Access to Information As a Human Right (Law and Society)

"Conceptualizing access to government information as a human right is a new development in the global trend promoting institutional transparency. Bishop provides a comprehensive examination of international human rights law and explains four conceptualizations of access to information as a human right. Rights to information have been linked to the right to free expression, the right to privacy, and the right to a healthy environment, and the right to the truth about human rights abuses. She concludes that a human right to access information is evolving in disparate ways. The current evolution of access rights creates a patchwork system of guarantees; nonetheless, the freedom-of-expression conceptualization holds the most promise for proving a broad right of access"--Provided by publisher.

Conceptualizing access to government information as a human right is a new development in the global trend promoting institutional transparency. Bishop provides a comprehensive examination of international human rights law and explains four conceptualizations of access to information as a human right. Rights to information have been linked to the right to free expression, the right to privacy, and the right to a healthy environment, and the right to the truth about human rights abuses. She concludes that a human right to access information is evolving in disparate ways. The current evolution of access rights creates a patchwork system of guarantees; nonetheless, the freedom-of-expression conceptualization holds the most promise for proving a broad right of access.

Freedom-of-expression conceptualization Information-privacy conceptualization Right-to-a-healthy-environment conceptualization Right-to-truth conceptualization Conclusions.