Title: Strengthening Citizen Participation in Local Governance | New Tactics in Human Rights
Headings: Strengthening Citizen Participation in Local Governance
Strengthening Citizen Participation in Local Governance
Content: Excluding the weak and powerless from decision-making is a cause of poverty because it denies them rights and creates unequal power relationships. Brazil has addressed this by introducing a number of mechanisms to enhance citizen participation, including its Participatory Budget and its public policy councils. Civil and political rights, including freedom of expression and access to information, which are at the basis of political participation, are human rights in themselves. Citizen participation requires trust, belief and wholeness - trust in their co-participants, belief that participation can make a difference, and feeling socially included. To ensure strong participation of citizens in local governance, citizens need to understand and want to exercise their right to participate in local political issues. They need to feel confident and know where and how to participate, while local institutions should be prepared to facilitate the citizen participation. Engaging citizens in local governance improves accountability and the ability of local authorities to solve problems, creates more inclusive and cohesive communities, and increases the number and quality of initiatives made by communities. One way to increase awareness and to empower citizens to have a voice is through increased access to technology and in particular social media. The potential of public media working in conflict regions is especially interesting, says one participant, for opening spaces for debate and dialogue and improving transparency and the hidden social structures that generate corruption. A project in Pakistan is building the capacity of teacher training institutions to teach good governance, human rights, gender and youth development and empowerment, and the positive role of media in promoting these concepts with the hope of producing a core of teachers capable of teaching these values to high school students in conflict areas.