Making Access to Information Law Work for People in the Caribbeans

In the 15th Century, Sir Francis Bacon said that knowledge is power. The reality of this observation has been witnessed time and time again in many societies across the globe where the system of governance operates in such a way as to allow certain citizens to abuse their position of power, manipulating and monopolising information - while the majority remains voiceless and powerless due to their inability to access adequate information.

The Caribbean countries continue to experience such challenges even today, as they struggle to overcome the cultures of secrecy which deeply pervade their political and bureaucratic systems. Inequitable access to information and antiquated secrecy laws adopted by former colonial regimes feed the power that information has in the hands of the few.

However, the region has taken steps toward openness in the last decade, with some Caribbean countries embracing the global trend to adopt comprehensive access to information laws which facilitate access to government held information. Looking especially at the Commonwealth Caribbean today we find that Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have all enacted access to information laws. Even more countries in the region are lining up to join this trend - Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis and the Cayman Islands are all in the midst of the long process of developing and enacting their laws which will be integral to establishing a more transparent and accountable system of governance .

Yet one particular experience in the Caribbean has proved a timely reminder that it is not enough to simply enact a law – it must be implemented.

One of the major challenges to making an access to information law effective is overcoming a lack of genuine commitment among senior leadership toward opening up the government and implementing the people’s right to access information. Unfortunately, the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Freedom of Information Act (FOI Act) enacted in year 2003 is a prime example of the debilitating effects of such ambiguous political will.

Although enacted in 2003, the implementation of the law has been so poor that very few people even know about the very existence of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines FOI Act. There is a distinct lack of media reports and so far no statistics is available on the status of the number of requests for information under the Act. In 2006, CHRI attended a workshop on Freedom of Information in the Caribbean at which even civil society representatives from the country itself were not aware the law existed.

There may be many reasons for the lack of interest in implementing the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines law. When you look at the law itself, it is easy to see that it has some implicit drawbacks that may have contributed to the minimal effort by the government to implement it. For example, the Act makes the classic mistake that many other FOI laws do by failing to designate a strict time line in which the Act will become operational. As a result, even though the law has been enacted it has still not been put to actual practical use. Secondly, the law stipulates no clear dates for the completion of various implementation steps, nor any detailed plan of action identifying key steps to ensure that any slippage is queried and remedied if necessary.

Even though the act does not specify implementation steps, there is still little evidence that the government itself has proactively done anything to implement the law. The problem of bureaucratic resistance could be addressed if the civil society trains government officials to understand their duties under the law and the potential benefits under the law. To be practically effective in facilitating the public’s right to information, it is important to develop strategies which promote government community implementation partnerships. Besides training the government itself, the citizens should also be educated on the very existence of such a law, and how the law can be used to benefit them in their every day lives.

The enactment of a comprehensive right to information law is a major step towards open government. Nonetheless, the experience of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines evidences the need for a stronger commitment to implementation. While drafting and preparing for their laws, it is recommended that other Caribbean governments (and many others around the world) consider their plan for implementation to ensure an effective right to information law.