By Toby McIntosh
(Follow EYE @tobyjmcintosh)
The United Nations Secretariat has no plans to create an access to information policy, according to a statement provided to eyeonglobaltransparency.net.
This contradicts a signal given eighteen months ago by the top UN spokesperson, Alison Smale, who suggested strongly that an access policy was in the works.
Smale told EYE in January 2018 that the Secretariat would like to create a “rigorous” access to information policy. But first, she said, they needed to resolve an internal debate about which department should be the “custodian” of UN records.
“I would stress that the overall thrust of UN’s thinking is that we should begin the process of adopting access to information policies, and that what’s we are trying to do,” Smale said. “And it’s proving sadly more complicated than one might like.”
Update Requested
To follow up, EYE asked Smale’s office on May 9 about the status of planning for an access policy.
A nine-paragraph reply provided on June 26 from her office provides no hint that an access to information policy is in the offing.
The statement does not address whether any progress has been made on the custodianship issue or make any statement of intention concerning an access policy.
Instead, the statement begins, “The United Nations is committed to being open and transparent” and addresses several other issues, not including access policy.
It promises more “real-time transaction-level data,” dashboards concerning the costs to the UN of the Sustainable Development Goals and a data privacy policy. (See full text below.)
Smale, the Under Secretary General for the Department of Public Information, has announced her intention to leave the UN. No replacement has been named.
Rapporteur Urged Adoption of Access Policy
The lack of progress toward an access policy comes despite criticism of the Secretariat for not having one.
Most notably, David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, said in an August 2017 report that all UN bodies should have access policies.
“There is no principled reason why intergovernmental organizations should adopt access-to-information policies that vary from those adopted by States,” Kaye wrote.
Another prod comes implicitly from Goal 16 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which calls for countries to adopt and implement freedom of information laws.
More than 125 countries have freedom of the information laws or analogous requirements (See Right2Info tally), as do the major international financial institutions, such as the World Bank.
Among UN agencies, however, three out of five, including the UN Secretariat, lack policies on access to information, according to an eyeonglobaltransparency.net survey on October 2018. (See EYE article.)
The absence of such policies means there are no guaranteed procedures for requesting information and no standards for what documents will or will not be disclosed.
The June 26 UN statement also indicates that “a revised policy on archives and record-keeping is also being discussed.” Archives may address release of older documents, but do not typically deal with request for recent documents. However, improved records management could facilitate disclosure.
The UN General Assembly Committee on Information has not discussed an access to information policy, according to committee reports. Testimony by Smale in 2019 did not address the subject.
The closest the UN came to adopting an access policy began in late 2005, when the Secretariat developed a rather complete proposal. That effort petered out several years later because of budget concerns and member resistance, according to officials and outsiders who followed the effort. (For more background and other calls for reform see previous EYE article.)
Feminist Group Found UN Information Lacking
In January 2019, the International Center for Research on Women gave the UN a “D+” grade for freedom of information in a report called Progress Under Threat, a report card on the Secretary-General’s second year from the Feminist U.N. Campaign
“Freedom of information as a feminist issue insofar as it enables transparency and accountability, not only on commitments to gender equality and women’s rights, but to all interconnected rights and principles the United Nations was established to uphold,” the report states.
While the report praised the Secretary-General’s team for “making visible efforts to publish more information about his efforts to advance gender equality,” it was mostly critical.
“Many respondents reported that access to information in the U.N. system depends on privilege and personal relationships.,” according to the ICRW report. “One respondent estimated that up to half of the information they are working with on a daily basis is “informal” or “unofficial.”
Having looked particularly at the availability of information on gender issues, the report commented:
Much of the information is indeed available online but given the breadth of U.N. activities and reporting, data can be difficult to find, sift through and understand. Information should be clear and digestible if it is to be actionable. Key informants have also reported inconsistencies between U.N. agencies reporting and data sharing and the Secretariat, with the former being more accessible and the latter feeling like a “black hole.”
Full Text of June 26, 2019 Statement from UN Communications Office
The United Nations is committed to being open and transparent. It is taking steps to make information about its work and activities more widely available to Member States and the public.
The Secretary-General is leading the way, calling for the UN Secretariat to accelerate its efforts to provide real-time transaction-level data to the public through online hubs.
Later this year dashboards will be available containing performance data related to expenditure on the Sustainable Development Goals (finance, procurement, map data) and broad programmatic expenditure as well.
These dashboards will be shared with Member State governments, multilateral institutions, the private sector and civil society.
They have been facilitated through the adoption of International Aid Transparency International (IATI) initiative data standards.
On the policy side, the UN’s Office of Information and Communication Technology is developing a data privacy policy for the Secretariat.
Last year the UN has adopted personal data protection and privacy principles that aim to harmonize practices in data processing and protection across the UN system.
ttps://www.unsystem.org/personal-data-protection-and-privacy-principles
The UN is continuing to study the implications of the 2018 European Union General Data Protection Regulation, and is consulting with the EO to establish arrangements for UN entities to operate within EU regulations and rules.
A revised policy on archives and record-keeping is also being discussed.
