Public participation at international law landscape
In the same vein as with access to information, the UNFCCC only refers to public participation in a rather general way, and the Kyoto Protocol does not add to this.
The UNCCD goes further in obliging the parties not only to generally promoting and facilitating public participation in efforts to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought. They shall also:
- “provide for effective participation at the local, national and regional levels of non- governmental organizations and local populations, both women and men, particularly resource users, including farmers and pastoralists and their representative organizations, in policy planning, decision-making, and implementation and review of national action programmes”.
- “promote, on a permanent basis, access by the public to relevant information, and wide public participation in education and awareness activities”.
While leaving to the parties to decide on the means, the UNCCD is supportive to public participation, e.g. by stressing “effective participation” and the dissemination of existing information on desertification.
The Stockholm Convention is more specific on access to information and public participation than most environmental agreements of global reach, in obliging the parties to promote and facilitate:
Despite the softer form of “promote and facilitate”, rather than “ensure”, public participation, the Stockholm Convention sets out that participation also must include an opportunity for members of the public to address responses concerning persistent organic compounds as well as in considering the implementation of the Convention as such. That is, public participation requires more than only giving members of the public access to information.