Meaningful Public Participation in a COVID-19 World

This guide by the Center for International Environmental Law provides a framework of guiding questions for organizers of international meetings to ensure that the shift toward virtual formats during the COVID-19 pandemic does not undermine the meaningful participation of civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities.

• Virtual meeting design must proactively address multiple barriers to ensure meaningful participation for civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities. These barriers include geographic issues such as "time zone considerations", connectivity problems like "lack of stable and reliable internet", disabilities requiring "live captioning, sign language interpretation", language gaps needing "interpretation services", and economic constraints such as "lack of funds to travel".
• To maintain the quality and openness of forums, organizers should avoid "undue limitations or control", the "vetting the substance brought forward in comments", and other forms of "censorship". Meaningful implementation requires that participants can express themselves in real-time and maintain control over their own "camera and microphone to the greatest extent possible".
• Virtual formats can severely constrain the quality of engagement, particularly when participants join from homes or public spaces with limited internet. The document emphasizes that "person-to-person, face-to-face interaction is essential" for innovation and policy negotiation, and that virtual meetings may undermine engagement if they do not provide mechanisms for "side conversations" for all groups, not just Member States.
• Virtual meetings introduce specific privacy and security risks, including the possibility that "Uninvited participants can hack virtual meetings" or that "participants’ information can be leaked". Organizers are urged to provide anonymity for those "at risk of reprisals" and to maintain a "stance of zero tolerance for reprisals", especially for environmental and human rights defenders.
• The use of virtual formats due to the pandemic should be explicitly "temporary" and not serve as a "precedent or as a justification to continue virtual meetings" once it is safe to return to in-person formats. While some virtual tools may enhance access for persons with disabilities or local communities, the guide asserts that "access to information is not a substitute for participation".
• The transition back to in-person meetings depends on the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines between countries. The guide argues that virtual participation should remain a "parallel option" for future in-person meetings to maintain expanded access, provided that civil society is not "consigned to remain behind a screen" while country delegates meet in person.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (n.d.). Meaningful Public Participation in a COVID-19 World. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Meaningful-Public-Participation-in-a-Covid-19-World.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Meaningful Public Participation in a COVID-19 World. n.d. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Meaningful-Public-Participation-in-a-Covid-19-World.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Meaningful Public Participation in a COVID-19 World |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Meaningful-Public-Participation-in-a-Covid-19-World.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallawndmeaningful, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Meaningful Public Participation in a COVID-19 World}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Meaningful-Public-Participation-in-a-Covid-19-World.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }