Ensuring the rule of law in the exploitation of natural resources, including metals and minerals, is essential to ensuring inclusive and sustainable economic growth and human development, and to protecting and fulfilling human rights. 

This 'Users Guide on Assessing the Rule of Law in Public Administration: The Mining Sector' was designed to help policymakers and civil servants identify specific strengths and challenges in the application of principles of the rule of law in the way the public administration regulates the mining industry. This guide introduces a self-assessment tool to help government officials and civil society stakeholders evaluate the extent to which principles of the rule of law - and, by extension, procedural environmental rights (the right to participate in decision making, access to information, access to justice and redress) are respected in the governance of the mining sector. 

This guide, and accompanying section and appendices, has been developed in close cooperation between UNDP, the Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.