Launch of Second Global Right to Information Stress Test Report

28 September 2026.

Today, on International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI), the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is releasing its second right to information (RTI) stress test, formally titled the Global Comparative Testing of Responses to Requests for Information. This follows the pilot test last year, with UNESCO providing support both years.

This year, the exercise again involved lodging two requests seeking the same information from as many as possible of the countries and territories around with world with RTI laws. This year, 36% of the responses were mute refusals (no response at all), as compared to 38% last year, while some information was provided in response to 38% of the requests (down from 54% last year).

“The second iteration of the global RTI stress test resulted in similar findings as last year, namely an extremely high rate of mute refusals but an even higher rate of some information being provided and almost no claims that information was exempt,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “The mute refusals likely largely reflect failures to put in place basic systems for processing requests but, overall, the wider message is that these laws do serve to flow important information to the public.

Regionally, Central and Eastern Europe did the best overall, with just 15% mute refusals and 71% legitimate responses, with Africa coming in last place, with 80% mute refusals, followed by the Arab Region with 60%. This year, for the first time, we also assessed separately the performance of small island developing States (SIDS). Despite the challenges these very small States face in terms of small bureaucracies and limited human resources, they performed comparatively well, with just 31% of requests resulting in mute refusals (albeit still too high) and provision of some information in 44% of cases. However, the average response time was quite long at nearly 30 days compared to the overall average of 21 days.

There are various ways to address mute refusals, likely caused in most cases by failures of public authorities to put in place basic request processing systems. One is for those authorities to do what they are required to do under the law and establish these systems. Another is for demand-side actors to pressure those authorities by making more requests for information. And a third is for more rigorous oversight of the system, along with capacity building efforts. Hopefully all of these will ramp up globally over time.

This year, CLD also worked with the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet) to help develop its global mapping of activities taking place on IDUAI, available here, as well as with the Global Civil Society Coalition for the UNCAC to develop its dashboard on ATI projects around the world, available here.

The global stress test report is available here.

For further information, please contact:

Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Centre for Law and Democracy
Email: 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