Human Rights Cities

1. Human Rights Cities Civil Action Movement

2. Introduction to Human Rights

3. Human Rights • What are human rights • Promote dignity, fairness, and equality for all people enable individuals to meet their basic needs. • Civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights • No distinction based on class, race, sex, religion, nationality, age, disability, sexual orientation, or other status. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights places the obligation on governments to respect, protect and fulfill rights

4. Human rights in the United states

5. Human rights in the United states Declaration of Independence – All men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights Human rights framework goes a step further than documents like the U.S. Constitution to ensure economic and social rights (basic rights) The United States played an important role in developing the human rights framework and documents like the UDHR. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a key contributor to the texts of the UDHR Drafting treaties like the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

6. Human Rights Cities

7. Human Rights Cities • Participatory governance help to build a sense of ownership over process policy and outcomes and ensures that proper representation to reduce likelihood of discriminatory policies. • Local governments are on the frontline of human rights, not the large centralized governments • Participatory process allows government officials and residents to develop strategies to improve city. • Unlike large federal government policies, each city is able to tailor policies and procedures to their own unique community as they see fit.

9. Rosario, Argentina • Rosario, Human Rights City: with the aim of internalizing the human rights culture • Prevention and resolution of conflicts characteristic of human coexistence. It includes different activities for different sectors, ages, interests: • * Human rights learning for teachers, security forces, health agents, magistrates, professionals, children, artists, social communicators and district organizations. • * Promotion of gender equity. • * Care of the environment. • Latin American and Caribbean Program for Human Rights Education: Training of human rights educators, chosen among people with capacity to lead processes of cultural changes in their own communities and the development of additional human rights cities.

10. Utrecht, Netherlands • Poverty Reduction – U Pass • Poverty reduction aimed at improving financial position and increasing societal participation of poorer residents in social events. • Sport, culture, course, and recreation • Access to collective health insurance. Made affordable and accessible • Emphasis on children • Sporting events are free for children through combined financial help from the municipality and sport associations

11. Walewale, Ghana • Community Human Rights Education within communities, mobilization of stakeholders including Youth groups, Women groups, Chiefs and local government authority. Extensive consultation and consensus building were also undertaken as part of the process. • Successful public human rights education and human rights knowledge sharing: Collaborative development planning, implementation and monitoring with local and national level governmental bodies; Human Right institution building by strengthening the capacity of other non governmental and community based organizations working in the field of Human Rights. • Advocacy for improvement in the human rights content of laws passed at the local and national levels; Advocacy for the passage of new laws for the promotion and protection of human rights; Alternative dispute resolution and legal counselling and representation relating to human rights violations; Research for the advancement of human rights in the HRCs and at the national level.

12. Porto Alegre, Brazil • "Neighbors for the Environment” • Fifteen organizations participated in it, developing together projects to achieve goals. All the projects were related to the use of water; cleaning of drainages and weeds; forest workers; kitchen gardens, recycling trash; recovering abandoned and uncultivated spaces, etc. • They discussed the various problems in their neighbourhood and came up with solutions to solve them. And most importantly, they organized alliances between them, fixed priorities regarding their needs and what they should claim from the government and what they could do by themselves. They are now working to prepare an integrated project.

13. Korogocho, Kenya • Korogocho Community Initiatives Slum Upgrading Program: joint initiative of the Government of Kenya with funding support through a debt for development swap entered into by the Government of Italy and the Government of Kenya. Coordinated support to the community to provide the residents of Korogocho with security of tenure through an appropriate land tenure system and to prepare and implement improvements of the physical, economic and social living conditions of the Korogocho communities.

14. Human Rights Cities in the United States

15. Washington, D.C. • The District of Columbia Office of Human Rights (OHR) • Discrimination Complaint http://ohr.dc.gov/webform/employment-intake-questionnaire-form Complaints filed with OHR may go through a 6 step process involving: •Step 1 - Intake (The filing of the complaint) •Step 2 - Mandatory mediation •Step 3 - Investigation •Step 4 - Legal Review and Analysis •Step 5 - Office Determination and Conclusion

16. Eugene, Oregon • 2011 - Eugene City Council unanimously voted to restructure the Human Rights Commission to support and promote the full range of human rights within the UDHR. • Homelessness • Viewed through the framework of human rights. Housing as a basic human right. • 2011 Mayor and City Council created Opportunity Eugene Community Task Force on Homelessness • Eugene city government staff  have incorporated reference to the full range of civil, political, social, economic and cultural human rights into the Social Equity section of their Triple-Bottom-Line Tool

17. Columbus, IN • “It is the public policy of the City to provide all persons an equal opportunity for and in education, employment, public accommodations and acquisition through purchase or rental of real property including but not limited to housing…. • MONITORING COMPLIANCE : The Commission is a party to written conciliation agreements, which resolve complaints of alleged discrimination filed with the agency. A Commission staff person is assigned to monitor the terms and conditions of these agreements, as well as Commission orders. • MEDIATION PROGRAM : The Commission offers a voluntary procedure in which the parties to discrimination complaints filed with Commission may attempt to mediate and resolve their controversies short of having Commission investigate and process the complaint

18. Chapel Hill & Carrboro, NC The Human Rights Center of Carrboro and Chapel Hill spearheaded efforts to pass the resolution about Human Rights. The process for developing the resolution was unique because the Board of Alderman ultimately agreed to support it with adjustments to the text of the UDHR that modernize and modify its language to reflect Carrboro’s priorities as articulated by local advocates. The local resolution reflects revisions, including the removal of masculine pronouns, the addition of “ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity or gender expression” as bases on which discrimination is prohibited, and the recognition of a right to marry regardless of gender. Reflecting input from local supporters, the resolution allows for an advisory body to monitor and report to the Board on human rights conditions in the town. The neighboring town of Chapel Hill also adopted the modified version of the UDHR as guiding principles.

19. Pittsburgh as a Human Rights City

20. Pittsburgh • Pittsburgh is the 5th city in the United States to declare themselves as Human Rights City • Leading the way for Human Rights Cities in the country