Working Group Three
Non-State and Multilateral Actors: examining
roles and responsibilities
This group gave full consideration to the various arguments for and against
extending the reach of the right of access to information requirements to nonstate 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.
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?
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:
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who they are
the nature of their ties to state actors
what they do
or how significantly their activities affect fundamental human rights
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
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
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
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.)