These recommendations are based on existing good practice and are intended as a practical tool to provide helpful guidance and to improve the implementation of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention in decision-making to: a) assist Parties when designing their legal framework on public participation in environmental decision-making; b) assist public officials when designing and carrying out public participation procedures on environmental decision-making under the Convention, and c) provide an invaluable tool through which to share expertise and good practice so as to promote participation. The Recommendations may also be of value to public, NGOs and the private sector involved in environmental matters.
Foreword -- Summary -- General recommendations -- Public participation in decision-making on specific activities (article 6) -- Public participation concerning plans, programmes and policies (article 7) -- Public participation during the preparation of executive regulations and laws (article 8) -- Annex
This book explores the human rights principle of participation and the human right to participation. The work presents an argument that international human rights law imposes obligations to enable participation, and demonstrates that it has been interpreted in this way by authoritative bodies. Divided into four parts, Part I provides the historical and theoretical background. Part II presents the argument that a right to participation and a human rights principle of participation exist in international law and Part III argues that human rights law, and the way it has been interpreted, can provide a coherent account of the content of such a right and principle. The conclusions of the book and their implications are explored in Part IV. While there have been several studies of specific forms of participation, such as collective bargaining, this study provides a coherent account of the meaning and application of participation in international human rights law as a whole. The book will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the area of international human rights law.
Can—and should—participation be a means of achieving sustainability? The concepts of sustainability and participation are both in vogue, and many international, supranational and national legal texts and standards refer to these two concepts. However, there are still several unanswered questions that invite legal inquiry: which sustainability? Which kinds of participation? Participation by whom? How are the two concepts of sustainability and participation effectively interlinked in legal provisions? This book approaches the interconnection between sustainability and participation inductively and precisely in areas of law which are commonly associated with sustainability and sustainable development: national, European and international environmental and economic law.
This book explores the complex relationship between human rights and environmental protection. It analyzes the concept of environmental procedural rights from a comparative perspective in the European Union, India, and China. Arguing the need to apply a holistic approach which acknowledges the interlinkages between democracy, environmental protection, and climate change, it examines both theoretical and practical dimensions of the topic, with case studies drawn from empirical research. The work highlights the important role of environmental procedural rights at the intersection of environmental law and human rights, emphasizing the need for effective channels of communication between citizens and public authorities. The study calls for the taking into account of non-binding recommendations, such as the Maastricht Recommendations on Promoting Effective Public Participation in Environmental Matters, for developing public participation procedures in a manner that allows authorities to tailor these to the needs and situations of marginalized people. The book will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy makers working in the areas of environmental law, international human rights law and transnational law and governance.
This timely book brings to the foreground the considerable tensions between the need to engage the public in the importance of environmental governance and the need of professional expertise to address the issues which arise. In doing so, it highlights that not only can public opinion deviate from scientific knowledge, but scientific knowledge itself can be lacunose or contradicting. Drawing together insights from some of the leading scholars, this engaging work will provide guidance to decision makers, including judges, on how to govern public participation procedures and professional expertise and the role that the precautionary principle can play in this regard.
Young people’s participation is crucial for shaping and transforming democracies. Youth political participation is taking place within a context of democratic transformation, including a global decline in the state of democracy, shrinking space for civil society, polarisation of the political and social space, economic crisis and precarity, rapid digitalisation, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and, most recently, war. In this setting, we are witnessing a lack of trust in political institutions, an increasing disengagement from the political system and a decline in youth participation in institutional politics. This Youth Knowledge book reminds us that while the context might be changing, young people’s participation is crucial for shaping and transforming democracies. Moving beyond the traditional binary of “conventional” and “nonconventional”, the authors ask the question: “How are young people engaging with democracies in transformation?”, seeking to understand the ways in which young people are defining their own participation. This volume includes eight chapters, ranging from the mapping of young people’s involvement in environmental justice movements and climate strikes, dissent and radical kindness, political participation of young refugees in Europe, as well as explorations of the understanding of the concepts of liberal democracy, youth voice and European citizenship, as well as the importance and role of values and the context. In addition to the chapters, four personal essays, written by young people themselves, give a glimpse into the ways young people are engaging in political participation to shape their schools, communities and Europe, but also the broader systems on which our current politics is built. Young people’s political participation, citizenship and relationship with democracy remain a complex topic for youth research, policy and practice. While this publication does not claim to answer all the questions or represent the realities of all young people across Europe, it gives a glimpse into the landscape of youth engagement in a changing world, highlighting realities, trends and main issues.
