Human Rights Cities - Global

Community participation is a key element of the effort to formulate and convey what organisers call "the holistic human rights framework" in people's daily lives and to help them see its potential as a tool for action. Inhabitants, governing bodies, law enforcement agencies, public sector employees, religious groups, NGOs, and community groups in the city (especially those working on issues concerning women, children, workers, indigenous people, poverty, education, food, housing, healthcare, the environment, and conflict resolution) are asked to join in the process of learning about and reflecting on human rights as a means of accomplishing their own development. As part of this process, various stakeholders engage in dialogue designed to relate the human rights framework to their traditional beliefs, collective memory, and aspirations with regard to environmental, economic, and social justice issues and concerns. This process is intended to foster the mapping and analysis of causes of violations and the designing of ways to achieve the fulfillment of human rights.

This process takes place as follows. A steering committee representing all sectors of society develops specific programmes for various audiences. Learning and planning sessions are held in which committee members examine, from a gender-sensitive perspective, laws, policies, resource allocation strategies, and relationships that structure their city. For that purpose, the committee creates a "training of trainers" programme with, by, and for their constituencies, which include parliamentarians, municipal workers, law enforcement officers, the judiciary, business people, teachers, health care providers, social workers, and government officials. This programme is designed to help people understand and uphold their obligations and commitments to human rights. For example, people gather in meetings to scrutinise the laws of the city against the background of the Convention and covenants that their country has ratified. A possible tool is to present yearly comprehensive alternative budgets to city authorities as a part of their participation in designing and implementing future development plans for their city.

Citizens are requested to play a part in human rights advocacy in the community by becoming mentors, monitors, documenters, and advocates. They are encouraged to give testimonies and participate in community and city hall meetings, street theatre, and informal community discussions. These and other activities are publicised throughout their country to raise awareness of human rights more broadly, as well as to encourage the building of good governance beyond that particular city.

Human rights cities already in development include Rosario, Argentina (details); Thies, Senegal (details); Nagpur, India (details) Kati, Mali; the Abra Indigenous Municipality in the Philippines; and Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Further development of human rights cites is taking place in Ghana (the Wa municipality and Minni Minnoa) and two additional cities in Mali (Timbuktu and Kayes).

In addition, four Regional Learning Programs for Human Rights Education are being developed in Africa, Asia Pacific, South Asia, and Latin America. The purpose of these intensive training programmes is to develop cadres of human rights educators who work in grassroots communities to create new human rights cities, to support the ongoing development of written and visual learning materials, and to facilitate programme development in existing human rights cities. The training programme will include supervised internships in existing human rights cities. Ongoing workshops and field work will introduce community workers to subjects such as international financing, political economy, psychology, sociology, cultural diversity, and human rights and human rights education for social transformation with a special focus on gender issues.

An International Office helps service the existing human rights cities and foster development of new human rights cities worldwide. It also serves as a central place for reflection, coordination, facilitation, and networking, as well as research on and development of methodologies, pedagogical techniques, impact evaluation processes, and audio and written materials in many languages. This office is the site of workshops for the international community such as UN agencies and international NGOs who wish to develop and integrate human rights education pedagogies specific to their needs.

Rights, city development, gender, community participation.

Organisers point out that two billion people live in cities today. Four billion will live in cities within 15 to 20 years. Cities, they say, are microcosms of states. Governing bodies, organisations, and NGOs confront various challenges in their efforts to assure the well-being of their inhabitants. A key part of well-being, they say, is a sense of belonging and an assurance of dignity in large communities. These needs translate into the honouring of human rights for food, education, housing, healthcare, and work at livable wages. Human rights education highlights the power of these rights as a tool in individual and collective efforts to address inequalities, injustices, and abuses at home, in the work place, on the streets, in prisons and courts, and the like.