A (in)efetividade das audiências públicas como instrumentos de formação da vontade estatal nas questões ambientais locais, à luz do status activus processualis

Abstract

This current study aims to analyze the main possibilities and problems of public hearings held in COMDEMA JF as instruments of forming the state's will. We seek to evaluate the effectiveness of public participation in hearings and the influence it has on decision-making. We use techniques such as literature review, normative research and we also apply questionnaires on two environmental NGOs in Juiz de Fora and to the Council’s civil society representatives to assist in the work. Were seen as major problems the low degree of popular participation in the hearings, the ineffectiveness COMDEMA JF as an instrument of environmental protection, the imparity between the government and the civil society and the lack of the Council’s autonomy. In order to enable a concrete improvement in this entity, we suggest some solutions such as reform of the bylaws, to ensure greater proportionality between the various sectors of society in votes, the training of counselors, intervention of public prosecutors, among others. The status activus processualis, theoretical framework of this research, advocates a fundamental right to the existence of administrative procedures that enable popular participation in decision-making competence of the government in order to influence decisively the destinations of such decisions. We conclude that the right procedures of direct democratic participation, in turn, must include the right to create and/or promotion of material, institutional and cultural conditions that enable such participation, such as environmental education in public schools, creation of a Junior Council, the audiences online broadcast, and even achieving these suggestions through the intervention of the public prosecutor through, for example, the conclusion of an Conduct Adjustment Term (CAT) with the City.