Access to Information as a Human Right: Home

"[T]he right to freedom of thought and expression includes the protection of the right of access to State-held information."

Claude Reyes, et al. v. Chile, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 151, para. 77 (Sept. 19, 2006) (the first opinion of its kind from an international human rights tribunal, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

This research guide has been developed to support the Conference and post-Conference “Access to Information as a Human Right,” October 5, 2015, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, and to facilitate ongoing research into the political, philosophical, historical, social and cultural significance of the idea of access to information as a human right.  The conference will explore this right to access to information as a frontline of transnational campaigns for justice. 

Speakers at the event will include:

• Philippe Bourgois, University of Pennsylvania
• Dina Cabrera, Community Activist, Survivor of the Santa Cruz Massacre, El Salvador
• Mirla Carbajal, Attorney, Human Rights Institute, Universidad Centroamericana, El Salvador  
• Kate Doyle, Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive
• Baltasar Garzon, former Spanish Magistrate

A central example of access to information and, indeed, a key focus of the conference itself, is the project “Unfinished Sentences” undertaken by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.