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The President of the Transparency Council participates today in the UNESCO World Conference on Universal Access to Information

01/10/2024

Organized by UNESCO and the Government of Ghana, the theme of this year’s world conference, held today and tomorrow in Accra, Ghana, is “Integrating access to information and participation in the public sector”.

East international meeting It brings together public officials and experts in transparency and the right of access to public information from some thirty countries and organizations such as the United Nations, the Open Government Alliance, the OECD and UNESCO, and will include several round tables to advance access to information.

The President of the Council for Transparency and Good Governance, José Luis Rodríguez Álvarez, will speak today October 1 at the round table “The role of information commissioners and courts in the integration of public right to know”. In this panel he will explain the Spanish model of transparency and access to public information and the role of the Council as an independent supervisory authority in this matter.

The panel will also include the President of the International Conference of Information Commissioners and Commissioner of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection (INAI) of Mexico, Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena; the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Right to Information Commission, Yaw Boateng; the President of the South African Information Regulatory Agency, Pansy Tlakula; and the Head of the Freedom of Information Division of the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom Schloegtina.

The session will be moderated by the Commissioner of the Kenyan Administrative Justice Commission, Lucy N’Dugu, and the Program Manager of Fesmedia Africa (Namibia), Dickson Kasote, will speak as rapporteur.

The world conference is organized on the occasion of the celebration of the International Day of Universal Access to Information (DIAUI), which takes place every 28 September, and which was proclaimed in 2015 by the General Conference of UNESCO and in 2018 by the 74th General Assembly of the United Nations

The International Day of Universal Access to Information, as recalled by UNESCO, serves as a platform to assess the progress made in promoting access to information since the adoption of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While significant progress has been made, there remains an urgent need to accelerate progress at the global level.

The DIUAI 2024 World Conference aims to explore how the integration of access to information laws in all government sectors can improve the right to information. Throughout the conference, government representatives and civil society actors will demonstrate how access to information policies are being implemented in various government entities.

In addition, emphasis will be placed on the role of non-governmental actors in ensuring policy coherence for the implementation of access to information in the public and private sectors. The main objective of the conference is to provide governments and civil society with a list of good practices for integrating the right to information into the organizational systems of the various public authorities.

Follow the conference live today on this link: