Manresa

Why are local and regional governments essential for promoting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights?

The municipal government is the administration closest to the people and has enormous potential to identify the needs and aspirations of a diverse range of individuals and communities. It can also influence perceptions and beliefs, which is vital for preventing prejudice and exclusion and for promoting preventive and community-based policies. 

The municipality's good governance is essential for building bonds and shared projects committed to defending fundamental and emerging rights. The 2030 Agenda drives us as a municipality to be key actors working locally with a global challenge perspective. 

Why are human rights relevant values and a useful framework for guiding local action?

At the international level, we have adopted a series of recommendations and commitments that guarantee any person, regardless of their characteristics and beliefs and under equal conditions, the right to human rights. These guiding values are embedded in the higher-level regulations of states and thus, respect and promotion of human rights are guiding principles for public bodies. 

The challenges of the 21st century—marked by the financial crisis, COVID-19, and international dynamics such as climate change and armed conflict—depict a scenario of alarming growth in inequality, especially among the most vulnerable groups. In this context, it is essential and urgent that government actions are guided by goals and projects that create the conditions for citizens to develop their personal life plans in co-responsibility with collective challenges. Human rights (including their emerging dimensions such as citizen participation and access to decision-making spaces) become priorities in local agendas to reduce social fractures and ensure the guiding principles of our societies are upheld. 

Working to promote human rights provides local policies with a necessarily cross-cutting approach that involves the entire administration and creates a common working framework. This approach enables human rights to become a unifying thread of municipal action, governed by a shared and intersectoral perspective.