Madrid, 2 September 2022 – UNESCO and the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) have launched a massive open online course (MOOC) about the right of access to information. The course is free for everyone and provides official certification upon completion.
Taking just six hours to complete, this course is an excellent opportunity for all those who have an appetite to increase or reinforce their knowledge on the right of access to information (ATI), including public officials, journalists, civil society, students, and any other person interested on this fundamental right.
The objectives of this course are:
- To increase participants’ knowledge of international standards and better practice for laws and implementation of ATI.
- To develop participants’ capacity to advocate for better ATI laws and more effective implementation of those laws in their countries.
- To promote better understanding among participants of how ATI is beneficial to both citizens and public authorities.
- To foster better capacity on the part of officials to implement ATI effectively and efficiently.
Step by step and led by professionals
This course is divided into eight core modules, each of them exploring relevant themes connected to ATI and is 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 in Kenya.
- Zahid Abdullah, Federal Information Commissioner at the Pakistan Information Commission.
It takes around 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 certification.
This is the structure of the course:
- Introduction
- Module 1: International Standards
- Module 2: ATI, Development – Including the SDGs – and Other Benefits
- Module 3: Principles of Good ATI Legislation
- Module 4: Proactive Disclosure
- Module 5: Reactive Disclosure
- Module 6: Exceptions
- Module 7: Oversight
- Module 8: Implementation: Steps and Challenges
- Evaluation
Don’t miss this opportunity and enroll now for free in the course!