကဲ့သို့ ဖြစ်နေခြင်းပင်။ ဖြေကြားသူအချို့၏ အဆိုအရ လက်ရှိအချိန်တွင် ယင်းတို့၏ လုံခြုံရေးအတွက် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်လုံခြုံရေးနည်းစနစ်များကို အသုံးပြုနေကြရသည်။  ပြည်သူလူထုအနေနှင့် အပြင်သို့ သွားလာသည့်အခါတိုင်း ဖုန်းအပိုများကို ယူဆောင်သွားရခြင်း၊ SIM ကဒ်များနှင့် လူမှုကွန်ရက် အချက်အလက်များကို ပြောင်းလဲအသုံးပြုရခြင်းနှင့် Application များကို ဖွက်ခြင်း၊ ဖျက်ခြင်းများကို ဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းဖြင့် ယင်းတို့ လုံခြုံရေးအတွက် အလွန်သတိထား နေထိုင်သွားလာနေကြရပြီး အထက်ပါ တွေ့ရှိချက်များသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်းတွင် လက်ရှိဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် ဆိုးရွားသည့် ဖိနှိပ်မှုများကို မီးမောင်းထိုးပြလျှက်ရှိပါသည်။

ဤ အနှစ်ချုပ်မှတ်စုကို အင်္ဂလိပ်၊ မြန်မာ ၂ ဘာသာနှင့် ဖတ်ရှုနိုင်ပါသည်။

24 July 2023.

On 6 March 2023, the military council ruling Myanmar issued amendments to the Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law (PPEL). These amendments weakened the already inadequate safeguards contained in the PPEL to protect the printing, publishing and news industries from abuses of power. The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) has published a brief note analysing the implications of the amendments for freedom of expression as part of its wider work focusing on Myanmar.

“The PPEL’s registration system for the printing, publishing and news industries was already unnecessary and prone to abuse”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “The amendments have further concentrated powers in the Ministry of Information. As such, they represent a continuation of broader trends of deteriorating respect for freedom of expression and rule of law since the 2021 coup”.

The amendments now effectively give the Minister of Information the power to ban publications simply by publishing a notice in the Official Gazette to the effect that a publication is invalid for breach of the overbroad content restrictions found in the law. Following such a notice, the police can confiscate the publication. The Note concludes with a recommendation that the amendments be withdrawn until such a time as democracy returns to Myanmar and the PPEL can be revised in a democratic and participatory manner with a view to addressing shortcomings in that legislation instead of weakening its safeguards. 

The Note is available in English and Burmese.  For more CLD publications on Myanmar, visit CLD’s Myanmar Resource Page.

For further information, please contact:

Raphael Vagliano
Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: raphael@law-democracy.org
+1 514 506-0948
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

28 June 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) has prepared a Note on Professional Regulation of the Media as part of its wider work focusing on Myanmar. The aim is to support local actors to work together with the aim of putting in place a self-regulatory system to help improve professionalism among independent media focusing on Myanmar.

“The professional systems that used to function for Myanmar are no longer legitimate or effective”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “As such, it is very important for independent media focusing on Myanmar to set up their own, credible and effective self-regulatory system, and we are very happy to support them in this.”

The Note provides an overview of the three main approaches to professional regulation – namely self-regulation, co-regulation and statutory regulation – and then delves in more detail into the key features of self- and co-regulation before describing the benefits of these systems and the different roles they can play beyond merely deciding on complaints about professionalism. The final section looks at a number of practice issues regarding the establishment of a self-regulatory system for independent media focusing on Myanmar, the only option given the current situation.

The Note is available in English and Burmese.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

8 June 2023.

CLD invites you to join our online course, Freedom of Expression: International Law and the Practice in Myanmar.

This nine-week online course, to be conducted in English, involves weekly one and one-half hour interactive lectures, discussions, background readings and an opportunity to interact with others who share your interest. The first six weeks will focus on international human rights standards on freedom of expression, media freedom and digital rights. The next three weeks will examine the legal environment for freedom of expression in Myanmar both before and since the 2021 coup.

The main course details are as follows:

• • Course Dates: 26 June – 25 August 2023
  • Online Lectures: Wednesdays at 6:00 – 7:30 PM Bangkok time
    • First lecture 28 June and last lecture 23 August
  • Registration Link: https://forms.gle/oRz9UZ1Q3NyjEgN28
  • Cost: Free

The course if open to everyone who is interested. Those who attend six of the nine lectures will receive a certificate of completion upon the end of the course, but anyone is invited to register and attend as they are able. Lectures and discussions will be conducted in English, so participants should have a working knowledge of English, although some reading materials are also available in Burmese. No knowledge of international human rights law or freedom of expression principles is necessary.

For more information or with any questions, please contact laura@law-democracy.org. You can also view a handout for this course here and the course outline here.

This course is available thanks to the generous support of the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.

17 May 2023.

The lead oversight body for access to information in Mexico, the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection (INAI), is currently unable to function because the Mexican President and Senate have refused to appoint new commissioners, so that the body currently lacks the quorum required to operate. Over 70 organisations and individuals from around the world have written a letter to the members of the relevant Senate Committee to urge them to move forward immediately to appoint new INAI commissioners.

“The failure to appoint these commissioners, even though the process was initiated well over a year ago, represents a pointed attack on democracy”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “The Mexican President and the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party, which he founded, have made no secret of their dislike of democratic institutions like INAI, but to disable this body by refusing to appoint commissioners represents a real low.”

INAI commissioners are appointed by the Senate but the President can “oppose the appointment”, albeit subject to an eventual override by the Senate. Although the process to replace two retiring commissioners was initiated in January 2022, the Senate only made appointments more than a year later, in March 2023. These were then vetoed by the President and no further appointments have been made since then. When another commissioner retired on 1 April 2023, INAI fell below the quorum it needs to conduct its business.

The joint letter highlights the crucial role played by INAI in supporting the right to information in Mexico, as well as the need for the Senate to use its power to replace the commissioners who have retired.

The letter is available in English and Spanish here.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
twitter: @law_democracy

2 May 2023.

Today, the specialised mandates tasked with promoting and protecting freedom of expression at the UN, OAS, OSCE and African Commission launched their annual Joint Declaration, this year on Media Freedom and Democracy. The Joint Declaration, which was drafted with the assistance of the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), describes the important role of free, independent and pluralistic media in supporting democracy, human rights and other important social values, and then sets out the obligations and responsibilities of States, online platforms and the media themselves to ensure that the media can fulfil these important roles.

“A key aim of the 2023 Joint Declaration is to reaffirm the importance of professional news media in maintaining the key values that support and sustain democracy”, said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “Support for media freedom is more important today than ever – due to the erosion of media business models and increasing official attacks on media freedom in both emerging and established democracies – and yet public understanding of how important this is has waned.”

The Joint Declaration has three separate sections focusing on States. The first calls on States to establish an enabling environment for the media, focusing heavily on the promotion of media diversity and protection of journalists against legal and physical attacks and harassment. The second calls on States to refrain from violating media freedom, including by ensuring that legal restrictions are in line with international law and by politicians not undermining public trust in the media and instead demonstrating tolerance of criticism. The third calls for economic measures to support the media, including the fair allocation of State subsidies and advertising.

Another section calls on online platforms to respect human rights standards, to strengthen transparency and the power of users to control their online experiences, and to conduct human rights impact assessments of their operations and mitigate any risks these identify. It also calls on large platforms to compensate media fairly for their business use of media content. A final section calls on the media to respect professional standards, including by putting in place self-regulatory mechanisms to develop and apply professional codes of conduct.

The Joint Declaration is available here. Other languages will follow soon.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3688
www.law-democracy.org
twitter: @law_democracy

7 April 2023. 

CLD has joined a letter calling on India to review and reform the legal and regulatory framework governing internet shutdowns in India. It notes that “(u)nfettered access for all to an open, secure, and reliable internet is vital to the protection of fundamental rights in India, and to ensure that the livelihoods of increasing millions of people in India dependent on digital services and a connected economy are not disrupted.”

The letter can be viewed at this link. 

5 April 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), in collaboration with the Centre for Free Expression (CFE), the Canadian Institute for Information and Privacy Studies (CIIPS) and Democracy Watch, has made a Submission to Session 44 of the Universal Periodic Review on the Right to Information in Canada, a process which is overseen by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The entire Submission focuses on problems with the federal right to information (access to information) system in Canada, which has been broken for many years now.

“Stakeholders from almost every sector agree that the right to information system in Canada is fundamentally broken, despite some modest improvements with Bill C-58, and that root and branch reform of the legislation is needed,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “We hope that this Submission will attract the attention of some States and that a recommendation will be put to Canada on this issue, something which has not happened at previous UPR reviews of Canada.”

The Submission outlines the numerous problems with Canada’s right to information regime, from the many public authorities which are not covered by it, to procedural problems, in particular leading to delays in responding to requests, to the significantly overbroad regime of exceptions. These issues have been highlighted by civil society, the Information Commissioner of Canada and parliamentary committees quite literally for decades now. It is high time the government took note of this serious shortcoming in Canadian democracy and acted decisively to address it.

“For years, Canada’s federal Access to Information Act has fallen far short of international standards, much less international best practices,” said James Turk, Director of CFE. “This Review provides an opportunity for the Canadian law’s serious shortcomings to be corrected – corrections badly needed.”

The full submission is available here.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel                                                            James Turk
Executive Director                                                    Director
Centre for Law and Democracy                               Centre for Free Expression
Email: toby@law-democracy.org                             jim@jameslturk.com
+1 902 431-3686                                                     +1 613 277-0488
www.law-democracy.org                                         https://cfe.torontomu.ca
Twitter: @law_democracy

20 March 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and the Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA) have submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Islamabad High Court on behalf of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). The case involves a constitutional challenge to Pakistan’s criminal defamation provisions, which provide for sanctions of up to two years’ imprisonment. The main argument is that criminal defamation laws are not justified as necessary restrictions on freedom of expression because civil defamation laws, which exert less of a chilling effect on speech, provide adequate protection for reputations.

“We have seen a bit of a resurgence in terms of countries doing away with criminal defamation rules in recent years, especially in Africa,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “But such rules still remain in place in most countries so it would be quite exciting to have a court in Pakistan declare them to be unconstitutional.”

Our brief outlines international standards in this area, showing how criminal defamation and imprisonment for defamation have been addressed by international and regional human rights courts, as well as in authoritative statements by official actors. It also reviews countries which have either repealed their criminal defamation rules or had them struck down by courts. In addition to these arguments against criminal defamation in general, the brief also highlights a number of specific ways in which the Pakistani rules in this area fail to conform to international standards. These include by providing for a defence for statements about officials only where those statements were made in good faith, and limiting the defence of truth to cases where the statements were also “for the public good”.

Our full brief is available here.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

16 March 2023.

Last week, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) submitted a Note on UNESCO’s Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms Draft 2.0 to UNESCO as part of the process of review of those Guidelines. The Note includes a number of general comments on the Guidelines along with more specific suggestions on amending individual paragraphs.

“These UNESCO Guidelines will potentially impact the development of national regulatory systems for platforms and support pushback by human rights defenders against national rules that fail to respect international standards,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “Our Note is designed to help ensure that they are as clear and precise as possible and, of course, align fully with international human rights standards.”

A number of CLD’s comments seek to integrate international standards on freedom of expression more clearly into the text of the Guidelines. For example, some of the language appears to juxtapose respecting freedom of expression and dealing with illegal content. While this is sometimes fair, in other cases illegal or otherwise problematical content, while representing an exercise of freedom of expression is also an attack on freedom of expression, for example when harassment of women online drives out their voices. It is important for the Guidelines to articulate this human rights nuance.

We also make the point that even where international law precludes imposing liability on individuals for certain types of content, this does not automatically mean that it would be illegitimate to require platforms to take (appropriate and graduated) measures against the proliferation of those types of content on their platforms. For example, individual statements of disinformation during elections may be protected speech but it may still be appropriate to require platforms to put in place structural measures to address such statements where necessary to protect the integrity of the elections. This idea is somehow implicit in the Guidelines but it would be helpful to make it more explicit.

These are just two examples of many comments in the Note, which is available here.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

27 February 2023.

Today, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is launching a report on Integrating Ethnic Content into Public Service Broadcasting, as part of its wider work focusing on Myanmar. The report outlines the key international standards governing public service broadcasting (PSB), and then focuses on how these broadcasters can and should reflect the ethnic diversity of the societies they serve. A final section looks at other ways of promoting ethnic content within the overall broadcasting environment.

“The public broadcasting system in Myanmar never reflected the very rich and diverse ethnic makeup of the country,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “While moving forward on this issue is not possible now, following the February 2021 military coup, it is important to start building awareness of what will be needed when Myanmar transitions back to democracy.”

CLD is working to build understanding among pro-democracy Myanmar actors about international standards on freedom of expression, as well as the institutional structures which are needed to support an environment of respect for this fundamental right. A genuine public service broadcasting system which, among other things, gives voice to and serves the information needs of all groups in society is a key part of this. Our dedicated webpage for Myanmar resources is available here.

The report outlines a number of ways in which public service broadcasters can deliver on their obligation to be diverse and representative – such as through dedicated ethnic language channels and incorporating ethnic content into their programming through independent productions – providing examples of how this is done in different countries around the world. It also looks at more structural measures, such as through having representatives of ethnic groups on the governing boards of public broadcasters and general legal or policy requirements to reflect the diversity of the societies they serve. The report also looks at other ways to support the provision of ethnic content, such as by providing public funding to support the production of public interest content or ensuring the integration of ethnic broadcasters into the community and commercial broadcasting sectors.

The report is available in English here and in Burmese here.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3688
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

16 February 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and Bank Information Center (BIC) are today launching two user-friendly Guides on making requests for information at the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Guides describe how to file a request for information from these two institutions and how to appeal in case the request is denied.

“Although both the World Bank and IFC have had access to information policies in place for many years now, public awareness of these procedures is limited,” said Toby Mendel, CLD’s Executive Director. “Even where people do file a request for information, they may not know how to file an appeal if their request is denied. These Guides provide easy-to-follow instructions on how to do this.”

CLD and BIC are launching the guides at a virtual workshop today, 16 February, at 10:00 EST. During this workshop we will share and discuss tips for navigating the World Bank Group’s access to information system. To join us, please click the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81888461343?pwd=WUkyZGlXc01odXdZaUtaMWc5SFUxUT09.

The Guides are available at: Accessing Information from the World Bank and Accessing Information from the International Finance Corporation. 

For further information, please contact:

Laura Notess
Senior Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: laura@law-democracy.org
+1 782 234 4471
www.law-democracy.org
Twitter: @law_democracy

8 February 2023.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is releasing three case studies featuring the work of the following media lawyers’ networks: Tornavoz, Brazil; Myanmar Media Lawyers’ Network; and Media Law Resource Center, United States. The case studies are authored by Charlene Nagae, Executive Director of Tornavoz, Jeffrey Hermes, Deputy Director of Media Law Resource Center, and Toby Mendel of CLD, who writes about the Myanmar Media Lawyers’ Network’s experiences prior to the 2021 coup.

“These case studies provide examples of successful efforts to create professional networks of lawyers specialising in media law in countries in different regions of the world, and offer advice and experience for lawyers hoping to create similar networks in their own countries,” said Toby Mendel, CLD’s Executive Director.

CLD is hosting a panel discussion today, 8 February, at 10:00 EST featuring the authors of the case studies. To register and join the discussion, please click here.

These case studies are released as part of CLD’s Promoting the Establishment of Networks of Media Lawyers Globally project, funded by the Global Media Defence Fund which is managed by UNESCO. The project provides resources and support to lawyers seeking to establish national level media lawyers’ networks. To learn more, see our Brochure describing the project and our Media Lawyers’ Networks project information page.

The case studies are available at: Tornavoz, Brazil; Myanmar Media Lawyers’ Network; and Media Law Resource Center, United States.

For further information about the project please contact:

Laura Notess
Senior Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: laura@law-democracy.org
+1 782 234 4471
www.law-democracy.org
twitter: @law_democracy

You are invited to a webinar on accessing information at the World Bank Group on 16 February 2023 at 10:00 AM EST. To join the webinar on 16 February, please click the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81888461343?pwd=WUkyZGlXc01odXdZaUtaMWc5SFUxUT09