Patricia McPhillips, UNESCO Director and Representative to Afghanistan ©UNESCO/S.Habibullah
Access to Information
UNESCO works to create an enabling environment, which is conducive to and facilitates universal access to information and knowledge, including setting standards, raising awareness and monitoring progress to achieve universal access to information and knowledge. No society can claim to be a genuine knowledge society if access to knowledge and information is denied to a segment of the population. We therefore affirm the need for country wide access to information and knowledge
In late 2017 UNESCO within its International Programme for Development of Communications (IPDC), and in close collaboration with the Oversight Commission on Access to Information (OCAI), and with the support from the Government of Netherlands, trained a total of 71 journalists and civil society actors to become certified trainers on the right to access public information and the Afghan Access to Information Law.
The project aimed to foster people’s right to know and request public information, to encourage participation enhancing sustainable development, democratic practices, good governance, rule of law, fairness and inclusion for all towards the aim to support the full implementation of the Access to Information Law.