Gender Links becomes a coalition member of Windhoek +20 campaign

Gender Links (GL) is now a coalition member of the Windhoek +20 campaign. Among other things, GL will be canvassing the draft declaration on access to information with its partners, host seminars that provide citizens with a platform to debate access to information issues, put together a journal and also input in the overall programme of the Pan African Conference on Access to Information.

Through the Gender and Media Diversity Centre (GMDC), GL will host three seminars in different countries to discuss the topic “What has gender got to do with media freedom and access to information?” The seminars will be held in Namibia (8 August), Tanzania (9 August) and South Africa (16 August). Discussions from these seminars will be submitted to the working group that will be finalising the draft declaration on Access to Information. The final declaration will be adopted at the Pan African Conference on Access to Information to be held from 17 -19 September in Cape Town South Africa.

Follow the African Platform on Access to Information on Twitter and help spread the word about everybody’s right to access information! Follow us on Twitter @windhoek_plus20. Also you can join the facebook page on http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132765490094257&ref=ts  and be part of the voice that advocates for the adoption of a continental policy document on Access to Information by the African Union.

The Windhoek +20 Campaign   is a continental initiative of African organisations lobbying for the adoption of an African Platform on Access to Information at the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Windhoek Declaration on Press Freedom In Africa in September 2011. Set up in September 2009, in Windhoek Namibia, the campaign is a continental initiative of what is becoming an expansive and inclusive coalition seeking a new agenda on Access to Information in Africa.
Overall the Windhoek+20 campaign seeks to advocate the adoption of a continental policy document on Access to Information by the African Union and within the UNESCO Windhoek Declaration regime and policy framework.

The campaign compliments efforts of a growing movement in Africa seeking, lobbying and influencing the adoption of Access to Information laws across the continent based on international best practice and principles of; maximum disclosure; minimum exemptions; public interest override; proactive disclosure; simple, affordable and quick access procedures; and protection of whistle blowers and effective enforcement.

The African Platform on Access to Information (APAI) campaign is based on an existing UNESCO regime of guiding documents on media freedom. One such key document is the internationally renowned Windhoek Declaration on Press Freedom, named as such because the conference that produced this Declaration was held in Windhoek, Namibia in 1991. It was passed by the UN General Assembly in 2002 and is legally referred to as the Windhoek Declaration.
Ten years later in 2001 a conference referred to as Windhoek +10 was again organised by UNESCO and brought to Windhoek to review the State of the media not only in Africa but around the world 10 years after the Windhoek Declaration. 2011 will mark 20 years after the Windhoek Declaration as such the UNESCO conference in 2011 will be known as Windhoek+20, meaning 20 years after the Windhoek Declaration.

The campaign is run by a working group of seven media and human rights organisations from across Africa namely; African Freedom of Information Centre, Media Foundation for West Africa, Open Democracy Advise Centre, Media Rights Agenda, Highway Africa, Media Institute of Southern Africa; and International Federation of Journalists.
MISA Regional Office based in Windhoek, Namibia is the Secretariat and coordinating organisation for the Windhoek+20 Campaign.