African Platform on Access to Information 19 September 2011 Preamble W e, participants at the Pan African Conference on Access to Information, organised by the Windhoek+20 Campaign on Access to Information in Africa in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Cape Town, South Africa, September 17 – 19, 2011: Remembering the 1991 Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press and viewing the significant progress that has been made in the past 20 years on freedom of expression, access to information and the free flow of information; Stating that access to information (ATI) is the right of all natural and legal persons, which consists of the right to seek, access and receive information from public bodies and private bodies performing a public function and the duty of the state to prove such information; instrumental to fostering access to education and health care, gender equality, children’s rights, a clean environment, sustainable development and the fight against corruption; Recalling Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948, which guarantees that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 34 adopted in 2011 which states that Article 19(2) of the ICCPR includes the right of access to information held by public bodies, and Article 1.2 of the UNESCO Constitution; Underlining Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on 27 June 1981, which provides that, “Every individual shall have the right to receive information”; Reaffirming Article IV(1) of the Declaration of integral part of the fundamental human right of freedom of expression, essential for the recognition and achievement of every person’s civil, political and socio-economic rights, and as a mechanism to promote democratic accountability, good governance; Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights at its 32nd Ordinary Session held in October 2002, which provides that “Public bodies hold information not for themselves but as custodians of the public good and everyone has a right to access this information, subject only to clearly defined rules established by law”; Acknowledging that access to information is Cognisant of the African Union Convention on Emphasising that access to information is an So This is Democracy? 2014 111