KARACHI, Feb 28: A two-day international conference on the “Right to information” which concluded here on Thursday, proposed that the peoples’ right to information be respected and it must be ensured that they are given “true and complete information”.

The conference on “Right to information: focus on South Asia” also emphasized that the right to information could only be fully implemented in an environment of respect for all human rights, including political and economic rights.

The speakers from within the country and abroad stressed the need for a legislation to give effect to the right to information.

The conference was organized jointly by the Article 19 (London), Global Campaign for Free Expression (London); the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Columbo (Sri Lanka); and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi (India).

Speaking at a post-conference press briefing, Andrew Puddephali and Toby Mendel from the UK; Sunanda Deshpriya of Sri Lanka, Deepika Mogolishetty from India; Josi Khatarina from Indonesia; and Hussain Naqi of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan put forward the recommendations of the two-day conference.

They recommended that all countries in South Asia should adopt right to information legislation which should establish a presumption in favour of disclosure which is subject only to narrow and clearly drawn exceptions which include harm test and a public interest override.

They suggested that the law should provide for an independent appeals mechanism for any refusals or failures to disclose information, which operates in a timely and low-cost fashion and which has full powers to access claims, including viewing record, and to order disclosure.

The law, they said, should ensure that there is an independent body with responsibility for monitoring and promoting effective implementation of law besides establishing a mechanism for tackling the culture of secrecy, including through training.

They demanded that the proposed law should require public bodies to publish and disseminate widely documents of significant public interest, subject only to reasonable limits based on resources and capacity. The law should also impose same obligations on the private bodies which undertake public functions.

They demanded that the law should provide penalties for wilful obstruction of access to information and for compensation for any loss caused by such obstruction.

They suggested that the law should provide protection against legal, administrative or employment-related sanctions for whistle-blowers (those who release information on wrongdoing) as long as they acted in good faith and in the reasonable belief that the information was substantially true.

The law should impose an obligation on private bodies to disclose information where this information is needed to exercise or protect a right.

They suggest that the law should also impose an obligation on private bodies to publish information where this was in the general public interest, including in relation to activities which pose a risk of harm to public health or safety or the environment or to enable consumers to make informed choices.

They said that the law to the right to information had been implemented in the country for a very brief period as the ordinance, under which it had been promulgated, was allowed to lapse by the government.

They said that it was being heard nowadays that the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) was formulating some law on the right to information, so they thought it was right time to put their recommendations forward and give their input so that the NRB, if it wanted, could look into these before it formulated the law.

Former chief editor of Dawn Ahmad Ali Khan, HRCP Director I. A. Rehman, former Sindh governor and leading lawyer Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, Javed Jabbar, Arif Nizami and others participated in the conference and gave their input in formulating the recommendations.