Fundamental Human Rights by Article-39 of the Constitution

Freedom of thought, conscience and speech are identified as the significant fundamental human rights by article 39 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. 

Having considered the right to information as the precondition of ensuring civil liberties, the Government of Bangladesh enacted the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009. The foremost aim and objective of this Act is to reduce corruption and ensure good governance, transparency and accountability in all public and private organizations. 

The government, in order to facilitate the rapid implementation of the RTI Act, established the Information Commission and appointed all necessary officials soon after issuing the Act. Such enthusiastic and valiant endeavor of the government was highly appreciated both in home and abroad, hence boosted the image of the country.

However, the responsibility of implementing the RTI Act, though largely lies on the Information Commission, the other influential institutions of the society e.g. private organizations, corporate offices, print and electronic media, public representatives, politicians and the general people are responsible to assist in the implementation of this Act as well.

The Information Commission, as like the past years, has taken initiative to publish an annual report this year, which is also an obligation of the Commission by Section 30 of the RTI Act. Situation and progress of the RTI Act implementation would be imparted to the nation through submitting this report to the Honorable President of Bangladesh.

According to the RTI Act, it is obligatory to appoint a Designated Officer in every government and non-government organization who would provide the sought information to the applicants following the regulations and exceptions of the law in exchange of the determined fee. If the Designated Officer fails to provide information within 20 (twenty) working days from receiving the request, the applicant can forward the appeal to the Appellate Authority, and failing to obtain information from there would allow the person to file a complaint to the Information Commission.

The Commission therefore will imply the authority of the Civil Court to summon the involved parties and resolve the issue through conducting hearing process and other formalities. However, it is important for every organization to preserve all necessary information in order to provide them to the applicants when sought and to publish and present their activities pro-actively to keep people informed and updated.

The Right to Information Act 2009 is special due to some reasons. The RTI Act of Bangladesh has bestowed the authority to the Information Commission to summon any individual to the Commission and to order presenting all necessary oral or written evidences to the complainant or the respondent. If found guilty, the Commission can fine any officer; can suggest the concerned management to take departmental action and if applicable, can order to compensate the complainant.

After its establishment, the Information Commission took the endeavor to issue some regulations like the ‘Right to Information (obtaining information) Regulations, 2009’ and the amendment of the ‘Right to Information (obtaining information) Regulations, 2009’. Afterward, the Commission provided necessary guideline in issuing the ‘Right to Information (information preservation and management) Regulations, 2010’ which included categorizing and indexing system to preserve and manage information, and the ‘Right to Information (publishing and distributing information) Regulations, 2010’ etc.