Participation as a Human Right: A Rights-based Approach to Development

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the concept of right to participation from the viewpoint of development and tries to establish nexus between participation and right to development in context of human rights-based approach and try to establish the co-existence between the two terminologies. The term participation is closely associated with the traditional democratic system; under this system people are entitled to participate in governance system directly or indirectly, which can be dated back from the ancient Greek civilization (Faruque, 2002a). In a democratic system, participation is people central and can be treated as “an valuable module of any system that considers itself a democracy” (Kweit & Kweit, 1981) “corner stone of democracy” (Sherry, 1969) or “instrument of legitimacy of government” (Falk & Strauss, 2000). Participation means a right by which one can exercise his/her function in the society and express his/her view or behavior toward the political system and governance. So the notion of participation is “effective in mobilizing and natural resources and combating inequalities, discrimination, poverty and exclusion” (UN.DOC, E/CN.4/1990/9/Rev. 1, 1990, Ch. 7). However, the concept of participation “should be viewed both as a means to an end and as an end itself” (UN.DOC, E/CN.4/1990/9/Rev. 1, 1990, Ch. 7, para 150). In environmental level, public participation has played a vital role in decision-making for measuring the protection of environment. Public participation in decision-making that affects the environment is recognized in the Aarhus Convention (Convention on Access to Information, 2001).