Law: citizens have a right to request public information from state bodies

QoG code: aii_q41

Sub-score (0-100). Question no. 41. In law, citizens have a right to request public information from state bodies.

A 100 score is earned where all the following conditions are met:
1) a Constitutional principle guarantees citizens' rights to request and receive access to any public documents and information, and
2) there is a specific access to information law that establishes the process for this right to be implemented. Note: It's possible to score 100 if national security or individual privacy information is protected, as long as the law defines the parameters and processes to declare what information is protected and they are limited in scope. Just the constitutional protection is not enough to score 100.

A 0 score is earned if there is no such law, or a law exists but it doesn't mandate all the conditions described in 100.

Type of variable
Continuous
Downloaded by QoG on
2025-09-25
Last updated by source
2024-05-28
Details of this variable in our compilation datasets
Dataset No. Countries
Standard time-series 53
Dataset Available for years
Standard time-series 2013-2017

Country coverage

Click here to see the full list of countries
  • Algeria
  • Angola
  • Benin
  • Botswana
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Cameroon
  • Cape Verde
  • Central African Republic
  • Chad
  • Comoros
  • Congo
  • Congo, Democratic Republic
  • Cote d'Ivoire
  • Djibouti
  • Egypt
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Eritrea
  • Eswatini (former Swaziland)
  • Ethiopia (1993-)
  • Gabon
  • Gambia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho
  • Liberia
  • Libya
  • Madagascar
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Mauritania
  • Mauritius
  • Morocco
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Rwanda
  • Sao Tome and Principe
  • Senegal
  • Seychelles
  • Sierra Leone
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • South Sudan
  • Tanzania
  • Togo
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

Year coverage

This variable has information from 2013 to 2017.