“Information is Power, especially when we know how to request it and use it.”: Lic. Adrian Alcalá, National Commissioner of INAI
–The INAI seeks that people know and understand that they have a right, that they can demand and enforce in a free, simple, and accessible way to anyone in the national territory, regardless of who they are and/or what they want this information for.
Alma Migrante organized in collaboration with the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (known in Spanish as INAI) the workshop on “The Information that Civil Society Organizations are Obliged to Make Transparent Because of Our Work” in Tijuana, It was held at the Salvation Army men’s shelter, thanks to the collaboration of Major Sarai Ortiz. The Baja California Civil Society Organizations participated in this workshop.
The objective of organizing this workshop is by and for the civil society that is, “Raising awareness about the importance of the right to access to information and how to know the public matter, allows us to exercise other rights and with this we can also improve the quality of life of people and as well as of communities”, was mentioned by Adrian Alcalá, National Commissioner of INAI in his participation as speaker of this workshop.
The commissioner emphasized that knowing public information gives access to exercise important rights such as access to health, access to information, among many other important issues, which can undoubtedly contribute to a dignified and quality life.
The INAI seeks for people to be informed that they have a right, that they can demand and enforce it in a free, simple, and accessible way to anyone in the national territory, regardless of who they are and/or what they want this information for.
In addition, the national commissioner spoke during this workshop about the importance of people who receive public resources knowing that they have a duty to inform other people, this is to comply with the law and make sure that there is transparency of the public spending, not only to be transparent but to also ensure greater legitimacy.
“ Information is power and if I know, I will be able to make better decisions than if I do not know. Information empowers society to make better decisions,” this was emphasized by Commissioner Adrián Alcalá.
Year after year, requests for information grow exponentially, the commissioner commented, so people are learning that they have a right to knowledge and that this right is empowering.
The right of access to information is not only to solve large-scale corruption issues, but it also benefits everyone. For example here in Tijuana, they asked to access the budget of the city council and they were able to demand that the authorities put public lighting in one of the neighborhoods where they did not have this service. It allows us as people to improve the overall quality of life of people.
The State Commissioner, Alberto Sandoval, also participated in this workshop, who described the information of rights as a key right: “The right to information is a “key” right, which opens the doors to other rights, that is how essential it is, like human rights.”
Alma Migrante’s job is to take workshops and trainings to work through relevant networking, to human rights defenders of migrants so that they continue to grow in their training as members of Civil Society Organizations.