Resources for starting a Human Rights City initiative near you

Starting a human rights city initiative

The path to becoming a human rights city differs by locale, and local actors must identify possibilities and develop appropriate strategies for local contexts and needs. The most important thing is to have community leadership at the start and at the center of the process. There must be some community commitment to a long-term process of becoming a human rights city. That will take work from many different sectors and constituencies, so getting buy-in near the start of the process is critical. Adopting a human rights city resolution/charter/ordinance, etc. is the beginning, reflecting a city's commitment to a long-term political process of progressively advancing human rights in the city or community. The following links provide further guidance.

• Human Rights Cities Wikipedia Page be sure to update this page with details on your city!
• The Human Rights Cities Movement: An Introduction
• Human Rights Cities Principles
• Global Charter – Agenda for Human Rights in the City

Here are some of the tools we have found most useful at integrating lessons from human rights city work so far:

• U.S. human rights cities & human rights legislation: How human rights is useful for local governments
• Recommendations for Human Rights City Organizing: Building on Past Lessons and Practices

Other recommended resources on local human rights implementation

• Human Rights Cities in the EU―A Framework Fundamental Rights Agency (2021)
• Integrated Implementation of Scotland's New Human Rights Framework: Workshop Findings, October 2022
• “Human Rights Cities and Regions - Swedish and International Perspectives”
• Human rights impact assessment guidance and toolbox, Danish Institute for Human Rights (2020)
• From Commitment to Responsibility for Human Rights in Cities and Regions European Training Center for Human Rights and Democracy;UNESCO Center for the Promotion of Human Rights at Local and Regional Levels and others, Human Rights Go Local Publication Series, Graz, Austria (2022)
• Human Rights Cities and the SDGs, Raul Wallenberg Institute

Research Compilation

• Human Rights Cities: Research, Resources, & Resolutions Maggie Austen, of Suffolk Law School in the U.S. compiled this database of resources and existing human rights cities resolutions, offering some insights for aspiring human rights cities.

Resources

• Campaign for a U.S. National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)-The United States is among the only democratic states yet to follow international commitments and guidelines calling for the creation of a national institution to coordinate and guide human rights implementation. Allies, UN member peers, and UN expert panels have repeatedly called on the U.S. government to create an NHRI, as has a growing chorus of civil society organizations. There are new possibilities to make progress toward this important goal under the Biden administration.
• University of Manitoba Centre for Human Rights Research
• Imagining (Winnipeg) as a Human Rights City December 2022 (Webinar recording)--Organized by The Centre for Social Science Research and the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba in acknowledgment of International Human Rights Day. Human rights educators, community advocates, and policy leaders discuss what it means to use the human rights framework to organize for change in particular settings--and here panelists consider Winnipeg in the wake of horrific atrocities committed against Indigenous and homeless women living in that region.
• Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion - York University