Tackling gender inequality through access to information

"ARTICLE 19 published a briefing on the role access to information plays in achieving women’s empowerment and tackling gender inequality, providing recommendations for governments and civil society. Access to information is fundamental for women’s empowerment. Access to information enables women to exercise their human rights and overcome gender inequality. Under international human rights law, states are responsible and obligated to promote and protect both gender equality and access to information and to ensure that barriers blocking these rights are eliminated. These obligations are part of states’ commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Goals 16 and 5, respectively. The goals are closely interlinked and are instrumental for the full enjoyment and exercise of a range of human rights – such as freedom of expression – and for the achievement of the SDGs as a whole."