Human Rights City

A Human Rights City is a municipality that engages with human rights. There are other definitions of human rights city available which are more specific and look at the human rights city from a particular angle. One says that a Human Rights City is a municipality that refers explicitly to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards and/or law in their policies, statements, and programs. Another definition states that a Human Rights City is 'a city which is organised around norms and principles of human rights'. This sociological definition emphasises the Human Rights City as a process to which to a varying degree a variety of agents contribute: from activists, experts and academics to international organisations, state governments, and local authorities and officials. Also, this definition does not qualify human rights as international, based on the fact that cities sometimes articulate human rights in their own charters in ways that have no formal or immediate recognition in international law, and may anticipate their appropriation by international bodies and incorporation into international law. The author claims that this definition captures better the different ways in which cities engage with human rights and participate in their co-production, not simply as receivers but also agents of human rights.

Analysts have observed growing numbers of such cities since 2000. Human Rights Cities do not always identify themselves as such but they are often called Human Rights Cities based on the fact that they engage with human rights. Broadly speaking, Human Rights Cities emerged in the late 1990s from the global human rights movement as well as the municipal movement. They reflect efforts of both activist groups and local government officials to improve respect for human rights principles at the local or community level. Because of their focus on local contexts, Human Rights Cities tend to emphasize economic, social, and cultural rights as they affect the lives of residents of cities and other communities and their ability to enjoy civil and political human rights. The human rights city concept is also intertwined with other innovations in human rights practice arisen at the local level, such as the Right to the City.

Human rights advocates describe a Human Rights City as “One whose residents and local authorities, through learning about the relevance of human rights to their daily lives (guided by a steering committee), join in ongoing learning, discussions, systematic analysis and critical thinking at the community level, to pursue a creative exchange of ideas and the joint planning of actions to realize their economic, social, political, civil and cultural human rights.” Human rights cities were defined at the 2011 World Human Rights Cities Forum of Gwangju (South Korea) as "both a local community and a socio-political process in a local context where human rights play a key role as fundamental values and guiding principles." The European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City and the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City also provided a relevant framework for various practices led different cities across the world.