President Dr Ram Baran Yadav inaugurated the historic first National Convention on the Right to Information (RTI) organized by the freedom1 Forum-Nepal in collaboration with the World Bank, in Kathmandu on March 28.
On the occasion, President Dr Yadav said all sides be aware and put pressure on the concerned bodies to the implementation of RTI in the country. He also urged all to build information culture which would obviously help make peace process successful and write constitution on time.
President Dr Yadav thanked freedom1 Forum for organizing such an event to sensitize the state and non-state actors on the issue of access to information and wished the convention will contribute to strengthen democratic values.
Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara lauded the initiative and urged all concerned sides to enable both demand and supply sides of information in order to fully implement the RTI in Nepal.
Chairman of the freedom1 Forum delivered welcome speech. Saying that the RTI is the oxygen of democracy, Chairman Dahal said the Convention was organized to discuss extensively the RTI issues in south Asia, share experiences and make concerted efforts to make the issue of access to information a common agenda of South Asian nations. He added that it finally helps enable the grassroots people with the use of RTI. Moreover, he informed that the two-day convention will be concluded by adopting Kathmandu declaration on RTI.
As many as 200 participants including the representatives of executive, legislature, judiciary, civil society organizations, media professionals, development activists, legal practitioners and rights activists are actively participating in the convention.
Six working papers have been presented so far in the convention.It is believed that the Convention will help create massive wave in the sector RTI across the country and the region as well.
