News
Public information for all: Right to information from a gender perspective
The workshop examined the latest international standards regarding the right of access to public information from a gender perspective and identify systemic barriers that disproportionately hinder women from exercising this right. The workshop also explored opportunities to incorporate a gender perspective into legal frameworks and national practices, standards and policies that help end such disparities.
The work of the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman, together with partners such as the Carter Center and UNESCO, has managed to break down the culture of opacity and spread the notion that the authorities are not owners of public information, but only administrators of it.
Based on the Inter-American Model Law 2.0 on Access to Public Information of the Organization of American States and considering the report "Promotion of gender equality in the right of access to information" recently published by UNESCO, the workshop also included panel discussions and roundtables aimed at proposing specific solutions to the range of challenges that women face when they try to access public information in Guatemala.
Officials from the Presidential Secretariat for Women (SEPREM), the Ombudsman for Indigenous Women (DEMI), the Presidential Commission for Open and Electronic Government, and the Presidential Commission against Corruption also participated in the workshop.
More than 40 participants, mainly women from different parts of the country, highlighted the importance of having mobile units for access to information in places and times that accommodate the needs of women. They also highlighted the importance of awareness-raising among officials working in the information units, so that they have greater empathy and judgment, as well as of guaranteeing the cultural and linguistic relevance of access to public information.
Despite the existing inter-institutional cooperation on making information accessible for women at national level, more efforts are required at the subnational level in the various departments and municipalities of the country. On the other hand, the need to coordinate and measure the effectiveness of training on the subject was also highlighted.
