28 September 2025.
Launch of Report on Global Right to Information Stress Test
Today, on International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI), the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is releasing two major products, both prepared with the support of UNESCO. The first is our report on the Global Comparative Testing of Responses to Requests for Information, the first global exercise in which the same two requests for information were put to public authorities in as many of the 140 countries with right to information (RTI) laws as possible. Fully 38% of the responses were mute refusals (no response at all), while 51% of the responses provided some information (among which 42% were full disclosures, albeit some late).
The second is the Model Law on Access to Information for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which adapts the standards on RTI so as to provide legal protection for the right to information and yet be realistic to implement, taking into account the small size of the bureaucracies in most SIDS. It was finalised following input from consultations with stakeholders in the North and then South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Caribbean.
“The global RTI stress test exercise really highlights key implementation challenges with RTI laws globally, with a high rate of mute refusals but, positively, a higher rate of some information being provided and almost no reasoned refusals (i.e. refusals based on exceptions),” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “Regionally, Central and Eastern Europe did the best, overall, with the Arab Region coming in last place, Africa being the weakest after that, and Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and Western Europe and North America all fairly close together in the middle.”
CLD hopes that the testing exercise will help reinvigorate campaigns for better implementation of RTI laws in countries around the world and that the Model RTI Law for SIDS will inspire some of the 17 smaller population countries which still do not have RTI laws to move forward and adopt them.
The testing report is available here, and the Model Law is available here.
For further information, please contact:
Toby Mendel
Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy
toby@law-democracy.org
+1 902 431-3686
www.law-democracy.org
X: @Law_Democracy
BlueSky: @law-democracy.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/centre-for-law-and-democracy
