INAI insists on dialogue and explores routes to avoid its disappearance

 

Following the committee approval of the ruling seeking its elimination, the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information, and Protection of Personal Data ( INAI ) is fully defending its future.

The organization's president, Adrián Alcalá, has indicated that they seek to engage in dialogue with legislators and the administration of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum , while also exploring legal avenues to defend the institution.

Created in 2014, when it replaced its predecessor, the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information , the INAI is the autonomous body responsible for ensuring that society is secure in the exercise and protection of its rights to access information and the protection of personal data.

It has been operating for almost two and a half years with only four of the seven commissioners required by law, due to the lack of appointment of three, but has continued to fulfill its functions. It currently heads the Global Privacy Assembly, and its work has received support from UNESCO and the International Conference of Information Commissioners, an organization it headed until this year.

According to the institute's own data, the INAI's operations cost each Mexican approximately 7 pesos annually, which are used to resolve citizen complaints against public institutions that deny them requested information, among other tasks.

On its website, the INAI emphasizes that the human right of access to information consists of knowing the decisions, actions, or omissions of governments and, as a result, the ability to hold authorities accountable.

However, it emphasizes that this right alone  is not sufficient  and indicates that,  to fulfill its public utility, it must operate as a tool that promotes the full exercise of other fundamental rights. Therefore, the INAI, as the institution charged with protecting this right, is vitally important to ensure that its exercise occurs in a context that informs and empowers society .

It highlights some of the institute's recent decisions to uncover information denied by authorities, such as 20 resolutions in which the INAI ordered transparency regarding the cancellation and forgiveness of tax credits granted in 2007 and 2018, or the 25 resolutions to uncover information in the Odebrecht case .