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Promoting Transparency: Examining Roles of Non-State and Multilateral Actors

This article explores the roles and responsibilities of non-state and multilateral actors in promoting transparency and access to information. It discusses the impact of their lack of transparency on human rights and proposes specific steps to increase access to information. The article also highlights the importance of multi-stakeholder forums in promoting transparency.

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Promoting Transparency: Examining Roles of Non-State and Multilateral Actors

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  1. Working Group ThreeNon-State and Multilateral Actors: examining roles and responsibilitiesThis group gave full consideration to the various arguments for and against extending the reach of the right of access to information requirements to non-state actors, including more controversial cases such as NGOs. It also contemplated ways to positively motivate the engagement of non-state actors that may be threatened by a law or disclosure policy and discussed the role of multi-stakeholder forums.

  2. Issue Statement • What are the types of non-state and multilateral actors whose lack of transparency most significantly impacts human rights in the hemisphere? • What specific steps can be taken to produce greater access to information?

  3. Considerations • The Atlanta Declaration reported consensus on the principle that human rights depend on access to information, even when the organization holding that information is a non-state actor. • The Atlanta Declaration, in Principle 5, recognized that organizations may be obliged to disclose information by virtue of: • who they are • the nature of their ties to state actors • what they do • or how significantly their activities affect fundamental human rights

  4. Regional Findings • Across the whole range of non-state and multinational actors, there are systemic activities that through their secrecy cause harm • Recent events reaffirm that the lives and well-being of people throughout the Americas rely on full and accurate disclosure of information from financial and economic institutions • International Financial Institutions have too long operated without basic provision of access to information that is fundamental to the welfare of people in the region, and they have failed to be accountable for their investments in the social and economic infrastructure in the Americas • The lack of transparency in the political parties, including among political parties, has led to a lack of citizen confidence and failures in political legitimacy

  5. Regional Findings Multi-stakeholder process are growing in importance in the region and internationally We find five clusters of organizations that must move toward full disclosure and greater transparency. They are: Financial and Economic Institutions Those organizations implicating national resources or the delivery of public goods Civil Society Organizations pertaining to Democracy and Governance, including NGOs, Political Parties, and Labor Unions International organizations and supra-national state-like organizations Multi-stakeholder Processes, Initiatives, or Forums

  6. Recommendations & Action Points REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: • International financial organizations should disclose information, including processes and procedures; projects, including impact studies; risk assessments and debt analysis; and conditionalities on loans • Supranational organizations and non-national state-like institutions should provide access to decision-making, have clear processes for requesting information, limited exceptions, and promote transparency in member countries and for all contractors • Revise supervision/monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to be more transparent – and create official spaces for civil society involvement STATES: • Financial and economic institutions must be required to disclose certain key information, such as methodologies and results of evaluation of market stability • Financial regulators must not only comply with transparency but also ensure that transparency regimes in the financial sector are adequate and effective • Central Banks should be treated as state actors and covered under national access to information legislation

  7. Recommendations & Action Points NON-STATE ACTORS (Civil Society, Corporate and Professional Organizations): Voluntary compliance initiatives by the financial sector and general private sector should be undertaken Profit seeking institutions should disclose information bearing on health or environmental impacts of their activities; clinical trials; and information that may affect public safety Political parties and movements registered in the electoral system should disclose financial sources and annual funds, regardless of whether they receive public funding AND ATI laws should cover these bodies NGOs should lead by example, and at a minimum state disclosure of state funds received and used should be covered by law Multi-stakeholder initiatives should place transparency at core of their mission, and voluntarily disclose key information (such as membership, funding, decision-making documents etc.)

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