Resource Description
In the last two decades, Latin American countries – including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay, among others – have designed and adopted Freedom of Information Acts (FOIAs). These FOIAs have increased transparency of government actions, ensured citizens’ right to request and access public information, and enhanced overall accountability. This Brief describes and analyses critical features of these Latin American legal frameworks, highlighting their originality, design, preliminary outcomes, and the contextual factors that enabled their adoption. The lessons coming out of Latin American countries’ experiences in designing their FOIAs will likely be of use to countries in other regions that are looking to either create or strengthen their own legal framework supporting access to information.
