A/HRC/19/70
the convention, build capacity for implementation, facilitate dialogue, prioritize and provide
assistance.
3.
Innovative approaches to participation and accountability in development
33. Iara Pietricovsky Oliviera, Institute for Social and Economic Studies, speaking on
public budgets and human rights – a Brazilian experience of enhancing social participation
in public policymaking, explained the role played by intellectuals, indigenous peoples and
civil society groups in enhancing democracy and participatory development. The Brazilian
public debt, tax justice and development model posed new challenges to realizing human
rights. The Institute for Social and Economic Studies had been active in the transition to
democracy and had developed a public budget and human rights approach whereby public
budget analysis was used to consider key questions including participation in development,
distribution of its benefits, rights and freedoms, and collection and distribution of public
funds. She explained the process and methodology in public budget analysis and presented a
new project within which youth were educated and empowered in human rights and public
budget, especially through workshops and art education.
34. Zoe Young, independent filmmaker and participatory video consultant, speaking on
using video letters and participatory media in development, pointed out that the word
“development” came from a word that meant “unfolding”. The right to development
depended on space to move and grow and also the elements of life – water, air and energy.
She explained the origin of participatory video-making in the search for ways to bring the
voice of marginalized people and communities to the table. The added value was that
communities themselves created the message, using modern communications and
technology, assisted by media trainers. Obstacles of distance and language could now be
transcended at minimum expense, and participatory communication responded to the need
and desire for people to be represented in their own terms. She underlined that participatory
video was an innovative and cost-effective way of engaging with difficult issues of
accountability, empowerment and sustainability in securing the right to development.
35. Jimmy Kereseka, community activist, speaking on participatory video in practice in
the Solomon Islands, presented an example of a participatory video used to promote
sustainable ecosystem management and development and community adaptation to climate
impacts, with participatory decision-making and planning. Working with the Lauru Land
Conference of Tribal Community, a local NGO based in Choiseul, the communities there
were cooperating to manage their marine and forest resources, especially motivated by their
vulnerability to climate change.
36. David Gunn, Incidental, and Lyno Vuth, Sa Sa Art Projects, addressed the issue of
culture and development, using on the example of the Neak Ta project in Cambodia. They
argued that participation was a key element in art as well as development. In Cambodia, the
development of art had also been influenced by international donors and organizations, and
thus represented their interests, which focused on traditional forms of culture, leaving
modern forms neglected. Mr. Gunn described Neak Ta, a contemporary project on culture
and development. Cultural projects could offer space to identity and be emotionally
enabling. He underlined the importance of challenging authenticity and suggested that
knowledge of other ways of being could be promoted through the medium of cultural
projects. Mr. Vuth remarked on how investors aimed to modernize and privatize The Phnom
Penh Post and argued that interlinking rights-based development and artistic freedom in an
experimental and participatory approach allowed identity to be explored and space to be
created to enable artists to look at Cambodian culture. Mr. Gunn suggested a genuine
reflection on the interface of culture and development and the way culture could critique,
contribute to and interact with development, resisting imposed identities. In his view,
cultural projects had much to offer in fostering understanding and addressing the cultural
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