Participation Rights vs. State and Property Rights in Decisions affecting the environment: the Colombian Case

The aim of this article is to discuss how the right to participation has developed in the Americas, in particular in Colombia as a means to protect environmental rights. To begin with, the right to participation and some of its limitations for its enforceability will be examined. Consequently, it will be explained the recent judicial decisions in Colombia on this right and how the current developments have narrowed the interpretation of the right to participation making it inapplicable in cases related to the exploitation of natural resources. The last section elucidates about the right to participation in conjunction to environmental rights in the Inter-American system
of human rights protection and proposes that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights could find a lack of protection to participation rights in Colombia because of the lack of an effective mechanism to enforce this right.