Global Charter-Agenda on Human Rights in the City – WSF 2011 Dakar

HIC

The activity was organised jointly by the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (CISDPHR) of the world organisation "United Cities and Local Governments" (UCLG) and the International Permanent Secretariat on Human Rights and Local Governments, Nantes, Pays de la Loire (SPIDH).


The Global Charter Agenda for Human Rights in the City is a project promoted by local governments and which aims at implementing public policies respectful of human rights. After the drafting process (2007-2008) and the participative process (2009-2010), the project entered an adoption and promotion phase that should end at the next UCLG World Council in Florence (Italy), in autumn 2011.


OBJECTIVE OF THE ROUND TABLE
The specificity of the Charter Agenda is that it is composed by rights and concrete plans of actions that specify the political commitments required to implement that right.
The aim of this round-table is thus to provide local governments and civil society representatives with the opportunity to debate on the “agenda” part of the Charter.

…Davinder Lamba recalled that, for the first time, citizens or social movements were turning to local governments to talk about human rights. The Charter-Agenda and the right to the city require wider powers and more resources to be entrusted to local governments. Local authorities would perhaps be unable to implement the Charter Agenda with the skills and resources which they have at their disposal.
Over the course of the decade 2010 – 2020, citizens’ movements and local governments promoting the Charter Agenda in the City should work together to make progress on the integration of the Charter. This is a complex challenge, because some States are not very receptive to the question of defending human rights. It is therefore necessary to target both at the intergovernmental and the local levels…

To download the complete report, please click here.