Manual on Public Participation in Decisionmaking


Manual on Public Participation in Decisionmaking: Current Practice and Future Possibilities in Central and Eastern Europe. Edited by Magdolna T. Nagy et al. Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest, 1994. 365 pp. $30

In his preface, Professor Alexandre Kiss states that recent decades have created a new set of rights, environmental rights, which are of an essentially procedural character, like many other fundamental human rights. Environmental rights, he declares, include

the right of all individuals to be informed of plans and projects which may deteriorate their environment, to participate in the procedure leading to a decision and, when necessary, to dispose of adequate means of redress for the damage suffered or for the lack of respect of legal guarantees.

The heart of this system is public participation, which necessarily includes prior information.

The Manual has two parts. One focuses on the broad theme of public participation and has chapters on: Public Participation as an Instrument for Environmental Protection, Public Participation in Practice: How to Get Started? and Public Participation in Eastern Europe.

Part Two analzyes public participation in ten nations of Eastern Europe. Two annexes present schematic charts containing the various modes or elements of public participation and a list of public participation experts world-wide, with addresses, phone and fax numbers. To order, contact:

Regional Environmental Center
Miklos ter 1
1035 Budapest, Hungary
Fax: (36-1) 250-3403
E-mail: [email protected]
This article is from the February 1995 issue of
Civil Society ... East and West

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The URL for this page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/csew/95-02/decimak.htm
Last updated: March 28 1996

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