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Helen Darbishire – right to information personality

The international community of civil society organizations working on the right to information has lost one of its most charismatic and key figures – Helen Darbishire.

She passed away after several months of illness, fully aware that her time was coming, having said her goodbyes to family and friends. She knew that her life had been full and meaningful, that she created something significant, and that she had completed the work that mattered most to her. Just a few weeks ago, we wrote about the Access Info Europe impact award (Information? It Works! Access Info Europe Competition). Establishing this award and conducting the first call for applications was the last public interest initiative that Helen set in motion. On October 18, 2024, she “came down the hill,” as she put it, preparing us for this moment. And though tears well up, we will not write about our sorrow, but about what we and others owe her.

First and foremost, Helen was one of the organizers of the international movement for the right to information. When Watchdog Poland (then the Association of Local Civic Leaders) was still a young and emerging organization that had begun working in Poland to promote the right to information, we were amazed to discover the existence of FOIAnet—a global network of right to information advocates. And that this network had proposed September 28 as an International Right to Know Day. Ideas from around the world on how to celebrate this day appeared on the network’s website. As a young and enthusiastic organization, we thought that a single day was not enough for us. In 2007, we plunged into preparations for Public Information Week!

We quickly discovered that the network had developed standards for a good law that guarantees the right to information and many materials that inspired us.

We began to see that we were not alone in our work. We were part of something bigger.

Those pioneering times later led to exciting initiatives we could participate in. For example, we took part in research on the transparency of lawmaking. This remains a very important issue for us.

In 2019, International Right to Know Day was recognized by UNESCO.

We became part of an international community that became a subject of research. Helen organized this. The research showed that Poland stood out for its highly bottom up discussion on the right to information. Here, it is a topic that citizens are interested in. This public interest also strengthens the organizations that work on it.

Access Info Europe also submitted an amicus curiae brief in our case against Poland before the European Court of Human Rights. The case concerned access to the calendar of Julia Przyłębska, the President of the Constitutional Tribunal during the rule of law crisis (Access Info Europe on the transparency of public officials’ calendars). Helen gathered examples from all over Europe. Whenever she called for help, there was always a response.

A year and a half ago, Helen encouraged us to explore several new directions. First, to revisit the topic of Poland’s participation in the Open Government Partnership. Second, to harness our technological potential – thanks to her, we started collaborating with a new community for us and attended the TicTec conference, where we presented our tool, fedrowanie.siecobywatelska.pl. Helen urged us to use the Tromsø Convention more in our advocacy.

Through all of this, Helen was charming, inspiring, funny, and supportive. And it is this kindness and support that we will remember. Thank you.

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