A/HRC/44/25
for women and young people in planning, budgeting and implementation of country team
projects.
31.
Several United Nations country teams have created youth advisory panels or
councils to include young people in the design of policies, strategies and programmes
aimed at addressing issues affecting adolescents and young people in those countries. 12
Some country teams cooperate with the private sector to support, train and empower youth
refugees.
32.
The United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti engaged young people,
students and academics, artists and writers. It had mobile teams to discuss a broad array of
political, rule of law, security, economic and social questions with rural dwellers and local
civil society actors. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan organized regular national
and local open days; offered awareness-raising on the frameworks for the revitalized
agreement to resolve the conflict in South Sudan and for women, peace and security; and
aired programmes in local languages on the Mission radio station to reach out to widest
audience.
4.
Civil society access to information and outreach
33.
The right of access to information – a core component of the right to freedom of
opinion and expression – and participation in international and regional organizations are
inextricably linked, since effective participation is impossible without access to
information. 13 The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to
freedom of opinion and expression concluded that it was not enough simply to adopt access
to information policies. Such policies needed to be rigorous and principled, drawing on the
broad global acceptance that the right of access to information held by public authorities is
rooted in international law (A/72/350).
34.
The majority of United Nations entities have policies on access to information.
However, based on the mapping, it was found that, less than one third of entities clearly
define any exceptions to such access and had mechanisms for civil society to contest
restrictions. Despite numerous challenges and gaps, mostly related to capacity constraints,
all United Nations entities utilize various channels of sharing information with civil society
actors, mainly through official documents, public reports, websites, conferences, meetings,
workshops, social and other media, online tools, webinars and e-platforms, newsletters and
list serves, and any other communication channels, including for persons with disabilities.
35.
Some United Nations entities – including the International Labour Organization,
UNDP, UNEP, UNFPA, the World Bank and the World Food Programme – have publicly
available policies with presumptions in favour of disclosure, and clearly define restrictions
or exceptions. Most of them also provide for review or appeal procedures in case of
restrictions and denials. 14 Those exceptions are made on clearly specified grounds,
including:
(a)
Information covered by legal privilege or regulatory proceedings;
(b)
Information of a personal nature;
(c)
Agency-specific administrative information (e.g., financial and medical
information, and information that is related to safety and employment) whose disclosure is
likely to endanger the safety or security of an individual or the member State;
12
13
14
8
(d)
Information that may violate human rights, including the right to privacy;
(e)
Information pertaining to ongoing judicial or prosecutorial cases.
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cambodia, Mongolia and Nepal.
See Human Rights Committee, general comments No. 25 (1996) on participation in public affairs and
the right to vote and No. 34 (2011) on the freedoms of opinion and expression.
The International Labour Organization has no external appeals mechanism, but specifies reasons in
case of denial.
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