WELDI baseline report

care and housing for all, support for
vulnerable groups and protection
against discrimination.
Based on the Saint-Denis Charter,
UCLG has formulated a “Global
Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in
the City” to work on the implementation
of the Charter. The document
is currently updated, also with the
intention to pay greater attention
to migration. Accompanying this
process, UCLG runs a campaign to
create “10, 100, 1000 Human Rights
Cities and Territories” by 2030.
A second key city initiative on cities
and human rights is UCLG’s 2022
Lampedusa Charter for Dignified
Mobility and Territorial Solidarity.
The charter promotes a municipalist
vision of migration that shifts the focus
of the migration narrative from
border management and administrative
status to a “people-centred vision
that addresses all communities
as neighbours”. Developed through
a global consultation with cities, the
Lampedusa Charter takes the stance
that human rights violations are by
no means inherent to migration and
establishes principles to protect
human rights, such as:
► Providing humanitarian
assistance and specific
support for the most
vulnerable groups.
► Reinforcing mechanisms for
saving lives.
► Restoring the dignity and
memory of those who were
hurt, died or disappeared.
► Avoiding detention and
criminalisation of migrants.
► Providing access to water
and sanitation, social and
healthcare services, decent
housing, youth and children
welfare and schooling.
► Actively involving
established residents
and newcomers alike in
service design and decisionmaking,
regardless of
status.
► Moving from an emergency
logic to a long-term
response.
An action plan to accompany the
charter is in preparation.
Localising Human
Rights
According to the EU Agency for Fundamental
Rights (FRA):
► “in a human rights city, the
local government, local
actors and people in the city
work together and commit
(…) to uphold international
human rights standards
and legal obligations. To do
so, they take measures to
deliver on these standards
and develop rights-based
policies on a wide variety of
issues that cities are responsible
for, thus contributing
to protecting, respecting,
fulfilling, and promoting
human rights locally.” 1
The bottom-up practice of making
human rights a reality is referred
to as “localising human rights” 2 , a
process that involves, on the one
hand, using human rights norms as
guidelines and benchmarks for local
policies, and on the other, feeding
local challenges and solutions into
the European and international
discussion.
► Localising human rights
means spelling out the meaning
of human rights for the
practice of local administrations
and other actors,
putting them into action
and thereby providing
bottom-up input into the
definition and interpretation
of international human
rights norms.
So, the relation between local authorities
and human rights is not one of
a top-down implementation of international
norms. Rather cities are
actively constructing human rights
and their meaning from their specific
contexts, and thereby participating
in a bidirectional, “glocal” process of
making human rights a reality.
1
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2022. Human RIghts Cities in the European Union, p. 5
2
See De Feyter, K. 2006. Localising human rights. Institute of Development Policy and Management
WELDI - Baseline report
Setting the context 6