| Summary: | This study makes the assumption that community participation in the governance of mineral
resources is a requirement of sustainable development and that through a fundamental
rights-based approach, it can be made effective. The concern is that an affected community
should not only be involved in the decision-making process, but its view must also influence
the outcome in respect of whether or not a mineral project should take place and how it
should address development issues at local level. It is assumed that this legal approach will
improve mineral governance by bringing more transparency and accountability. In many
African resource-rich countries, community participation has until now been practiced with
more of a soft approach, with the consequence that it has been unable to eradicate the
opacity existing in the management of revenues generated by mineral exploitation and also
deal efficiently with the recurrence of fundamental rights violations in the mineral sector.
Obviously, the success of the fundamental rights based-approach is not absolutely
guaranteed because there are preconditions that must be fulfilled. The synergy between
community participation and some relevant concepts like democracy, decentarlisation,
accountability, (good) governance and sustainable development must be well balanced for the participation process to bring positive outcomes. Also, because the fundamental rights
based-approach is conceived here within the framework of the African Charter of Human
and People’s Rights, its normative and institutional components, despite the potential to
make participation effective and successful, require that some critical challenges be
addressed in practice. The study ends with the conclusion that the fundamental rights based-approach
is appropriate to make community participation effective in the mineral-led
development process taking place at local level, provided that its implementation is kept reasonable. === Constitutional, International & Indigenous Law === D.Law
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