Biography

Toby Mendel is the Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy, an international human rights NGO that focuses on providing legal expertise regarding foundational rights for democracy, including the right to information, freedom of expression, the right to participate and the rights to assembly and association. Prior to that he was for 12 years Senior Director for Law at ARTICLE 19, a human rights NGO focusing on freedom of expression and the right to information. He has provided expertise on these rights to a wide range of actors including the World Bank, various UN and other intergovernmental bodies, and numerous governments and NGOs in countries all over the world. In these various roles, he has on a number of occasions played a leading role in drafting legislation in the areas of the right to information and media regulation. Before joining ARTICLE 19, he worked as a senior human rights consultant with Oxfam Canada and as a human rights policy analyst at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He has published extensively on a range of freedom of expression, right to information, communication rights and refugee issues, including comparative legal and analytical studies on public service broadcasting, the right to information and broadcast policy.

Statement of Interest

In terms of my contribution to FOIAnet, I will bring a strong network of contacts from around the world. I would hope to use this network to focus some attention on getting new members in countries where our membership is weak. I would also like to try to stimulate more 'activity' from different countries, both in terms of posing questions and also providing country information. I would also like to use my experience of substantive issues on the right to information, but also of campaigning and programme development, to explore new possibilities for FOIAnet work. These might include, for example, more network-wide coordinated work (there have only been a few such exercises over the lifespan of FOIAnet, as far as I am aware), as well as ways to promote effective collaboration on the right to information between a few members.