Bangladesh : Political Economy of Right to Information
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009, was a milestone in the legal history of Bangladesh to ensure people’s right to obtain information from the government offices and other organizations. This act covers most bodies owned, controlled, or subst...
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/732321588745033604/Bangladesh-Political-Economy-of-Right-to-Information http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33733 |
| Summary: | The Right to Information (RTI) Act,
2009, was a milestone in the legal history of Bangladesh to
ensure people’s right to obtain information from the
government offices and other organizations. This act covers
most bodies owned, controlled, or substantially financed
either directly or indirectly by the government and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The act aims at
giving citizens the right to hold the government
accountable. In the 1990s, civil society advocated for the
RTI Act as one of the best-fitted tools to establish good
governance. The act was drafted by the government and civil
society organizations (CSOs) together, following an analysis
of a few other RTI Acts. A caretaker administration further
cemented the path for the introduction of the RTI Act. The
Council of Advisors of the caretaker administration approved
the RTI Ordinance in September 2008, and it became formally
recognized as a law from October 20, 2008. The
democratically elected new government passed the RTI Act in
March 2009, in the very first session of Parliament. The
context of introducing a law for RTI in Bangladesh was
different from that of India. The demand came from the
grassroots level in India with a 40-day sit-in protest by a
citizens’ rights body in 1996. In the case of Bangladesh, it
came from Dhaka-based elites and lacked connection with the
grassroots (Article 19 2015). The RTI Act, 2009, helps
investigative journalism, but that is not the entire goal of
this act. The goal is to empower citizens with information
and make livelihoods easier for the ones who will otherwise
have no means of getting answers from the state or other
social actors. |
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