The Cayman Islands freedom of information law ranks 13th in the world, according to an evaluation conducted by the Centre for Law and Democracy and AccessInfo Europe.
The Cayman Islands law scored 88 points on a 150 point system used to rank 102 countries’ laws. It was the first time the Cayman Islands law was evaluated by the Global Right to Information Rating.
Antigua has the top-rated law in the region, 11th in the world. Dominican Republic is lowest, ranked 93rd.
“In terms of implementation, the Cayman Islands is regarded as having the best FOI regime so far in the region,” according to an overview of access in the Caribbean presented at a World Bank webinar by Aylair Livingston, an attorney in Jamaica. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
The Cayman Compass, however, recently was critical of the laws administration in an article beginning:
A review of Freedom of Information processes may be incumbent upon local FOI managers, many of whom appear to be less-than-versed in what the law requires or the limits it may place on compliance.
Acting information commissioner Jan Liebaers responded, saying in part that “the Cabinet Office has made a credible effort to address the training gap.”
The Cabinet has proposed to combine the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Complaints Commissioner’s Office, the Cayman Compass has reported.
Filed under: What's New