By Sellina Tambula:
Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has decried low usage of the Access to Information (ATI) Act, saying this means citizens are underutilising its provisions.
MHRC Civil, Political Rights and ATI Desk Officer Chifundo Harawa said this when commission officials sensitised Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) staff to provisions of the Act.
“Many people in the country might be aware of the law but do not know how to use it, which defeats the purpose of giving them a law that eases access to information,” Harawa said.
She said another factor is non-compliance by institutions when people are seeking information, a development she faulted for discouraging other citizens from seeking public information.
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“Some institutions don’t know much about the ATI Act, as the law is still relatively new. This is why we are raising awareness on the issue. For example, Must has a lot of information that could be useful to the public and they need to know what the law is saying about handling information,” Harawa said.
Must Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Wilson Mandala, hailed MHRC for taking the information to them.
“The ATI Act is still relatively new and we, as Must, want to know what it implies to ensure that we are within the legal boundary of what the law says,” Mandala said.
Must is the second of six public universities to learn about provisions of the Act.
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President Lazarus Chakwera publicly committed to the operationalisation of the law during his State of the Nation Address in 2020.
