INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS AND GOVERNMENT COMMITMENTS

The international community has strongly affirmed the right to receive and give information, including environmental information, as well as the closely associated right to know. Many consider these rights among the most important cornerstones of a democratic society. Tanzania's constitutional provisions conform with a number of international instruments that the government has signed and ratified, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 provides that "(e)veryone has a right to freedom of opinion and expression, this right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers" (UN, 1948).
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19(2) provides that "(e)veryone shall have the rights to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of choice" (UN, 1966).
• African Charter on Human and People's Rights. Article 9(1) state that "(e)very individual shall have the right to receive information;" Article 9(2) provides that "(e)very individual shall have the right to express and disseminate his opinions within the law" (OAU, 1981).
• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Principle 10 upholds the freedom of access to information and declares that "states shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available" (UN, 1992a)

The international community has also made commitments through various international instruments to work with African governments to ensure access to environmental information and to provide information that it has to all sectors of society.

• European Community Council Directive on the Freedom of Access to Information on the Environment (1990). Article 1 states the EC's official intent to "ensure freedom of access to, and dissemination of, information on the environment held by public authorities" (EC, 1990).
• Agenda 21. Article 27(9) states that the United Nations system should "provide access for non-governmental organizations to accurate and timely data and information to promote the effectiveness of their programs and activities and their roles in support of sustainable development" (UN, 1992b).
• By signing and ratifying these conventions and by partnering with the United Nations, European Community and other international bodies, the government of Tanzania has committed itself to ensuring citizen access to environmental information and to encouraging all holders of critical information to share it with citizens and society at large.