




Our Committee welcomes local governments from across the world as an open forum where to exchange knowledge on local human rights policies and to promote human rights cities alliances at a global scale. Non-discrimination, peace and historical memory, gender equality, migration, housing or culture… Even though focus topics might differ in each case, human rights cities tend to share similar commitments and a clear willingness to advance them in alliance with civil society.
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Regional and international charters for the safeguarding of human rights in the city
Our Committee promotes the European Charter for Human Rights in the City and the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City at a global scale. Both documents spring from different processes yet share a similar reasoning: Offering concrete guidelines for the local implementation of human rights in the city. In addition, the Committee has also supported members’ commitments towards the Asia Human Rights Charter, and took an active role in the definition and promotion of the Gwangju Guiding Principles for a Human Rights City.
International advocacy and partnership with the United Nations
On the basis of members' initiatives, our Committee has become a sound platform for carrying out international advocacy. The main goal in the process has been to advance the recognition of local governments role in the promotion and the protection of human rights. Efforts have focused on the process opened by the Human Rights Council after the report “A/HRC/30/49". New spaces of recognition have already been achieved thanks to members collective action.
International meetings of human rights cities and World Human Rights Cities Forum of Gwangju
Our Committee supports local governments that wish to host a meeting of human rights cities. These meetings offer the possibility to showcase innovative initiatives on human rights, as well as to advance political discussions nourishing the twenty-years-old global human rights cities movement. The Committee is also a co-organizer of the World Human Rights Cities Forums: The main meeting point for the human rights cities movement hosted annually by our co-chair city of Gwangju.
Monitoring programme on human rights policies at the local level
Local governments can assess the situation of human rights in their city through a monitoring programme facilitated by our Committee. A pilot initiative was launched in Bogotá, resulting in the publication of “The Rights approach through the Bogotá Humana Plan”. The monitoring programme facilitated by our Committee allows cities to work with academia, raise awareness on its local initiatives and advance its commitment towards the Global Charter-Agenda.