In the 2021–2024 Municipal Development Plan of the Municipal Government, the Municipality’s vision guarantees respect for the Human Rights of all people who live in or pass through Juárez territory, and from an urban governance perspective, promotes citizen participation. Additionally, as a cross-cutting axis guiding decision-making, "Equality for Women" and the Declaration of Gender Violence Alert against Women are very important.
The Municipality of Juárez seeks to guarantee the right of all people—whether permanent or in transit—to the city, with a human rights focus, and places people at the center of its vision. Therefore, the Resilience Coordination is promoting the drafting of the Juárez Municipality Charter for the Right to the City as one of the goals in the 2021–2024 Municipal Development Plan: To draft and publish the Right to the City charter, in alliance with strategic actors.
Additionally, with the collaboration and technical assistance of UN-Habitat, the Municipality is working to participatorily design the 2040 Vision for Ciudad Juárez with the goal of contributing to a social, economic, and urban development strategy that will benefit all Juarenses.
Why are local and regional governments essential for promoting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights?
Municipal governments are the first authority that people living in a municipality turn to for solving everyday problems and unmet basic needs in health, education, sanitation, drinking water, housing, recreation, public safety, sports, culture, employment, and care for vulnerable groups. They are responsible for urban development and land use planning, and for strengthening participatory and community democracy.
In the case of Juárez, being a border location, it faces the constant arrival of people in mobility situations, which, although outside municipal responsibilities, has led the government to deploy several actions in this regard, seeking to guarantee respect for human rights.
Why are human rights relevant values and a useful framework for guiding local action?
According to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission: Human rights are inherent rights to all human beings, regardless of nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We all have the same human rights, without discrimination. These rights are [universal] interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible [...]. All governments, within their competencies, are obliged to promote, respect, protect, and guarantee the human rights enshrined in favor of the individual.
Thus, the Right to the City is interdependent on all human rights, recognized in both international and national normative frameworks. Local governments, being the direct decision-makers affecting the quality of life in an urban ecosystem, play a key role in the comprehensive development of municipalities by promoting the building of a supportive, equitable, and egalitarian society that guarantees all people the full enjoyment and benefit of the city.
To be part of a community of exchange aimed at forming inclusive, democratic, participatory Cities and Territories with a Human Rights vision.
To access the experiences of different local governments that have developed and implemented the Right to the City in normative frameworks, as well as actions to ensure a city of rights.
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Juárez Charter for the Right to the City, which will align with the Global Charter for the Right to the City, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other international normative frameworks. It will essentially be nourished by the diversity of voices in the city, mainly from vulnerable groups (in progress).
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Vision 2040 in collaboration with UN-Habitat, which includes developing a city strategy aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. The objective is to move toward a future of shared prosperity, leaving no one behind.
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The municipal government promotes mainstreaming gender perspective through programs to prevent violence against women and girls, and with the “FLORECE” Family Violence Prevention and Care Strategy.