TOGETHER - International Network of Territories of Co-responsibility

Why are territorial authorities essential for promoting, realizing, and respecting human rights?
Why are human rights relevant values and a useful framework to guide local action?

The TOGETHER network was created informally in 2009 and formally in 2013 under the impetus of the Council of Europe. It brings together territorial authorities from around twenty countries, mainly in Europe and Africa. Human rights are integral to the founding principles of the network, with an approach based on ensuring the well‑being of all through the voices of citizens and promoting co‑responsibility among public authorities, citizens, and the private sector to ensure well‑being for every inhabitant of each territory.

Such an approach can only develop through proximity to citizens, thus at the local level, driven by local authorities, hence the essential role of territorial authorities. Concretely, a multi‑stakeholder platform is set up by the territorial authority, inviting representatives of the various actors (public, private, citizen groups) to participate. To facilitate and strengthen citizen participation, neighborhood or village resident associations can be formed, joining the platform and having their own representative.

Then, small homogeneous groups (7 to 12 people)—for example, youth groups, women’s groups, elderly persons, people with disabilities, etc.—are organized by the platform to define together what well‑being means for all, first individually and anonymously, and then collectively within the group. A synthesis is then produced across all homogeneous groups in the territory using semantic‑statistical analysis of the collected criteria.

From this, “co‑responsibility actions” aimed at improving the well‑being of all—especially the most disadvantaged—are defined collaboratively within the platform. These actions are implemented with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders.

This human‑rights‑through‑well‑being approach allows for deeper understanding rather than superficial fixes. For instance, the city of Mons in Belgium found that the most frequently expressed wellbeing criteria by people experiencing homelessness related more to social recognition and interpersonal relationships than to housing access. This led the city to revise its rights‑based action plan for the homeless.

The development of this approach since 2006 gradually clarified its methodological foundations, leading to a method called SPIRAL (Societal Progress Indicators for the Responsibility of All). A collaborative website has been set up tu collect, in a single database, all the well‑being and ill‑being criteria expressed by citizens in various countries, driven by the participating territorial authorities. This database (over 120,000 criteria expressed by more than 15,000 citizens) is useful for a global understanding of citizens’ expectations in terms of rights.

The same approach can be applied not only at the territorial level but also within collective actors such as schools, hospitals, other public services, businesses, etc. It allows for internal dialogue among different categories about each other’s expectations and how to ensure everyone’s right to well‑being—for example, between students, teachers, and maintenance staff.

The SPIRAL method also enables participatory evaluations (of actions, collective actors, or action plans such as social cohesion plans in Wallonia) in a simple way that leads directly to improvement decisions.

Finally, human rights for future generations are also taken into account in this approach, especially regarding climate change and various environmental challenges that demand behavior change to ensure well‑being for all without compromising that of future generations. This issue has been the subject of many debates and proposals. For more information, see here and here.

The TOGETHER network and its members are strongly interested in the campaign for the following reasons:

1. Opportunity for all members to join a broader network focused on human rights and to exchange beyond the TOGETHER network;

2. Opportunity to showcase the co‑responsibility for the well‑being of all and its SPIRAL method as an engaging approach to human rights and their promotion in society;

3. Greater visibility, especially toward national, European, and global public authorities, to promote more adequate public policies for human rights and well‑being of all, including future generations.