CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

BIRUTĖ PRANEVIČIENĖ – VIOLETA VASILIAUSKIENĖK CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ the physical base of the state on such a scale as to cause a serious threat to state institutions. 17 Those threats caused by nature, such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, wars, epidemics, affect the security of a particular individual, and at the same time they affect the security of the whole state, similarly as sabotage, terrorism, war and criminality. 18 Therefore it can be concluded that the accessibility of the information about the possible threats in any of the aforementioned key sectors affecting national security is very significant and may increase the security of the members of society, because only a person possessing such information may take decisions allowing to increase the level of his or her safety. Furthermore, such possession of information by the state may also enable it to take appropriate measures ensuring national security. 1.2 The Human Rights Dimension of the Right to Information about the Environment Recently, international human rights law and jurisprudence has shifted towards acknowledging a separate right to governmental information. As M. McDonagh states, the right to information is established in a growing number of constitutions and domestic legal acts. 19 Furthermore, international universal and regional human rights bodies are more apt to acknowledge such a right in the context of other rights. “While the recognition of a right to information in international human rights law was also slow to evolve, international human rights bodies such as the UN Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Committee on Social Rights have today accepted the existence of a right to information in certain circumstances.” 20 T. Mendel, having carried out research of information laws in all the countries of the world, states that “There has been a veritable revolution in recent years in terms of the right to information, commonly understood as the right to access information held by public bodies. Whereas in 1990 only 13 countries had adopted national right to information laws, upwards of 70 such laws have now been adopted globally, and they are under active consideration in another 20-30 countries.” 21 The right to information is developed in the context of other rights. The right closely related to the right to information is freedom of expression. The founding argument for including the right to information under this freedom is that the right to information is a pre-condition of the full exercise of the above mentioned 17 BUZAN (supra n 9) 52-53. 18 VAREIKIS (supra n 8) 13. 19 MAEVE MCDONAGH, ‘The Right to Information in International Human Rights Law’ (2013) H.R.L.Rev. 13(1) 25, 25-26. 20 Ibid ., 28. 21 TOBY MENDEL, Freedom of Information: A Comparative Legal Survey (2nd edition, UNESCO: Paris, 2008) 3.

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