International information commissioners meeting in Berlin will be discussing whether to support the creation of a new international guarantee on the right to information.
The idea was broached by Peter Schaar, the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, at the outset of the Eighth International Conference of Information Commissioners, Sept. 17-19.
When the commissioners will hold their closed session Sept. 19 to consider a resolution, one topic will be about the guarantee of right to information as a human right.
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedoms of opinion and expression, also established the right to information as a human right.
Schaar told Freedominfo.org that a new protocol, essentially an amendment to Article 19, specifically on the right to information, would make the right to information “more concrete.”
Interviews with a handful of commissioners indicated that they had yet to focus on the potential resolution.
In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Committee issued new guidance on the interpretation of Article 19. The committee conducted several years of consultations and deliberations before issuing its General Comment No. 34. Approval was given July 21, 2011.
The 15-page document has 54 paragraphs, compared to the three paragraphs that constituted the last general comment on freedom of expression, issued in 1983. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI) on Dec.16, 1966, which entered into force March 23,1976. A new protocol would be subject to approval and national endorsements to come into force.
The ICIC members, meeting in Ottawa, Canada, two years ago approved a resolution supporting expansion of right to information laws and supportive of the Open Government Declaration issued in connection with launch of the Open Government Partnership.The commissioners, however, dropped a proposed line urging countries to join the Open Government Partnership. The explicit endorsement of membership was sensitive to some of the information commissioners, according to persons familiar with the development of the resolution. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
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