The Global College Community Projects

Human Rights City

Media Release - February 26, 2007

What is a Human Rights City?

A Human Rights City is a city or a community where people of good will, in government, in organizations and in institutions, try and let a human rights framework guide the development of the life of the community. Equality and nondiscrimination are basic values. Efforts are made to promote an holistic vision of human rights to overcome fear and impoverishment, a society that provides human security, access to food, clean water, housing, education, healthcare and work at livable wages, sharing these resources with all citizens-- not as a gift, but as a realization of human rights.

A Human Rights city is a practical viable model that demonstrates that learning about human rights and applying this insight can improve society -- a viable structure that can offer various experiences that can revitalize development programs around the world.

PDHRE works to develop and implement a program by, for, and with the inhabitants of the city and the local authorities to:

Instill a sense of ownership of human rights as a way of life, leading to action for the realization of all human rights in the city, to benefit all its inhabitants: women, men, youth and children

•  Enhance actions that promote democracy as a delivery system of human rights in order to achieve sustainable development, peace, economic, human security, and social justice.

•  Capacity building to strengthen activities that ensure community development and accountability guided by the comprehensive human rights framework. Individuals and groups participate.

•  Become a beacon of light for communities all around the world to illustrate how the application of the human rights framework can make every citizen a creative partner of society.

The city, its institutions, and its residents, as a complex social economic and political entity, become a model for citizen’s participation in their development. This process leads to the mapping and analysis of causes and symptoms of violations such as poverty and the design of ways to achieve well being in their city. As women and men work to secure the sustainability of their community as a viable, creative, caring society, they will seek ways to resolve the conflicts that they encounter.

Human Rights Cities as developed by partnerships from around the world are based on the premise that all people wish and hope for social and economic justice. It stands on the conviction that for the moral, political and legal tenets of human rights to be effective, citizens must know and adopt this inclusive framework, giving momentum to efforts to attain a better life for future generations.

Human rights learning and socialization highlights the normative and empirical power of human rights as a tool in individual and collective efforts to address inequalities, injustices and abuses at home, in the work place, in the streets, prisons, courts, and more.

Even in “democratic” societies, citizens and policy-makers must learn to understand human rights and the obligations and the responsibilities that they entail in a holistic and comprehensive way. They must learn to enforce human rights effectively and efficiently. This is the promise and responsibility their governments have undertaken when ratifying various human rights Covenants and Conventions.

In the cities, governing bodies, law enforcement agencies, public sector employees, religious groups, NGOs and community groups, those working on the issues of women, children, workers, indigenous peoples, poverty, education, food, water, housing, healthcare, environment and conflict resolution, and all other non affiliated inhabitants, join in the learning and reflecting about human rights as significant to the decision-making process and towards societal development. An objective is to base the activities of society on respect for the dignity of the individual.

A steering committee representing all sectors of society develops specific programs for various audiences. The plan includes the examination, with a gender perspective, of laws, policies, resource allocation and relationships that prevail in the city. Step by step, neighborhoods, schools, political, economic and social institutions, and NGOs, examine the human rights framework relating it to their traditional beliefs, collective memory and aspirations with regard to environmental, economic and social justice issues and concerns. As agents of change they learn to identify, mentor, monitor and document their needs and engage in important actions in the city. Examples are influencing the city’s budget or develop an alternative participatory budget as a tool for advocacy.