The role of the Inter-American case law on public participation: promoting socially mindful public policies in Colombia?

• In Event: Human rights performativity? Challenges for Guatemala and Colombia

Abstract

In the last decade, local, regional and international human rights organizations have used the Inter-American System of Human Rights (ISHR) to expose systemic patterns of discrimination owed to the deficient functioning of the democracies in the region. Therefore, the ISHR has been called upon to play a strategic role in monitoring the processes of the American States political transitions. Departing from its purely legal function of sanctioning individual human rights violations, the ISHR has gradually come to claim the authority to influence and guide State actions and formulation of public policies aimed at strengthening institutional guarantees of human rights in the national sphere. To do so, it has established standards aimed at addressing systemic issues regarding discrimination and social exclusion, therefore contributing to a socially mindful interpretation of civil and political rights. This resulted, inter alia, in the development of detailed standards regarding public participation in light of the cross-cutting principle of equality and non-discrimination, also taking into account the condition of vulnerability of certain social groups or sectors in national societies.

This presentation assesses the contribution of the Inter-American standards regarding public participation to the consolidation of democratic institutions in Colombia. From a human rights based-approach, our analysis will question whether these standards have facilitated the opening of spaces for social participation and, therefore, have contributed to the empowerment of traditionally marginalized social groups or sectors to claim their rights while opening a dialogue with governments.

Author

• Elise Hansbury