Extracts and a comments from me below. Full text here: https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1141602
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28 September 2023 Human Rights
The UN-appointed expert on freedom of opinion and expression has called for governments to strengthen efforts to close the “digital divide” and remove all barriers to the right to information.
“Without universal and meaningful connectivity for all, the right to information is an empty promise for billions of people around the world,” Irene Khan said in her message to mark the International Day for Universal Access to Information, observed annually on 28 September...
Her latest report, published in April, revealed that many States have adopted laws on access to information, with some even recognizing access to the Internet as a legal right.
However, the “bad news” is that these laws often are not implemented effectively, she said. Various tactics are used to restrict or deny access to information, both online and offline, to investigative journalists, human rights defenders and other civil society representatives...
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COMMENTS (NPW):
1. Improving the availability and use of reliable healthcare information is about much more than access to the internet. Among the majority of the world's population that does have everyday access to the internet (and this is ill-defined and measured), there are wide vcariations in meaningful access to information, depending on digital literacy, language, susceptibility to misinformation (most/all of us are)... Furthermore, access to reliable inforamtion depends on the integrity of the whole global evidence ecosystem, and the system remains broken. https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa/hifa-vision-mission-strategy
2. With regard to 'laws on access to information, with some even recognizing access to the Internet as a legal right', there is no legislation, or even government policy, that commits to improving the availability of reliable healthcare information. This is due largely to a lack of global political and financial commitment to universal access to reliable healthcare information.
3. It's notable that there is a 'UN-appointed expert on freedom of opinion and expression', and that they would be pronouncing on issues of access. Is there not a need for a 'UN-appointed expert on access to information', with a focus on improving the availability and use of reliable healthcare information needed to realise the right to health?
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
