Members of the Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresion e Informacion brief the Commissioners and Special Rapporteur on the findings of their report on access to public information in Latin America.
Commissioners: Dinah Shelton (U.S.), Rodrigo Escobar Gil (Colombia), and María Silvia
Participants: Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información; Guillén (El Salvador)
Countries: Latin American Region
Topics: Access to public information in Latin America
In a thematic regional hearing petitioned for by the Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información (Alliance), an NGO promoting freedom of information and expression across Latin America, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) discussed the access to public information in Central and South America. No states were present. Alliance members presented findings of their report detailing a severe lack of advancement on the part of many Latin American nations in allowing free access to government records and information. Commissioners Dinah Shelton, Rodrigo Escobar Gil, and María Silvia Guillén, who previously reviewed the report, took the opportunity during the hearing to ask questions and listen to specific recommendations from the Alliance.
Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights (Convention) enshrines the freedom of thought and expression, particularly the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information, which was addressed in Monday’s hearing. Ramiro Alvarez Vearte, an Argentinian member of the Alliance, said that countries in the region suffer from three major gaps in accessing information: (1) a lack of administrative procedures allowing access to public information, (2) absence of transparency policies, and (3) lack of competent authorities to implement the right to access public information. He specifically highlighted countries such as Venezuela where government secrecy laws make it difficult to gain access to information.
Petitioners said that although eleven countries of the region have adopted legislation on access to public information, the increased legislation has not led to a significant change in policy. Edison Lanza, another Alliance member, pointed out that in countries such as Chile, Mexico, and Peru, where legislation has been adopted for public access to information, not all government agencies or branches are required to give information when requested. The Alliance further found that many of these countries, such as Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Paraguay, lack separate agencies with significant, binding authority to guarantee free access to information.
In response to questions posed by the Commissioners and Catalina Botero, the IACHR’s Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Expression, Alliance members lamented the slow development of regional standards for information access saying that it is often impossible to access the records regarding government employees or policies of defunct military dictatorships in many countries. Botero pointed to a landmark 2010 decision by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, Gomes Lund v. Brazil, which stated that the government had no reason to withhold records related to massive human rights violations. The petitioners said that the case demonstrated tangible progress for access to information, but that clear regional criteria are necessary. In 2009 the Special Rapporteur issued the Inter-American Legal Framework Regarding the Right to Access to Information detailing the obligations of states to provide maximum disclosure of information and their burden to prove that secrecy is in line with the principles of the Convention.
Promoting freedom of expression has been an area of success for the IACHR in the past, whose decisions, unlike the Court, are not binding. Petitions and cases in the IACHR led to the repeal of laws in the Americas that made criticism of public officials a punishable offense, known as desacato laws. The Alliance members called on the IACHR to address the lack of access to public information in its annual reports. Alliance said that some countries, like Argentina, continue to uphold the national security doctrines of past military dictatorship and withhold information for ambiguous and vague national security reasons. Alliance members called on the IACHR to urge countries to bring secrecy regulations in line with Inter-American standards.
