The APAI working Group joins other stakeholders across the globe, in commemorating September 28 as the Right to Information Day. We call on all governments and non-state actors to observe this day and use their sub-regional, regional and global fora to make the Day one of the Official United Nations Days. This day has been celebrated by freedom of information organizations from around the world for the last ten years, as a day to promote the right of access to information for all people as a leverage for open, transparent, and accountable governments. Different stakeholders have since the year 2002 created both global and regional platforms for sharing ideas and information about the developments around freedom of information laws across the globe.
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Le Groupe de travail APAI se joint aux autres parties prenantes à travers le monde, pour commémorer le 28 Septembre, comme étant la « Journée du droit de savoir ». Nous appelons tous les gouvernements et les acteurs non étatiques à célébrer cette journée et à utiliser leurs forums sous-régionaux, régionaux et mondiaux pour faire de cette date une des Journées officielles des Nations Unies.
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The APAI Working Group was formed in 2009 in order to initiate a campaign to promote Access to Information in Africa around the twentieth anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration on Press Freedom. It consists of a core group of organisations with expertise in issues relating to Freedom of Expression and Access to Information. The Working Group includes the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Article 19 (East and West Africa), Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC), the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Highway Africa (HA), the African Editors Forum (TAEF), and the Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA).
African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR)
In April 2012, the working group attended the 51st ACHPR session in Banjul. The purpose of the trip was to support the Special Rapporteur in her efforts to secure a resolution to expand Article 4 of the Declaration on Principles of Freedom of Expression in Africa to incorporate the principles of the declaration, as well as to call on the commission to recognize International RTI day, A number or avenues were pursued in order to achieve this.
APAI Declarations
We, participants at the Pan African Conference on Access to Information, organised by the Windhoek+20 Campaign on Access to Information in Africa in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation(UNESCO), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Cape Town, South Africa, September 17 – 19, 2011
Pan African Conference on Access to Information (PACAI)
This gathering, the PACAI, capitalises on the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, to make a difference to information access. The event is convened by the Windhoek+20 Campaign on Access to Information in Africa in conjunction with UNESCO, and possibly the African Union. It will be one of several conferences taking place simultaneously in Cape Town, and it will share an opening session with them. The totality of events will come together for a joint closing session, dubbed as the Africa Information and Media Summit (AIMS).
Coalition Members’ Quote!
We can choose to stay silent but where has that ever got anyone?! Our goal must remain: “to seek, find and use the facts to free our people from repressions and oppressions! Hajia Sani
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) has reiterated its call for a law providing for access to information. Misa celebrated World Press Freedom day last week at an event attended by mostly local journalists in the Windhoek city centre.
Ghana's cabinet has approved the Right to Information Bill (RTI) and forwarded it to parliament for consideration and its subsequent passage into law, Mahama Ayariga, Minister of Information and Media Relations said on Friday.
On Friday March 22, 2013 in a meeting with journalists at the Flagstaff house, President Mahama made a profound and preeminent declaration when he said “ I have no fear of the right to information bill (...) it is not a monster and I think Parliament should pass it.”
The African Platform on Access to Information (APAI) welcomes the adoption of the African Union’s “Model Law on Access to Information for Africa” by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, along with the news that Rwanda has become the 11th country in Africa to adopt an Access to Information law, indicating the increasing significance of Access to information on the African continent.
