Human rights and "popular participation".

There is a close relationshio between popular participation and human rights, says a study prepared by the Secretary-General (E/CN.4/1985/10) that was reviewed by the Commission on Human Rights at its 1985 annual session.

The study stated that respect for certain rights is indispensable if genuine participation is to develop; reciprocally, the more participation is organized, the more the awareness of fundamental rights is accentuated and the stronger the demand for institutional safeguards to protect them.

The study was prepared pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 1983/31, which was adopted on the Commission's recommendation in its resolution 1983/14. The resolution requested the Secretary-General to undertake a comprehensive analytical study on the right to popular participation in its various forms as an important factor in the full realization of all human rights.

Referring to the relationshio between popular participation and the right to self-determination, the study said that effective contribution of the people to the exercise of their self-determination through democratic processes involving popular participation made is possible avoid "obstructionism and political difficulties".

There is a close underlying relationship between freedom of expression and information, and popular participation. The very motivation to participate in public affairs can develop only through exposure to "seminal information and ideas concerning the dignity of the human person within his community and his fundamental human rights". Such awakening is rarely, if ever, totally spontaneous. It requires some stimulation from outside the community, especially in the case of small isolated rural communities in the developing world. Popular participation requires, as a major prerequisite, a satisfactory degree or openness of government and access to administrative information at the local, national and regional levels.

Information on national affairs should be disseminated through all levels of society and in all communities, according to the study. Information of local concern must flow between communities and inside each community. Minority groups should have the possibility of making known their diverging opinions. Freedom of expression and information implies that the various media, through which opinions may be...