ABSTRACT
A number of regional systems have specific instruments that entail participation and Chapter 4 explores these. The Inter-American Democratic Charter is a soft law instrument that has been used by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to interpret provisions within human rights treaties. The Charter protects representative democracy, but indicates also that democracy has a participatory nature. The African Charter on Democracy, Governance and Elections indicates that participatory democracy is to be promoted and provides a number of ways in which this must be done. There is no such general endorsement within the Council of Europe instruments, but a number of treaties provide a right to participate in local government.
