Participatory Myths, Consultations and Innovative Evaluations: Assessing Chile’s Second National Human Rights Action Plan

Participation is often praised for strengthening democracy. In human rights policymaking, it is expected to enhance legitimacy and inclusion. However, recent scholarship questions whether more consultation necessarily improves outcomes, as emblematic constitution-making processes have fallen short of their intended goals. Does this also apply to understudied forms of participation, such as consultations on human rights? This article analyses public consultations in Chile’s Second National Human Rights Action Plan, proposing a myth-based evaluative framework for similar processes. It explores the conditions under which consultations generate meaningful social, economic and political outcomes, offering insights for designing more effective participatory processes worldwide.