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Legal Observations > Transparency
The principle of transparency
23. The principal of
transparency is central to the elimination of extrajudicial executions in two
respects. First, the right to political participation is a human right in
itself as well as a critical attribute of notions of good governance. In this
regard it has been noted that a right to information
or to appropriate transparency has now “been recognized as a prerequisite for
the legitimate exercise of public authority”. It has thus become “a ‘constitutive
principle’ of governance within the nation state”.8 Other commentators have observed that “decisional transparency
and access to information are important foundations for the effective exercise
of participation rights and rights of review. They also promote accountability
directly by exposing administrative decisions and relevant documents to public
and peer scrutiny”.9
24. Second, transparency is
crucial in relation to various techniques used to reduce the occurrence of
extrajudicial executions and to inquire into their causes and potential
remedial measures. The issues identified in the following parts of this report
illustrate this dimension.
8
Sol Picciotto, “Democratizing globalism”, quoted in Alasdair
Roberts, “A partial revolution”.
9
Benedict Kingsbury, Nico Krisch, and Richard B. Stewart, “The
emergence of global administrative Law”, 68 Law and Contemporary Problems (2005)
15.
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