This meeting will take place in parallel to Barcelona's “Cities for Rights” Conference, and should be a good opportunity to relaunch and articulate initiatives on human rights cities networking in Europe.
We are pleased to invite you to a workshop on local governments for human rights to be held in Barcelona on December 11th. This meeting will be organized by our Committee at the UCLG headquarters with the support of Barcelona, Plaine Commune and Madrid. It will be held in connection with the International Conference “Cities for Rights”, organized by the City of Barcelona on December 10th and 11th.
The “Cities for Rights” Conference coincides with the celebration of two important anniversaries. Indeed, 2018 has been marked by the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the twentieth anniversary of the Barcelona Conference which led to the adoption of the European Charter of Human Rights in the city.
The signing of this Charter by nearly 400 local authorities in the early 2000s was a strong symbol of local government leadership capacity. In perspective, their initiative has reinforced local agendas on human rights protection; as well as reaffirmed, at an international level, their willingness to build fairer, more humane and democratic cities.
For all these reasons, member-local authorities from our Committee decided to relaunch the dialogue with other local governments who are committed to promote and protect human rights. Our Executive Secretariat has therefore contacted all signatory municipalities of the Charter, initiating a follow-up process set to end in Barcelona’s December Conference. This process has received so far a favorable reply by more than thirty signatory cities and towns of the Charter.
The workshop of local governments for human rights of December 11th will aim at sharing a wide range of local experiences derived from more than 20 years of policies for “human rights in the city” in Europe. It will seek to provide a meaningful space for exchanging ideas on how to articulate networking on human rights cities within our Committee as well as internationally, as part of the recent UN resolution recognizing the role of local authorities in promoting and protecting of human rights.
Non-signatory cities of the Charter are equally invited to take part in this event as well.
You will be able to follow all the updates of the meeting (concept notes and other relevant documents) by regularly consulting this link on our webpage.
In the event that your local government or organization wishes to participate in this process and / or attend the December workshop, please contact the Secretariat of the Committee ([email protected]) to receive further information.