Madrid, 10 November 2022 – UNESCO and the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) recently launched a massive open online course (MOOC) about the right of access to information with the aim to offer people worldwide the opportunity to learn about this fundamental right.
The course is free for everyone, it takes just six hours to complete, and provides official certification from UNESCO upon completion.
This course is an excellent opportunity for public officials, journalists, civil society, students, and all those who have an appetite to increase or reinforce their knowledge on the right of access to information (ATI).
Thaís Rodrigues de Freitas, Archivist from National Museum of Fine Arts in Brazil, who has already completed the course, stated:
“This course is an important source of information, both for the general public and or professionals who work in the area of information. The right of access to information is something essential for countries like Brazil, even more at this moment, when it becomes an important instrument in the guaranteeing of rights and the consolidation of the democratic process of the current and future society.”
With the UNESCO course, participants will:
- Increase their knowledge of international standards and better practice for laws and implementation of ATI.
- Develop their capacity to advocate for better ATI laws and more effective implementation of those laws in their countries.
- Have a better understanding of how ATI is beneficial to both citizens and public authorities.
- Improve skills and capacity, in particular helping public officials to implement ATI laws more effectively and efficiently.
Step by step and led by professionals
The UNESCO MOOC course is divided into eight core modules, each of them exploring relevant themes connected to the right of access to information. It is also divided into different types of activities, such as moderator and expert videos, simple interactive games, reading material, useful resources for further reading, and quizzes.
The course contains videos from some of the world’s most experienced transparency experts, such as:
- Toby Mendel, founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy.
- Anjali Bhardwaj, Co-Convenor of the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI) in India.
- Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena, Commissioner of the National Institute for Transparency in Mexico.
- Eduardo Bertoni, Representative of the Regional Office for South America of the Inter American Institute of Human Rights.
- Giorgi Kldiashvili, Executive Director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) in Georgia.
- Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info.
- Kristian Ablan, Undersecretary for Administration, Finance, and Freedom of Information (FOI) at the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) in the Philippines.
- Lucy Kamunye Ndungu, Access to Information Commissioner of Kenya.
- Zahid Abdullah, Federal Information Commissioner at the Pakistan Information Commission.
It takes around six (6) hours to complete the full course, but participants can complete it at their own pace whenever they have a bit of free time. Upon completion and evaluation, participants will receive an official UNESCO certification.
“Of all the courses I enrolled in thus far, this course was far above my expectations as it outlines and encompasses all possible relevant information on Access to Information Laws and Policies. The course triggers the interest of the enrolee as it is divided perfectly well into all sections, starting from the introduction, legislation, outreach, challenges and implementation,” says Arlinda Osmanaj, National Programme Officer at the Media Section, Democratization Department, of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo.
“Overall, I found the course very informative and provided good and varied insight into the global functions of the ATI laws,” says Dorthea Glavind, Senior Analyst at the Access to Information and Privacy Branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Don’t miss this opportunity and enrol now for free in the course!