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US National Human Rights Cities Alliance
The US National Human Rights Cities Network operates within the US Human Rights Network, a national network of organizations and individuals working to strengthen a human rights movement and culture within the United States led by the people most directly impacted by human rights violations. We work to secure dignity and justice for all. Specifically we are working to promote local initiatives to implement people-centered human rights in cities and communities around the United States, based on the following Statement of Principles. We work to connect local grassroots struggles with the global human rights and human rights cities movements, and we work in cooperation with the US Human Rights Network.
- To receive information and updates from the Human Rights Cities Alliance, please sign up for our email list here.
- Current Work UPR Cities Project
Summer Webinar Series Building a Human Rights Cities Movement Against Structural Racism, Thursday, July 9 4:00PM-5:30PM EDT
- Black resistances to dismantle violent police repression in the crux of the pandemic in the United States have inspired a global wave of resistance to both the immediate threats from violent police repression, but to the wider systemic forces that drive racial inequities and are fueling what UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, E. Tendayi Achiume has called “a human rights crisis of existential proportions.” The global community has become activated like never before to demand accountability and transformative changes to address long-standing injustices. This webinar will offer context and clarity to help community leaders and activists learn how global human rights law and institutions can support our movements for fundamental changes in the United States. Participants will learn more about organizing work to hold local and national authorities accountable to global human rights, and how this can empower communities seeking dignity and justice for all people, organizations and local governments on activating global human rights mechanisms to usher in fundamental changes within the U.S. and globally. More details TBD.
- Recordings of past webinars
- Local & Global Strategies for Advancing the Human Right to Housing. June 11, 2020 (Recording). The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed and deepened the long-standing housing crisis in our communities. At a time when everyone’s health demands that all residents have a safe and stable home, more and more people face housing insecurity and homelessness. How can cities and communities better protect people’s right to adequate housing? This webinar features Julieta Perucca, assistant to the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Adequate Housing and currently Deputy Director of global housing rights initiative, The Shift. Learn about the human right to housing around the world and strategies for using international law and the United Nations to advance housing and other human rights. We’ll hear from leaders in Birmingham and other cities using innovative strategies for keeping people in their homes and expanding affordable housing. City Representatives: Brandon Johnson, Director of the Office of Peace and Policy, City of Birmingham; Daniel Joseph Wiley, Newark Ironbound Community; Crystal Jennings, Housing justice organizer with Pittsburgh’s Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition & City of Bridges Community Land Trust; Timothy Franzen, American Friends Service Committee & Alison Johnston, Housing Justice League, Atlanta. This forum was hosted in cooperation with the Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance, as part of its series, Learning from COVID-19: Shaping a Health and Human Rights Agenda for our Region, the US Human Rights Network and Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute
- NEW: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Calls for Greater Coordination with Local Governments & Civil Society. In a report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights clarifies the important role of local governments in the implementation of international human rights standards, providing reports and recommendations for actions by local and national governments. Many of these recommendations complement the work we are doing in the Human Rights Cities movement and the UPR Cities project. Download Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Local Government and Human Rights
We work to realize human rights by:
- Engaging, connecting and mobilizing communities, Peoples, workers, and diverse sectors across issue areas, constituencies, and regions to uphold and defend human rights and hold government accountable;
- Building the capacity and leadership of grassroots groups and individuals to effectively apply the human rights framework in developing strategy and making long-term structural shifts to achieve justice;
- Raising the visibility of local human rights concerns and activism to shape the public discourse locally, nationally, and internationally; and
- Facilitating effective collective action to secure the structural change needed to fully realize human rights.
The US Human Rights Network is guided by these core principles:
- Human rights are universal, interdependent, indivisible, and inalienable.
- Human rights movements must be led by those most directly affected by human rights violations.
- Human rights advocacy and organizing should prioritize the struggles of the poor and most marginalized groups in society.
- Human rights movements must be inclusive and respect and reflect the diversity within communities.
- Human rights encompass civil, political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, sexual, and development rights for individuals, Peoples, and groups.
For a more elaborated version see our: Statement of Principles.
UPR Cities Project and Toolkit
International Human Rights Monitoring
This page links to work by national and international human rights organizers to use international treaties and United Nations human rights review processes to hold local and national officials in the United States accountable to our international human rights obligations.
Housing is a Human Right!
Educational and Outreach Tools
- International Human Rights Mechanisms Slide Show
- Human Rights Cities Introduction Slide Show
- Video A European Coalition of Local Human Rights Cities in the Making, Utrecht, 12-13 December 2013-This video illustrates how groups in Europe are engaging similar questions and strategies as we are doing with this US Human Rights Cities Alliance. We are working to expand and deepen conversations between US activists and our counterparts in other parts of the world.
