The Right to Information:

Is it possible for developing countries?

Bülent Yilmaz

Abstract:

[ The right to information is one of the main human rights that protect and develop the human life. The use of the right to information will be able to contribute to solve the many social and cultural problems of the individual and the national level. But there are many pre-conditions which are related to economical, social, cultural and political development for realizing the right to information in a country. Unless a country has solved the main problems like hunger, education, health, social security and political freedom, it is not possible to realize the right to information.

There is a strong relationship between the right to information and the development level of a country. The individuals who live in developed countries have many more possibilities in using the right to information than developing countries.

Four fifths of the worlds population still live in the least and developing countries. It seems that these countries that did not solve the main problems are far away from the right to information. In this study, we will try to evaluate the concept of the right to information in the base of the development difference between developed and developing countries. ]

Paper

[Please note: Diagram is not included in the electronic version]

Introduction

Information is power for development. For this reason, the right to information is an important human right. However, as many other rights, there are many pre-conditions which are related to economical, social, cultural and political development for realising the right to information. While developed countries seem to have important opportunities for the right to information, least developed countries and developing countries are far away from this right.

In this paper we will try to examine the opportunities for the right to information in least developed and developing countries and reach a conclusion about the impact to librarians' efforts on these issues.

Democracy, Intellectual Freedom and the Right to Information

First of all, we have to discuss the ethical aspects of the library profession connected with the intellectual freedom and the right to information for understanding the primary reason for the existence of libraries. There is a strong relationship between intellectual freedom and the right to information. In other words, the concept of the right to information is based on the concept of the freedom of information. Freedom of information means intellectual freedom. Both intellectual freedom and the right to information are human rights which protect the human life and human development. However, human rights which protect our lives need to be protected by a full democracy in the country. If there is not a full democracy, all members of the society can participate in the decision making process and for this reason they need the right to information. Unless there is a true democracy in a country, the problem of the right to information can not be solved, fully.

We can not say that there is full democracy in many developing countries despite they have become a bit more democratic since 1980. The index of democracy by World Bank (Diagram 1) indicates this situation clearly. In the majority of developing countries, democracy is not working completely. It is seen that only OECD (or developed) countries have established real democratic regimes. If we accept that a full democracy is a pre-condition for the right to information, it can be also said that developing countries do not have the chance to use the right to information wholly yet.

Human Development and the Right to Information

"Human poverty constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights. To promote social progress and raise the standard of living within the wider concept of freedom, international human rights law... recognizes economic and social rights with the aim of attacking poverty and its consequences. Among these rights are an adequate standard of living food, housing, education, health, work, social security and a share in the benefits of social progress" (1). These rights are "sine-non-quo" for using the right to information both on the national level and on the individual level. A man who does not have enough food, shelter, health, work, education and security does not need to use the right to informtion.

Table 1 shows us that there are many countries which have not ratified or acceded some major human rights conventions. It means that these countries face the problem of human rights, and consequently the right to information.
 
 
Convention Countries that have ratified or acceded Countries that have not ratified / acceded
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,1996 135 57
Civil and Political Rights, 1966 136 57
Elimination of discrimination against women, 1979 153 39
Rights of the Child, 1989 190 02
Table 1 : Ratification status of major human rights conventions, 1 March 1997
Source : United Nations (1997)
 
 
Least developed countries Developing countries Industrial countries
Life expectancy (years) 50.4 61.8 74.1
Adult literacy rate 48.1 69.7 98.5
Combined 1st, 2nd and 3rd level gross enrolment ratio 36 56 83
Access to health services (%) 49 80
GNP per capita ( US $ ) 210 1053 17221
Human development index 0.336 0.576 0.911
Table 2 : Regional aggregates of human development indicators
Source : United Nations (1997)

Two notions of human development can be discerned. One is on the level of the individual, the other on the national level (2). Table 2 shows us the regional aggregates of human development with some basic indicators and draws a profile of human development. Only educated (literate) people can use the right to information. Illiterates cannot use this right even if they need it. Srikantaiah and Dong point out that there is a definite correlation among the number of users of Internet and the GNP and the literacy rate (3). It can be said that there is also a definite correlation between the use of information and the literacy rate. Simply because that information user must be literate.

Ratio of enrolement by level of education by regions is a good parameter for the aspect of national level of the right to information. According to the combined 1st, 2nd and 3rd level gross enrolment ratios in Table 2, 64 % of least developed countries' population and 44 % of developing countries' population are not educated. That means, these countries cannot use the right to information and do not have such a priority. Article 29 describes the aims of education. So one has to conclude that the right to information-or in better terms: the right to access to sources of information-is related to an education aim, and put in a perspective of general education and human development (4).

Another negative situation is the relation of expenditures on education with %GNP. Though, least developed countries spend 3.1% of their GNP to education, this ratio is 3.8 for developing countries and 5.8 % for industrial countries (5). Unless developing (and least developed) countries increase their expenditures on education as much as industrial countries, perhaps much more, it is dificult to realize the right to information in these countries.

There is a meaningful difference in literacy rate between least developed/developing countries and developed countries. While the ratio of literacy is 98.5% for developed countries, it falls down to 69.7% for developing countries and 50.4% for least developed countries. That means half of the population of least developed countries and one third of population of developing countries cannot reach to written information. And it also means that the priority should be given to create the literate society in least developed and developing countries.

One of the basic rights for a person or nation in life is to live healthily. An ill person or a country which has serious health problems on the national level does not need the right to information, as a priority. From the viewpoint of health there is a definite difference between developing and developed countries.
 
 
Least developed countries Developing countries Industrial countries
Radios (per 1000) 96 178 1018
Televisions (per 100) 2 14 50
Book titles published (per 100000) -- 7 52
Main telephone lines (per 100) 0.3 3.3 40.1
International telephone calls (minutes per person) 0.5 2.5 35.1
Fax machines (per 100) -- 0.1 2.8
Internet users (per 10000) -- 1.5 223.2
Personal computers (per 100) -- -- 14.2
Table 3 : Communication Profile
Source : United Nations (1997)

While the ratio of population with no access to health services in least developed countries is 51%, it is 20% in developing countries and less than 5% in industrial countries (6). These ratios show us that least developed and developing countries still have serious health problems. It will not be realistic to expect from a country which has health problems has to solve gives the priority to the problem of the right to information.

When we look at the communications profile of the developing countries and developed countries, (Table 3) it is seen that least developed and developing countries won't have the traditional media in the coming two years to 2000. 822 of 1000 persons do not have television. Book titles published per 100.00 is 7 for developing countries and 52 for industrial countries. Main telephone line per 100 is 0.3 for least developed countries, 3.3 for developing countries, but 40,1 for industrial countries (7). As of 1994 no daily newspapers were published in the 37 least developed and developing countries and their territories (8). The right to communicate is a base for the right to information. In this case, we can say that the right to information is still far away in the least developed and developing countries.

Population and the Right to Information

World population is about 5.629.635.000 68% of this population is in developing countries, 10 % in least developed countries and 21% in developed countries (9). These ratios show that only one fifth of the world's population generally have the positive conditions for the right to information, and four fifth have many important problems which effect the solution of the right to information. For instance; while number of deaths at ages of 1-4 per 100.000 is 3128 in South Africa, it is 30 in Finland (10). The fundamental right for least developed and developing countries seem to be the right to live. Besides, over population in a country means many problems for it. The largest part of the world's population still live with many problems in the developing countries.

Libraries and the Right to Information

Libraries, especially public libraries, as information and cultural centers have important responsibilities in safeguarding the public's right to information. When we look at the distribution of the public libraries in the world, it can be seen that there is an unequality and unbalance.
 
Country Population / Public library numbers Public library users / population ( % ) Collection (number of  volumes) ( 000 )
Uganda 1,145, 611 0.2 82
Canada 6,581 16.0 60,955
Finland 2,581 47.3 36,300
United Kingdom 10,854 57.6 133,134
Table 4 : Ratios of Public Libraries and Users
Source  : Unesco Statistical Yearbook 1996

According to Table 4, the ratio of public library use is 0.2% in Uganda but 57.6% in the United Kingdom. While 1.145.611 people use only one public library in Uganda, there is a public library for every 2.851 person in Finland. According to the collections of public libraries, in the United Kingdom, 2.29 books are per person but one book per 3000 persons in Uganda (11). It is clearly seen that there is a strong relationship between the level of development and the use of public libraries. For the use of public libraries in a country there must be enough public libraries and educational facilities. Development is the foundation which increase the public library use and consequently the right to information.

Library services, and of course the right to information can be thought as a part of the national information policy. However, most of the least developed and developing countries generally do not have national information policies (12). Lack of a national information policy in a country affects library services and the right to information negatively.

Conclusion

As Koren said, human development can be described as a comprehensive economical, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals (13). The right to information as a human right is a result and/or product of the human development. The phrase of the right to information for a person who is hungry, who does not have enough money to live; who is not educated and who does not have freedom, does not have any meaning in either. In the same way, a country which has the problem of hunger, education, economic and politic freedom cannot give the priority to the right to information. Of course, information is a power which plays important role in solving these problems. But governments and individuals generally are not aware of this power, and say: first comes the right to eat, the right to work, the right to have a shelter, the right to have social security, in short the right to live and then the right to information.

We cannot realize the right to information unless we realize other rights we mentioned above. Althought as librarians there are many things we can do, as long as the unequality between developing and developed countries, it won't be a realistic attitude to expect to solve the problem of the right to information only by ourselves.As a conclusion, we can say that in the 21st century, the least developed and developing countries still won't reach their right to informaton.

References
  1. United Nations (1997) Human development report 1997. New York: Oxford Univ. Pres, p. 106.
  2. Koren, Marian (1997). "The right to information as a condition for human development" in 63rd IFLA General Conference August 31-September 5 1997 Copenhagen, Denmark Booklet 0 (3-16).
  3. Srikantaiah, K. and X. Dong (1997) "Internet and its impact on developing countries: examples from China and India" in 63rd IFLA General Conference August 31 September-5 1997 Copenhagen, Denmark Booklet O (13-35).
  4. Koren (1997:7)
  5. United Nations (1997; 226)
  6. United Nations (1997; 56)
  7. United Nations (1997; 226)
  8. Unesco Statistical Yearbook 1996 (1997) Paris: Unesco, 7-92.
  9. Unesco (1997: 1-3)
  10. World Health Organization (1996) World health statistics annual. Geneve: WHO
  11. For population numbers see Unesco (1997)
  12. National and international information policies (1991) Ed. by Wendy Schipper and Ann Marie Cunningham. Philadelphia: The National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services. 139-159 pp Koren (1997:5
  • This paper was authored by Bulent Yilmaz ( Hacette University) for the IFLA Conference, 1998


    • Other SiteLinks :
     
    The Indian Bill Model 'Right to Information Act' Right to Information : Trend Studies An article by Toby Mendel

    Back to Portal                     Portal-II