The Charter-agenda
The Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the city
On the occasion of the last UCLG world congress (United Cities and Local Governments), held last October in Jeju (South Korea), the International Permanent Secretariat for Human Rights and Local Governments (SPIDH) was entrusted the task of leading the working group on the World Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City (a part of the Social Inclusion and Participative Democracy Commission of UCLG, chaired by Elói Pietá, Mayor of Guarulhos, Brazil).
This working group had, up until then, been lead by “Diputación” of Barcelona. From now on, the SPIDH of Nantes will assume such responsibility with the backing of the Nantes Metropolis, of the Loire Region, of the Loire-Atlantic county and of the City of Nantes.
The "Diputació de Barcelona", within its Department for Citizen Participation, received the assignment from the Forum of Local Authorities (Caracas, 2006) to lead a new project to promote Human Rights on a local level: the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City. This project will help drawing up a text with a worldwide scope and a multicultural perspective, whereby cities from all over the world shall commit themselves to develop inclusive public policies for the safeguarding of Human Rights applicable on a local level. In this sense, the Charter-Agenda will contain those fundamental Human Rights that every city should recognise, protect and ensure, along with a list of municipal commitments that will determine the type of local action that can be implemented in order to materialize every specific Human Right. This local agenda will be linked to a series of indicators in order to facilitate the assessment of the level of success achieved.
Background
The basis of this project arose during the Forum of Local Authorities for Social Inclusion (FAL) of Porto Alegre, a forum of mayors that has been held since 2001 simultaneously with the World Social Forum. One of the aim is to build and develop, together with civil society, alternatives for public management in the process of globalisation. From its very foundation, local mayors from all over the world accepted the challenge of occupying a political space in the international scene and assuming an active role by implementing public policies of social inclusion.
During the 5th FAL, held in Porto Alegre in 2005, a work plan was approved in which it was established that one of the thematic axes of the FAL was Human Rights in the Cities. One year later, in the 6th FAL held in Caracas, the commitment in favour of social inclusion was reasserted, as the necessary mean, to achieve an equitable society and a more participative democracy. This is why the working group on Human Rights was established, coordinated by the Diputació de Barcelona, with the aim of elaborating the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City.
Reasons for the project
The society of the beginning of the 21st century is, more than ever, a globalized society. One of the most expressive effects of globalisation has been the generalised increase in the processes of urbanisation all over the world. Large cities are becoming “metropolises” (cities of cities). In most cases, they are increasingly diffuse and spread all over the surrounding areas, and have the appearance of human agglomerations, poor and scourged by social exclusion.
These processes of urbanisation are the result of an unstoppable will of the right of people to look for and define the necessary framework to lead a decent life. The city is experienced as the place in which it is possible to guarantee some rights that are hardly unattainable in other contexts. One of the cities’ strong points is proximity. It is a concept and a reality that is not only spatial, but also political. But although the city becomes the basic tool for materialising these rights, it has also kept an ambiguous attitude regarding with its own development. The most obvious statement of this fact is the existence of large groups of people in the cities whose life is determined by the denying of many of these basic rights. Due to the current globalized migratory movement, these groups of people are increasing.
It is obvious that such inclusive challenges (to make people’s basic rights come true) implies some specific stands, impregnated by a good dose of repolitisation, which must point to alternative ways of socialisation. Inclusive policies must be centred on three substantive axes: full citizenship (a whole set of rights and duties that raise people to the level of citizens), sustainability (responsible commitment with future generations) and democracy and participation (that confers legitimacy to the inclusive models of progress).
We need to join all the efforts in order to promote the defence of human dignity and Human Rights and build common proposals that embody complicities from both the institutions and society. The establishment of these principles must combine respect for diversity, existing cultural and ethic pluralism with the juridical or normative recognition for all people of their rights and responsibilities in the civic and local areas. Today it is possible to keep alive the hope that “another world is possible” and that this world is being built thanks to the dynamism of cities.
