Public Participation Area

Defending the right to a healthy environment
is a pressing public responsibility

Public Participation is broadly considered to be the involvement of citizens in public matters. From the environmental point of view, Principle 10 of the Rio de Janeiro Declaration states that:

"Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided."

In addition to the right to vote, modern democracies have included in their constitutions the legal and institutional tools for public participation in decision-making and the enforcement of public policy.

Our country is no exception and, with the Constitutional Reform of 1994 has not only established the right to a healthy environment, but has also established the legal tools and guarantees for effective compliance by introducing mechanisms that allow public participation in the making of decisions that affect the environment.

Nevertheless, as Norberto Bobbio says, "the problem of fundamental rights is not about their recognition, but about the possibility of making them effective", which will be impossible unless citizens are able to exercise them fully.

By way of this area, FARN disseminates and promotes different tools and mechanisms that seek to open and reveal the processes and public institutions to participation, information and monitoring by the citizens, so as to allow them to assume an active role in the defense of their environmental rights.

• Citizen Control Program for a Healthy Environment
  
  
• The Access Initiative in Argentina
  
  
• Uruguayan Pulp Mills