Wrapping up 2018 Collaboration Promoting Government Transparency & Data Privacy

After a flurry of activity in October, PSYDEH now wraps up our first collaboration with the Instituto Nacional de Transparencia, Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos Personales (INAI) promoting knowledge and activism around the General Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information (GLTAPI).

Few people in rural and indigenous Mexico are aware of the GLTAPI, let alone the rights it grants to citizens. And with low levels of public transparency, and a lack of knowledge on how to access information and protect personal data, communities in areas like the Otomi-Tepehua region do not always receive the support on which they depend for their development. Indeed, for PSYDEH, the right to access public information and the right to protection of personal data are keys to citizens exercising other and more rights.

As such, despite unexpected project budget cuts, INAI’s 2018 Rights Awareness Program (INAI PROSEDE) helped PSYDEH to:

(1) stage COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS, MUNICIPAL FORUMS AND COMMUNITY MEETINGS to inform 100+ indigenous women and 25+ men outside and in local government on the GLTAPI, these rights and how citizens can exercise them.

(2) facilitate 300 CITIZEN REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION. 100 solicitations for federal-related information were made using the national online transparency platform. 100 requests for state-related information were made via the System of Information Requests for the State of Hidalgo INFOMEXHIDALGO. 75 requests for municipal-level information were made using the same system, with the 25 remaining requests for information being submitted in written form to the Transparency Unit of the municipality of Huehuetla, Hidalgo.

(3) create THREE RADIO SPOTS in Nahuatl and Otomí on how to exercise these rights:

(4) produced new PSYDEH ORIGINAL FILM titled “Knowing How to Know” promoting our project, these rights and how and why citizens can exercise them.