Why are local and regional governments essential for promoting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights?
Local and regional governments play an essential role in promoting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights for several reasons. The main one is that they are closer to the communities and have a deeper understanding of their needs and challenges. This allows them to design policies and programs that more effectively respond to the specific needs of people and the most vulnerable groups.
Local and regional governments are responsible for implementing many national policies related to human rights. For example, they may be in charge of implementing policies on social inclusion, education, health, housing, child protection, among others. Moreover, they can take specific actions to protect and promote human rights in their communities, including implementing anti-discrimination policies, promoting gender equality, and including people with disabilities.
Local and regional governments can also foster citizen participation and collaboration with civil society in the promotion and protection of human rights. This can include creating mechanisms to receive and respond to complaints and reports related to human rights violations.
In summary, local and regional governments are essential for promoting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights due to their proximity and local knowledge, their role in implementing national policies, their capacity to protect and promote local rights, and their ability to foster citizen participation.
Why are human rights relevant values and a useful framework for guiding local action?
Human rights are universal values that apply to all people, regardless of their race, gender, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation. These rights are inherent to human dignity and must be respected and protected by all states and societies.
Human rights are relevant because they protect people's lives, freedom, equality, and dignity. They are essential for ensuring social justice and peace in any society. When human rights are violated, suffering, injustice, and conflict occur.
Moreover, human rights provide a useful framework for local governments to guide local action within clear and universal principles for decision-making and public policy development. Human rights can be used as a tool to evaluate local policies and practices and to identify areas in need of improvement.
For example, human rights can be used to assess the accessibility of health and education services, equity in access to justice, the protection of the rights of migrants and refugees, and the promotion of gender equality and non-discrimination.
Therefore, human rights are relevant and provide a useful framework to guide local action because they protect human dignity, promote social justice and peace, and establish clear and universal principles for decision-making and public policy development.
Our city’s motivation to join the campaign "10, 100, 1000 Human Rights Cities and Territories by 2030" stems from the conviction that it is a powerful way to contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights and to have a positive impact on society.
Working together with UCLG and other local governments around the world on such relevant issues calls us to fight for justice and equality for all people, especially those who are marginalized and vulnerable.
Participating in this campaign will allow us to learn firsthand about the experiences of people who have been victims of human rights violations around the world, broadening our perspective and understanding of the challenges faced by people from different cultures and contexts, and how human rights are an important tool to address these challenges. Joining the campaign represents an opportunity to strengthen skills and develop new competencies. Furthermore, from our government, we can help create real change in society by inspiring people to take concrete actions to support human rights.
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Gender Policies
The Municipal Charter of our city, enacted in 2007, establishes in its Article 52 the equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women in the access and enjoyment of all civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights through positive actions that allow their effective exercise. To this end, it creates and maintains on a permanent basis a Gender Equality Office for the study, design, and implementation of gender policies and assistance to women.
Furthermore, in Article 53, it incorporates the gender perspective in the design and implementation of public policies, listing a series of actions such as promoting the full integration of women into productive activity with positive actions that guarantee parity in relation to paid work; developing policies for the prevention of physical, psychological, and sexual violence against women and providing specialized care services. It also promotes non-governmental organizations dedicated to gender issues, giving them participation in the design of public policies.
In this sense, through Ordinance 6037, the Gender Policy Area and the Gender Policy Advisory Council are created, involving various institutions in the city. This ordinance is regulated by Ordinance 6270. Links are attached below: Ordinance 6037, Ordinance 6270.
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Citizen Participation: Urban Environmental Policies
Similarly to what was outlined in item 1, our Municipal Charter establishes in Article 78 the creation of the Urban Environmental Planning Council (CPUA), a permanent and honorary body composed of the Executive Department, the Council of Representatives, and specialized institutions in the field. This Council provides the guidelines for the enactment of the City’s Building and Urban Environmental Development Code and is involved in all regulations on urbanism and the environment that are part of the code.
In 2008, Ordinance 4951 created the Urban Environmental Planning Council, which has become one of the most important tools for community management participation in our government. Ordinance 4951, Ordinance 5376: Approves the operating regulations of the CPUA.
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Youth Participation Policies: Youth House
The Youth House is a municipal space that aims to provide all young people with a development experience, offering opportunities for personal and cultural growth, creating spaces for comprehensive participation and activities in global learning environments. The House is a living space belonging to the youth. It aims to facilitate relationships with others and with oneself, complete the training of young people, provide them with tools for their personal and professional future, and increase their employability.
The Youth House oversees the Cultural Center "La Fábrica Punto Joven" where young people are the main protagonists.
La Fábrica Punto Joven operates in what was once a textile factory that ceased operations and was expropriated by the municipality to create a school of arts and trades. Through the Youth Participatory Budget, it was consolidated as a space with workshops, rehearsal rooms, language school, trade school— a place for all the city’s youth, that is, a space for learning and participation for young people.
The Youth House is also responsible for the Youth Parliament, a consultative deliberative body of the Council of Representatives, composed entirely of young people aged 15 to 30 from our city, including the Coordinator of the Youth House, representatives of political parties, student councils from our city’s schools, youth NGOs, religious institutions, and sports institutions. Ordinance 5043 creates and establishes the functions of the Youth House and the Youth Parliament.
The three actions mentioned are part of several policies promoted by our government that support participation and the realization of our citizens' human rights, such as promotion and rights policies for people with disabilities, older people, people experiencing homelessness, housing policies, health promotion, etc. Our community management puts people first when considering state programs or policies in order to guarantee that human rights are not violated.
Listening to residents is our State policy.