By Maya Palit
“You have waited for eight years, can’t you wait another few days?” was the apparent response that women in the city of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, received when they went looking for records of missing relatives.
The Right to Information Act (which allows members of the public to demand information from public authorities on a variety of things including the country’s legislature, constitutional decisions, and state institutions) was passed by the Sri Lankan parliament in June last year, but only came into use on 3rd February.
According to a report in The Hindu, a group of women spent an entire day visiting prison authorities, the Human Rights Commission, the District Secretariat, and other public institutions, attempting to deploy the new Act to glean some information about their relatives. (They include ‘disappeared’ relatives who were apparently abducted by Sri Lankan armed forces, and the LTTE.)
But sadly, the new legislation didn’t help them at all that day — a few officials weren’t even aware of the implications of the Act. Others were rude, and implied that they should be patient for a while longer. Although the women acknowledged that it was unlikely that the RTI would be fool-proof or yield instant results so early into its establishment, the inconsiderate attitude of the government officials was what really agitated and upset them.
So even though there was big talk prior to the establishment of the RTI about it heralding the end of ‘a culture of secrecy’, it looks like the administration responsible for enforcing the legislation has a long way to go before these women find their answers, and being more sensitive towards the concerns and nature of people’s requests would make a good start.
February 7, 2017 at 3:05 am
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