WHRCF NewsLetter_November Edition
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The 13th World Human Rights Cities Forum was held from October 4–7, 2023, at the Kimdaejung Convention Center in Gwangju. Under this year’s theme, “Human Rights Cities Responding to Poverty and Inequalities,” a total of 32 programs were held, attracting more than 2,000 online and offline participants from 168 cities in 63 countries.
The Forum recognized that issues of poverty and inequalities, which have been exacerbated since the Covid-19 pandemic’s outburst, go beyond mere economic issues and are serious violations of human rights that are not protected in the social, cultural, and political spheres, noting as well as that they are structural problems, rather than natural phenomena. These among other issues were discussed, and the agenda focused on in-depth ways to address them at the city level through a human rights-based approach.
The full interview with the key speakers at the forum are now available on our website. We'll share the highlights with you in this newsletter, so you can read their insightful responses.
We will also be releasing an result report on the outcomes of this year's forum, discussions and actions taken at each session, on our website and in our newsletter in December, so stay tuned for the next issue. 😀 |
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📽️ Reviewing the 13th WHRCF |
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📑 Cities' strategies and policies to tackle poverty and inequalities |
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At this year's Forum, 17 cities from 14 countries presented their responses at each session. In this newsletter, you can read about the policies and strategies that cities have implemented to tackle poverty and inequalities, and check out more examples on our website! |
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🇫🇷 France Marseille
Since 2020, the City is implementing policies to improve dignity and foster the participation of the most vulnerable people, leveraging diverse dynamic population with a strong sense of local community, grassroots movements and important opportunities of employment due to the touristic attractiveness. More specifically, the City has reinforced partnership with grassroot movements and civil servants in order to better identify the target groups - such as migrants and women - who have limited access to services and rights; promoting active outreach of these groups and making administrative procedures more open and accessible.
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🇨🇱 Chile San Antonio
The Municipality focuses on access to justice by promoting free (online or in person) legal support services for specific groups such as women victims of violence, persons with disabilities to address the lack of Human Rights education in the territory. The Office of the Ombudsman also undertakes training and capacity building activities on Human Rights for civil servants at local level by coordinating with the justice system; other City departments other levels of governments; as well as information initiatives for the general public; which encourage the use of simple and accessible language.
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🇪🇸 Spain Barcelona
The City has been working on the notion of “financial inclusion”, to avoid that increasing digitalization of public services exacerbates marginalization and social exclusion of specific groups from service provision and access to rights – especially economic rights - due to digital divide. This includes raising awareness and training activities on financial management, which encompasses digital education and basic legal training, to address the lack of accessibility of several private and banking instruments. The City also launched the Cuenta de Pago Básico (basic payment account) is a type of account that allows Barcelona’s inhabitants to perform all the basic banking services and ensures that everyone can lead a normal economic and social life, no matter of their nationality or legal status. |
🇲🇽 Mexico Ciudad Juárez
The Municipality is championing bottom-up and participatory approaches (especially with children and women) to foster HR and people-based human security approaches and enhance the Right to the City, in light of Ciudad Juárez complex situation in terms of violence and migration given its position close the Mexican-US border. More specifically, the City is working on a local Charter on the Right to the City to be launched in December, which is being developed through community engagement to integrate a strategic piece that guides public policy and collective action for the long-term development of the city focus on Human Right. The Charter focuses on 6 pillars: prosperity and innovation; culture and education; dignity and solidarity; democracy and participation; safety and no-violence; livability and sustainability. |
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Commitments from the Declaration of the 13th WHRCF
This year's forum examined recent human rights issues and key challenges stemming from poverty and inequalities, and shared the different pathways through which these human rights issues arise through the experiences of cities. It also explored the institutional and policy debates that can strengthen the foundations of human rights cities that work towards inclusion and coexistence in the face of poverty and inequalities, through examples of city responses.
The participants of the 13th World Human Rights Cities Forum make the following commitments:
1. We promise to guarantee first and foremost the autonomy, dignity, well-being and empowerment of persons in order to effectively address the human rights issues experienced by various population groups due to the persisting and growing issues of poverty and inequalities
2. Recognizing that all forms of inequalities and discrimination threaten the realization of human rights for all, we promise to draw up strategies and implement initiatives that address the issues of poverty and inequalities, leveraging the power of this network for cooperation, solidarity and social justice with concerned groups through proactive engagement and civil participation.
3. In the context of stalled progress towards the SDGs, we promise to strengthen the efforts of local governments at the local, regional and global levels to achieve inclusive and sustainable change through a human rights economy and anti-discrimination policies.
4. We promise to closely monitor our human rights-based policies for evaluation, accountability and transparency purposes and to report on our progress and challenges at the next WHRCF. |
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🎤Interview with key speakers at the 13th WHRCF
Interview with international organisations and city officials were also conducted on-site at the Forum. These interviews, conducted by youth reporters, provided insights into the issues of poverty and inequality, as well as their messages to future generations. You can read the full interviews on our website. |
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Arber Fetiu
Advisor in international relations, Montreal, Canada
What are the most emerging poverty and inequality issues at the moment in your opinion?
“There are many issues related to inequalities that are emerging and, one ought to think, especially, due to the situation of the pandemic, that certain issues have been exacerbated and have become more and more important than they were previously. For example - the digital disparity that exists in populations. We saw that during the pandemic, people who didn't have access to technology also did not have access to education online afterwards, and other opportunities that we were all bound to follow online. (...) " |
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Amanda Flety Martinez
Coordinator, UCLG-CSIPDHR
Could you tell me what impressed you the most when attending this forum?
“ I really liked the Indonesian Human Rights Cities Session. I was impressed by the fact that the national government in Indonesia adopted the resolution on human rights and business, and is trying to work with the local government on the way to implement those guiding principles. I think this is fundamental. This year the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, declared the necessity to be working on human rights economy. I think that these kinds of examples are very interesting, and very inspiring to see how we could work from a multilevel point of view - from national government to local government - on implementing human rights criteria to economy and business. (...)” |
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Garance Sarlat
Gender Associate Project Officer, UNESCO
Regarding the theme of this year’s forum, could you tell me about the importance and timeliness of the content you have presented?
“My focus is really on women's empowerment, gender equality, engaging men and boys for gender equality. But this work goes within a framework that's much larger on fighting racism, fighting discrimination.
Nowadays, we know that with the COVID-19 pandemic, those inequalities and those discriminations have unfortunately increased quite dramatically and that we're still suffering right now from the consequences of the pandemic. So, the forum right now, focusing on poverty and inequalities, could not be more timely. (...)” |
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Stamatia Stavrinaki
Vice Chairperson,
UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
The theme of this forum is Human Rights Cities Responding to Poverty and Inequalities. Do you have any advice for young people on how to act and what mindset to have to “respond to poverty and inequalities?”
“Young people should act by identifying inequalities, having awareness about the issue, and understanding that it is not the people’s fault when they become the subject of these inequalities – knowing that it is much more complex and structural. As this leads to many human rights violations, having and raising awareness of these inequalities in young people’s environment is important. (...)” |
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세계인권도시포럼 사무국 WHRCF Secretariat
whrcf@gic.or.kr
1-2F, 5, Jungang-ro 196beon-gil, Dong-gu, Gwangju 61475, South Korea +82-70-4262-4335
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