22 - 25 may 2013 / La Cité - Nantes Events Center / France
Sustainable Development - Human Rights: a common struggle ?
Towards social advancement, fair development, protected environment and strengthened democratic governance.
On behalf of the Commission on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights of the world organization United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) as well as on behalf of the cities of Barcelona and Nantes, we are pleased to invite you to the 5th World Forum on Human Rights, to be held in Nantes (France) from Wednesday 22 to Saturday 25 May 2013.
Since its creation, this international meeting (2800 participants representing a hundred different nationalities in 2010) aims to promote the implementation of human rights at the local level, being fully part of the thinking and the actions within the commission.
This is namely why the organizer of this event - the International Permanent Secretariat Human Rights and Local Governments (SPIDH Nantes - Pays de la Loire), member of the Commission since 2007 - is supported by local authorities of Nantes and of its region (Nantes Métropole, Région des Pays de la Loire, Départment de Loire-Atlantique, Ville de Nantes).
And it is also for this reason that we strongly encourage you to participate in the fifth edition of the Forum in Nantes. As elected officials and representatives of local authorities, you will have a key role through the presentation of your projects and your actions. To this end, the Forum is designed as a collaborative space that allows participants to provide workshops and speakers and to present information stands and exhibitions. So we are looking forward to exchange experiences and innovative policies in terms of human rights through these means at the Forum.
This meeting is not reserved for local politicians because the Nantes Forum gathers - on an equal footing - all categories of actors in the field of human rights throughout the world, but clearly, the ultimate goal is to ensure that these actors work together to define collective public policies relevant to residents and heads of our territories.
For this purpose, the Forum will foster discussions on two instruments: the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City and the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City, which was adopted by UCLG by the initiative of the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (see http://issuu.com/cisdpdh/docs/carta-agenda-mundial-derechos-humanos-en-la-ciudad). Today, it is more necessary than ever to ensure the promotion and international spreading of these tools put at the service of local communities. We hope the Nantes Forum will contribute to it.
Furthermore, the Global Forum on Human Rights in 2013 aims to examine the concept of sustainable development in the spot light of human rights. Almost a year after the International Conference Rio +20, one of the major conclusions was to highlight the essential role of local authorities as actors for sustainable development, more human and fairer.
Under the heading: Human Rights - Sustainable Development: a common struggle?, the aim will be to reaffirm the need for sustainable development to be respectful of human rights in order to ensure a genuine social progress and a fair development in a strengthened democratic framework and protected environment. The role of local authorities is essential to achieve this goal. Especially at a time of economic, social and environmental crisis that we are experimenting today. We invite you to discuss together the issue in order to elaborate practical solutions that can be implemented in our territories.
To get a clearer picture of this event, you will find a presentation document of the Nantes Forum attached to this letter. The Executive Secretariat of the Commission on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights of UCLG, in conjunction with the organizers (SPIDH Nantes - Pays de la Loire) is at your disposal to provide any further information.
Download the Call for papers of the 2013 Forum !
Source: International Permanent Secretariat Human Rights and Local Governments (SPIDH)