Latin America and the Caribbean has been at the forefront of recognizing the public’s right to request and receive information from authorities. A vast majority have even implemented Right to Information (RTI) laws enshrining it, enabling the work of journalists digging into public data.
Yet, a recent study found that, when it comes to how these laws actually perform in the region, Latin America and the Caribbean rates average or even lags behind other countries globally.
“There’s been a lot of leadership on this issue coming out of Latin America and these results don’t line up with that,” Toby Mendel, study author, lawyer and executive director of Canada’s Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR).
Mendel, along with co-author Raphael Vagliano, published the study, “Global Comparative Testing or Responses to Requests for Information,” on Sept. 28, the International Day for Universal Access to Information.
This “stress test” – in the study’s words – aimed to see how RTI laws were being implemented on a global scale.
The study includes data for 146 requests from 76 countries submitted by volunteers from around the world.
To carry out the test, volunteers submitted two requests for information to public authorities at the national level. Each authority was given a deadline of 30 calendar days to reply, considering that in most countries, the initial deadline for response is 30 days or fewer, according to the study.
Sixteen countries from Latin America and the Caribbean are included in the results, though the study does not break down data at the country level.
In the region, 44% of the requests resulted in complete information being provided, whether on time, late or via “proactive disclosure,” meaning the information requested was already available elsewhere. The global average was 42%.
In 40% of the requests in the region, no response was given. The global average is 38%.
“Mute responses are a fundamental denial of the right to information. If requests go unanswered, the right exists only on paper,” the study says.
The average time to respond in Latin America and the Caribbean was 39.18 days, well past the global average of 22.06 days.
Mendel emphasized that since the global averages take into account democratic, weakly democratic and non-democratic countries, the fact that Latin America and the Caribbean – broadly a region whose countries are categorized as democracies – hits below the global average is not ideal.
“Latin America and the Caribbean should be batting above the average,” Mendel said, adding that Latin America has played an important leadership role regarding the right to information.
Latin America and Right to Information laws
Twenty seven of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean currently have RTI laws on the books, according to UNESCO. The latest to join was Cuba, which approved its law in 2024.
“The region had one of the fastest paces of approvals of these laws in the last 30 years,” Guilherme Canela, UNESCO Director of Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation, told LJR. “Before 1995, just one country in the region had this kind of legislation, now only six don’t have it.”
Canela pointed to some important milestones for the right to information in the region.
Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, concerning access to information about the environment, was adopted by the UN in 1992 in Brazil. Additionally, in 2006, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in Claude-Reyes et al. v. Chile that the State violated the right to freedom of thought and expression of two men when it denied their request for State-held information. It also concluded that Chile “failed to comply” with obligations to adopt measures to guarantee access to State-held information.
And, as pointed out by Mendel, in 2010 the General Assembly of the Organization of American States adopted the Model Inter-American Law on Access to Public Information.
Countries in the region without an RTI law are Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Saint Lucia and Suriname. All are considered Small Island Developing States, which UNESCO and CLD are currently helping to adopt and implement RTI laws, Mendel said.
Additionally, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDG 16.10.b, in particular, UN member states agreed to “ensure public access to information.”
“We are confident that the 6 countries without [laws] will move in that direction and UNESCO is certainly ready to support them,” Canela said.
Despite this progress, countries in the region have also seen setbacks in regards to RTI laws.
Mexico adopted the General Act of Transparency and Access to Public Information in 2002, landing it in second place on CLD’s Global Right to Information Rating. Yet, in 2025, journalists in Mexico warned their work would be hampered when lawmakers eliminated the oversight body, the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Protection of Personal Data. Consequently, Mendel said the country is expected to fall in the RTI ratings.
Since the RTI ratings measure the legal framework for the right to information and not how the laws are actually implemented, El Salvador ranks 14th for having a “strong law with a very robust scope.”
However, Salvadoran journalists told LJR this year that since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019, the government has restricted access to information. For example, in 2020, the government limited the autonomy of and then replaced commissioners of the Institute for Access to Information. Additionally, a 2023 report from the University Observatory on Human Rights, noted a growing pattern of public institutions claiming confidentiality for issues concerning security and human rights.
Middle of the pack
Canela characterized the fight for more access, government openness, transparency and accountability as “a never-ending journey.”
“There will always be actors, for different reasons, resisting to guarantee this right,” he said.
He urged stakeholders to raise awareness of the importance of access to information, emphasizing that it “isn’t a favor, but a duty of civil servants.” He also encouraged emphasizing the impact of this right.
“Access to information requests have changed policies, exposed wrongdoing and human rights violations and saved lives,” he said. “When the population overall, but decision makers in particular, see that, the tendency is to further improve the implementation of these legal frameworks.”
Canela encouraged decision makers to ensure the independence of bodies that oversee access to information in each country, including providing them with a budget to implement laws.
As for journalists, he said they should put the laws to work, making requests more frequently and telling the audience how they got the information.
