Participation and Democratic Innovation under International Human Rights Law
Human Rights and International Law Series

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.

Part I: Introduction 1. Introduction Part II: Affirming a Right to Participation 2 .General Participatory Provisions 3 Broad Justifications for Participation 4. Regional Instruments requiring Participation 5. Rights for Specific Groups and Contexts 6. Participatory Rights in Other Fields of International Law Part III: Establishing Obligations for Participation 7. Establishing a Human Rights Principle of Participation 8. Triggers for Participation 9. Participants 10. Implementation of Participation 11. Consequences of Participation 12 Enforcement of Participation Part IV: Conclusion 13. Conclusion

Nicholas McMurry is the Programme Director in Law in Griffith College Cork. He holds a PhD from the Irish Centre of Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway. He has completed research and advocacy projects on behalf of government and non-governmental organisations as founding partner of Shared Insight.