Centre for Law and Democracy

10/13/2026

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is hereby releasing publicly the formal submission it made to Newfoundland and Labrador’s review of its Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The Canadian province’s legal framework for the right to information (RTI) scores 110 out of a possible 150 points on CLD’s RTI Rating, making it by far the strongest RTI law in Canada and locating it at 25th place among the countries with national RTI laws.

CLD’s analysis highlights a number of strengths and weaknesses and provides recommendations for reforms, including:

-The regime of exceptions and exclusions is the weakest part of the law. Many exceptions should either be narrowed or removed, harm tests should be added to the many exceptions which currently lack them, and a stronger and more comprehensive public interest override should be added.

-The Information Commissioner should have the power to review information that is claimed to be subject to solicitor-client privilege.

-The scope of the law should be broadened to cover the judiciary, all of the executive and legislative branches of government, and bodies which undertake public functions or operate with significant public funding.

-A proper system of proactive publication should be added to the law, under the oversight of the Information Commissioner.

CLD’s submission is available here (https://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Canada.Nfld_.RTI_.Oct26.pdf) and its RTI Rating of Newfoundland and Labrador is available on our Canadian RTI Rating Page (https://www.law-democracy.org/canadian-rti-rating/)

09/28/2026

Today, on International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI), the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) is releasing its second right to information (RTI) stress test, formally titled the Global Comparative Testing of Responses to Requests for Information. This follows the pilot test last year, with UNESCO providing support both years.

This year, the exercise again involved lodging two requests seeking the same information from as many as possible of the countries and territories around with world with RTI laws. This year, 36% of the responses were mute refusals (no response at all), as compared to 38% last year, while some information was provided in response to 38% of the requests (down from 54% last year).

Regionally, Central and Eastern Europe did the best overall, with just 15% mute refusals and 71% legitimate responses, with Africa coming in last place, with 80% mute refusals, followed by the Arab Region with 60%. This year, for the first time, we also assessed separately the performance of small island developing States (SIDS). Despite the challenges these very small States face in terms of small bureaucracies and limited human resources, they performed comparatively well, with just 31% of requests resulting in mute refusals (albeit still too high) and provision of some information in 44% of cases. However, the average response time was quite long at nearly 30 days compared to the overall average of 21 days.

There are various ways to address mute refusals, likely caused in most cases by failures of public authorities to put in place basic request processing systems. One is for those authorities to do what they are required to do under the law and establish these systems. Another is for demand-side actors to pressure those authorities by making more requests for information. And a third is for more rigorous oversight of the system, along with capacity building efforts. Hopefully all of these will ramp up globally over time.

This year, CLD also worked with the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet) to help develop its global mapping of activities taking place on IDUAI, available here (https://www.foiadvocates.net/iduai), as well as with the Global Civil Society Coalition for the UNCAC to develop its dashboard on ATI projects around the world, available here: https://uncaccoalition.org/participate/campaigns/celebrating-the-international-right-to-know-day-2026/

The global stress test report is available here:https://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IDUAI-Report.26-09.final_.pdf

08/12/2026

In August 2026, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) released its analysis of the Malaysian Freedom of Information Bill (FOI Bill), which was tabled in parliament in July 2026. CLD very much welcomes the fact that Malaysia is moving ahead to adopt legislation giving individuals a right to access information held by government, or a right to information (RTI) law. As of today, Malaysia is one of only 54 UN Member States which lacks such legislation. At the same time, our assessment of the FOI Bill shows that it is very weak, earning only the equivalent of 47 out of a possible 150 points on the RTI Rating (29%), putting it in 137th place from among the 142 countries globally with RTI laws, or well into the bottom ten countries.

Given the weak score, there are obviously numerous problems with the FOI Bill but some of our more serious criticisms include the following:



--The scope of public authorities which are covered should be significantly enlarged.
--The proactive disclosure obligations are both non-mandatory (public authorities “may” publish this information) and extremely limited, omitting, among many other items, any financial information whatsoever.
--The score for requesting procedures is among the lowest in the world and includes several seriously problematical features such as not only requiring applicants to provide reasons for their requests but also limiting severely the types of reasons which will be accepted as valid.
--The regime of exception scores only 17% due to the fact that it preserves other laws, has a significantly overbroad list of exceptions, many of which do not include harm tests, and lacks any public interest override, sunset clauses or even a severability provision.
--There are almost no promotional measures.


CLD calls on the Malaysian parliament to exercise due diligence in relation to the FOI Bill and to substantially improve it before adopting it into law. Our analysis is available here (https://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Malaysia.RTI-Bill.Aug26.pdf), our RTI Rating of the law is available here (https://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Malaysia.draft_.July26.xls), and the FOI Bill is available here (https://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Malaysia.RTI_.Jul26.pdf).

07/07/2026

CLD's Toby Mendel will be participating in this SDG16 Data Initiative event this Friday, 10 July from 9-10 EST.

How do we know if we are making progress toward peaceful, just and inclusive societies?

As the world enters the final stretch toward 2030, one of the biggest obstacles to achieving SDG 16 is not only slow progress, but also the lack of data needed to measure it.

Join us during the High-Level Political Forum for an important discussion on how non-official data is helping fill critical evidence gaps, reveal global trends in governance, justice and inclusion, and inform priorities for the post-2030 development agenda.

The discussion will draw on the latest findings from the SDG 16 Data Initiative, bringing together experts from International IDEA, the Centre for Law and Democracy, TAP Network, World Justice Project and Small Arms Survey to explore what the data tells us, where the gaps remain, and why better evidence matters for better policy.

🗓 Friday, 10 July 2026
🕘 9:00-10:00 a.m. (ET)
💻 Online

We look forward to an engaging discussion with policymakers, researchers, practitioners and everyone committed to strengthening peace, justice and inclusive institutions.

Register at the link in the comments!

06/16/2026

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) has made a submission to the Canadian federal government’s consultation on its regular five-yearly review of the Access to Information Act (ATIA). Our comments are largely focused on law reform needs, given that the ATIA only earns 95 out of a possible 150 points on the RTI Rating (63%), putting it in an unimpressive 47th place from among the 142 countries globally with right to information laws.

The CLD submission applauds a number of the government proposals, such as for measures to render the binding decisions of the Information Commissioner enforceable and for imposing a “duty to document” on public authorities. But we also have a number of criticisms, including the following:

-Three of the four proposals regarding time limits seek to extend them, mostly unjustifiably, while there is no serious proposal to address the very major problem of delays under the Act.

-There are a number of proposals to add new, non-harm-tested exceptions, while otherwise positive proposals on a public interest override and sunset clauses are far too limited.

-A wholly unwarranted proposal seeks to limit the scope of the ATIA to “official records” – those which, according to the officials who oversee records, contribute to “transparency and accountability” – and to records which are held in “official repositories”, despite ongoing problems with officials doing government business on private devices.


But the biggest single problem with the government proposals is that they simply fail to address a number of serious shortcomings with the ATIA, including the limited scope of the Act, its overbroad regime of exceptions and the ineffective system of sanctions. The proposals include a number of interesting ideas to support access to information by Indigenous peoples, but these are not sufficiently developed to enable CLD to assess them properly.

The submission is available here (https://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Canada.RTI_.26-06.pdf) and the government proposals are available here (https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-information-privacy/modernizing-access-information/reviewing-access-information-act/2025-review-access-information-act/2025-review-access-information-act-policy-approaches.html).

06/09/2026

CLD's Toby Mendel will join a panel discussion tomorrow (Wednesday 10 June) from 1:30-3:00 at Dalhousie University in Halifax for the launch of the Dal. Law Policy Lab report "Think of the Children: The Policy Trade-offs of Digital Age Verification".

To register, click here:

Join the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance for a panel discussion on the newest report from Dal Law's Policy Lab

06/02/2026

CLD's Toby Mendel has published an Open Government Partnership blog post with Joseph Foti on RTI simplification:

"Making Access Easier: Responsible Right to Information Simplification".

https://medium.com/ogp-horizons/making-access-easier-responsible-right-to-information-simplification-411a07b4369a

We seem to be in a moment of regulatory simplification. Can the right to information (RTI) benefit from simplification too?

04/22/2026

This Sunday, CLD's Toby Mendel will be speaking at a Northern Justice Watch event in Toronto on atrocity crimes. Details below:

https://www.facebook.com/njusticewatch/posts/pfbid02DKfFKJFo487qc3HzXTwjhbhhAhZpTb7MLBstG4FemLNgWSFErrPy8q8GVPaXzqVLl

News StatementsNorthern Justice Watch (NJW) Acknowledges Support from The Law Foundation of OntarioNorthern Justice Watch (NJW) proud to announce that The Law Foundation of Ontario has provided generous financial support for our “Legal Understanding and Victim Empowerment (LIVE) Project. This proj...

04/09/2026

CLD's Toby Mendel will participate in this virtual forum titled "Democracy Under Siege: Journalists on the Front Line" tomorrow (10 April) at 9:00 Mexico City time.

Automated translation via transcription into multiple languages will be available.

Register via the QR code below: