The Role of Public Participation in Ensuring of Women's Access to the Right to Development

The right to development brings forth an approach to the development of human societies in which all human rights standards are considered and the economic development of the nation is fundamentally integrated into the human right to development. Although women make up half of the population of every society, they have always been facing discrimination in achieving their rights. It seems that providing a platform for women for their equal presence in any decision-making process related to human-rights-based development in their respective societies is one of the most efficient ways to facilitate women's achievement of the said right.

Literature Review:

Regarding the issue of the right to development and the ways to achieve it, some research has been conducted in Persian, among which we can mention “The Influence of Good Governance on Implementing the Right to Development” by Habibzadeh, et al. (2013). However, not much research has been done to address the issue of women's right to development to be achieved through public participation.

This research, using a descriptive-analytical method, tries to examine the place of public participation in ensuring women's access to the right to development.

Creating a platform for the presence of women in the decision-making processes provides the opportunity to bring up the needs and the rights requested by women when society makes decisions about planning programs to advance development.  In addition, it would provide the possibility of following up on the level of practical attention to women’s needs and priorities in the implementation of these programs. Facilitating the participation of women in the development plans and decision-making processes is an important step in improving their status in other areas such as raising their level of education, health, employment, security, and so forth; because they’ve had the opportunity to express their wishes and opinions in the formulation of the development plans, as well as in monitoring the implementation of these plans. Such participation can lead the way for women to continue a free life, which is the ultimate goal of the right to development.
Ensuring public participation of women in the governing of society requires attention to the right to free, fair, equal, open, and transparent participation of the people in the democratic process of managing the affairs of their governments. The said right is considered the right of the people to enjoy a democratic system that allows them to participate widely in the various political, economic, social, and cultural affairs of their country, meaning they can participate in the regularization of relations between the governors and the governed. The important point is that the realization of women's public participation is unimaginable without the existence of tools such as the system of selective representation, a dynamic civil society, and free access to information.
One can talk about the real participation of women in a society in determining their own destiny when the said society, in the first stage, has a type of representative system that gives the individuals the right to participate in the selection of the decision-makers, as well as the right to be elected as the decision-makers of the society. As stipulated in Article 25 of the Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, the right of citizens to elect and be elected should be considered as one of the basic elements of public participation.
Another essential pillar in the path of realizing the participation of women is the existence of a dynamic civil society. Civil society consists of a wide range of non-governmental organizations formed around the general issues of society, such as seeking justice, religious matters, educational affairs, etc. Civil society plays an important role in informing the elites and the ordinary citizens to get aware of the needs of the public in decision-making. The important impact of institutions in civil society is to strengthen public participation by encouraging citizens to participate politically in the decision-making process. Civil society is considered a very useful groundwork for ordinary citizens, including women, to raise their demands and bring them to the attention of the society's political leaders. The Citizens who lack the support of organized power groups in many cases have less opportunity to raise attention to their demands.
In addition to having the right to elect and be elected and the existence of a dynamic civil society, women's public participation is largely dependent on transparency and access to information; Information that should be free, relevant, up-to-date, understandable, and available to individuals and groups of citizens in order to make an informed choice. In other words, the right of access to information is a prerequisite for informed public participation by citizens, including women. The lack of free access to information is a big obstacle in the way of effective participation of women because if the women do not have access to information, they do not have a correct understanding of the discussed issues and will not be able to make appropriate and informed decisions regarding those issues.
The experience of countries such as Tunisia or Botswana are good examples of how public participation can be used to voice women’s problems and needs for public decision-making for adopting development programs. This participation has had very positive effects on improving women's access to their rights in the development process of the aforementioned societies, by making it possible to include women's demands in the formulation and implementation of community development programs, as well as in monitoring the progress of these programs.