Between September and December 2015, the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights and the Secretariat for Social Integration of the city of Bogota undertook a monitoring process on the impact of public policies on Early Childhood, Ageing and Older People, and Homelessness, in the light of the guarantee of Human Rights contained in the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City.
A successful pilot project started by Bogota city
Implemented as a pilot project in Bogota, the Human Rights Monitoring programme, developed and coordinated by the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights, was designed to accompany local governments in the assessment of their public policies in terms of guaranteeing rights. Hence, this programme enables an evaluation of the human rights situation in a given territory from a participatory perspective, and to propose actions and priorities to improve the guarantee of people’s rights.
The programme aims to assess the extent to which local social policies are able to guarantee in a concrete way the rights contained in the Charter, as well as the extent to which the rights-based approach is able to give meaning back to public action and strengthen the relationship between institutions and inhabitants.
Therefore, by observing and analysing Bogota’s policies on social inclusion, this report aims to share learnt lessons from the “Bogota Road of Rights” in order to support local governments wishing to embark on this road for the promotion, protection and guarantee of human rights through a Human Rights-based approach in their public policies.
The Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City as an international benchmark for Human Rights
The evaluation was conducted by an international and multidisciplinary group of consultants from civil society, academia and local governments, thanks to a partnership with the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra and the Mexico City Operational Centre for Housing and Settlement (COPEVI).
This assessment also enabled an illustration of how local governments concretely implement the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City through public policies that effectively develop rights on the ground and that, sometimes, even go beyond the content of the Charter, creating new rights in changing and complex urban environments.
The full study, titled “The Rights Approach through the “Bogotá Humana” Development Plan: Towards a New Construction of the Public Sphere” (in Spanish) is available online on the website of the city of Bogota and the website of the Committee.
Additionally, a 49-page executive summary is also available online in the three working languages of the Committee. Finally, three case studies on the experiences of Bogota have been included in the Inclusive Cities Observatory database: Early Childhood, Ageing and Older People, and Homelessness.
Useful information and documents
Should you require further information to develop a Human Rights Monitoring programme in your city, town or region, please contact the Committee’s Executive Technical Secretariat: [email protected].