Sept 28 is International Right to Know Day, a day dedicated to creating awareness about the importance of the right to information and campaigning for more open, democratic societies in which there is full citizen empowerment and participation in government.

The right to information has been recognised as a fundamental human right for more than 50 years. Throughout the world, the right to information is seen by many as the key to strengthening participatory democracy and ensuring more people-centred development.

Today, more than 60 countries, including 10 Commonwealth countries, have guaranteed their citizens the right to access information about what their government is doing in their name by enacting specific right to information legislation.

Access to information is a practical shortcut to achieving the goals of poverty eradication and good governance. Information is a public resource in the hands of the government and the challenge is to share it equitably and manage it to the best advantage of the society.

Empowering the poor

An effective access to information regime has the potential to empower the poor and other vulnerable groups of society to demand information concerning the government's pro-poor policies and ensure that their basic needs are met.

Unfortunately, in many countries today even simple policies on health and education are not easily accessible to the public, even though such information is crucial and can have such a huge effect on people's lives.

The fact that politicians and civil servants are aware that their actions and decisions cannot be scrutinised also means that public officials can much more easily engage in corrupt practices which cost the country money and resources.

Would government officials be as willing or even as able, to act against the public interest if they knew that their decisions could be examined by citizens and publicised?

In this context then, it is significant that the main thrust of any right to information regime is to change the culture of secrecy and aloofness in government and the bureaucracy by practically promoting transparency and public accountability in the working of every government department.

Public scrutiny

Right to information laws open up government records to public scrutiny, thereby arming citizens with a vital tool to inform themselves about what the government has done, at what cost and how effectively.

Lack of access to reliable information makes the citizens susceptible to government-manipulated data, which is often used merely to suit government interests. Right to access information has the potential of empowering ordinary people to make more informed electoral decisions and giving them an opportunity to participate more effectively in governance and policy formulation.

For example, in India, citizens have used access to information requests to find out why they were not receiving the regular rations of food from the ration shops or free public health care. In Mexico, for the very first time, the national access to information law has been used to make public the salaries of Federal Government leaders. In Japan, their freedom of information law was used to uncover police embezzlement.

An effective access to information regime will immediately show returns it will empower people to engage more meaningfully in the democratic process, increase government accountability and reduce corruption. Furthermore, open governance along with its associated anti-corruption focus, encourages foreign investors to make long-term investments because they have more confidence in transparent and accountable national institutions and systems. This can thereby boost economic growth and development.

A strong, open democratic government and effective information-sharing regime can also support national stability. Openness weakens perceptions of exclusion from opportunity or unfair advantage of one group over another and opens up direct channels of communication between citizens and the government.

While passing a right to information law can be a slow process, experience has shown that the real challenge comes with implementation. Right to Know Day provides a good opportunity not only to reflect on the importance of the simple, but empowering, right to information but also to draw attention to the fact that this fundamental right of the people needs to be properly implemented and not just consigned to the growing stack of ineffective and unimplemented laws.

A sufficient and sustained political will, backed by citizens' initiative can make the implementation of an information regime extremely simple.

Critical reflection

For countries which already have a freedom of information legislation in place, Right to Know Day provides an opportunity for critical reflection on how well it is working. Experience has shown that governments and bureaucrats tend to be apathetic towards access laws such that a concerted effort needs to be constantly directed at changing the mindset of civil servants towards openness rather than secrecy. There needs to be constant vigilance.

Effective implementation of the freedom of information legislation is only possible if there is joint partnership between the holders of information - public officials and requesters, that is, citizens, civil society organisations, media etc. In this respect, civil society groups and the media can take the initiative in pressuring governments for access laws and assisting governments with implementation.

Information is power and, in the spirit of democracy and equality, it needs to be shared freely with all people. Right to Know Day is a great opportunity to ask the government why they have not implemented an effective access to information regime.

In this modern age, where citizen participation is of utmost priority in order to ensure increased government accountability, governments need to be sensitised to the need of having access to information and must be pressed to pass freedom of information legislation as soon as possible.

A non-governmental body based in New Delhi, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is promoting the enactment of enabling legislation in Commonwealth member-countries.