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The Right to Know: Transparency for an Open World resources

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the world’s most comprehensive disclosure laws. Most Latin Ameri- can countries have a right to information included in their constitu- tion, although these generally have not been either implemented or enforced. But in 2004, the presidents and prime ministers of the Americas committed themselves to providing the legal framework for implementing the right to information.15 More than half a dozen Cen- tral and South American countries have disclosure laws, and enabling legislation is being debated or considered in almost all countries in Central America and the Caribbean as well as South America, with the notable exceptions of Cuba and Venezuela.16 The case is similar in Africa, where a number of countries include the right to information in their constitutions, and more than three years ago the Declara- tion of Principles on Freedom of Expression, reaffirming the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, provided a similar mandate to heads of state. However, only a handful of African countries, most notably South Africa, have passed or are even considering relevant legislation. And around the world, the efficacy of the whole panoply of laws, rules, and voluntary standards remains very much in question. Plan of the Book The chapters in this book paint a vivid portrait of how transparency has evolved over the past few decades, where the world now stands, and what issues are likely to be confronted in the ongoing struggle between secrecy and disclosure. They show that the transparency picture is quite mixed. Information access is certainly more wide- spread now than it was several decades ago, but we are far from liv- ing in a truly transparent world, and some trends, particularly in the security field, may point toward a more secretive future. We begin with a series of detailed case studies of how and why information-access laws came into being in several countries and regions, of particular interest for the lessons they can teach the rest of the world. One such case study is India. Unlike nearly every other country’s campaign for greater access to information access, spear- headed by middle-class professionals, India’s drive was fueled from the grassroots up. Other actors—not least an impressively indepen- dent Supreme Court—have played vital roles. But Shekhar Singh shows that the chief lesson from India is how some of society’s most 10 introduction: the battle over transparency

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