Right to Information Guide for Myanmar NGOs and opposition politicians – can use the right to information law to obtain information which would not otherwise be available to them and to use it to expose wrongdoing. 2. Implementing the right to information To give effect to the right to information, States must have clear implementing legislation to describe how the right is to be exercised. Ideally, legislation should explicitly frame the issue as one of a “right” to access information, but it can also be expressed as a procedural right (i.e. “everyone can make a request for information”). Best practice is to enshrine the right as a constitutional guarantee to give it overriding status and to make it clear that it is a human right and not subject to legislative derogation. The right to information is based upon the principle of maximum disclosure with limited exceptions. Maximum disclosure essentially means that States should endeavour to make as much information as possible publicly available and that provisions granting access should be interpreted as broadly as possible. There should be a general presumption that all types of information held by all public authorities should be accessible, and that the right should apply broadly, so that non-citizens and legal entities enjoy have the right to make requests for information. As a matter of practice under most right to information laws there are two ways of exercising this right: ! Reactive or responsive provision of information: Anyone can make a request to a public authority for information that he or she wants and that authority should provide the information to the requester in accordance with set procedures. ! Proactive provision of information: Public authorities should publish key types of information even without a specific request for that information, so that everyone can access it. Proactive publication is a critical aspect of the right to information. In the digital age, there is an increasing emphasis on open government and on providing as much information as possible on a proactive basis, mainly via the Internet. In addition to facilitating greater public access to information, proactive publication is an efficient use of public resources, particularly for information which is likely to be the subject of an access request. It is far easier to publish a document online than to respond to even one request for it. The scope of the law on the right to information should be broad and encompass all recorded information, regardless of its medium of storage. The law should apply to all records held by government entities and government officials acting in an official capacity. Best practice is to make it clear that the law applies not only to documents but also to information, which may be contained in a document. In terms of bodies, it should apply to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, all levels of government (central but also governorates or provinces, districts and so on), all bodies which are owned or controlled by public authorities, including State-owned enterprises, bodies which are created by law or by the The Centre for Law and Democracy is a non-profit human rights organisation working internationally to provide legal expertise on foundational rights for democracy. 5