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Abbreviation | UCLG CSIPDHR |
---|---|
Predecessor | Forum of Local Authorities for Social Inclusion and Participatory Democracy (FAL) |
Formation | 2005 |
Type | International organization of local governments |
Legal status | Active |
Headquarters | Barcelona, Spain |
Membership (2018) | 145 |
Official language | English, French and Spanish |
Co-chairs | Patrick Braouezec, Jang-hyun Yoon, Stéphane Troussel and José Ramón Amieva |
Parent organization | United Cities and Local Governments |
Website | www.uclg-cisdp.org |
The UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights is one of the four Committees of the United Cities and Local Governments. [1] As an autonomous network in the framework of UCLG, [2] its stated goal is to bring together local authorities from across the world to exchange points of view and local initiatives on social inclusion, participatory democracy and human rights. [3] Inheritor of the forums of local authorities (FAL) held in parallel to the first editions of the World Social Forum, the Committee has become a relevant stakeholder in global advocacy for human rights in the city and the Right to the City [4] Throughout its history, the Committee been characterized by facilitating meetings and networking between progressive local authorities, with a special emphasis in the Latin American and European region. Headquartered in Barcelona, the Committee is composed by more than 100 local governments and various partner organizations (among which, the Global Platform for the Right to the City). [5]
The origins of the Committee lie in the first Local Authorities Forum for Social Inclusion and Participatory Democracy (FAL), a forum for reflection and political discussion made up by progressive local authorities from all over the world, an event which has been held at the same time as the World Social Forum since 2001. In 2005, a year after the creation of the new international organisation of local governments - United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) - the towns of the FAL decided to establish a more institutionalised working structure within a new organisation. This led to the creation of the Committee on Social Inclusion and Participatory Democracy (CSIPD).
Since its beginnings, the CSIPD has been present at the various FAL events (Caracas, 2005 ; Nairobi, 2007 and Belém do Pará, 2009; Dakar, 2011) and has maintained an ongoing dialogue with international social movements and civil society in the international social forums held in those cities. It has thus become the communication channel between the political debates held in these events and UCLG, and has undertaken its own political initiatives based mainly on two areas: social inclusion and participatory democracy. A third area, human rights, was added to the Committee's work soon afterwards, and was extensively developed with the production of two documents, the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City (formally adopted by the Florence UCLG World Council in 2011) and the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City (Saint-Denis, 2000). As a result, five years after it was established, the Committee on Social Inclusion and Participative Democracy has renamed itself as follows: Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.
The Committee consists of:
Becoming a member of the Committee is free and must be arranged through UCLG’s World Secretariat and the Committee's Executive Technical Secretariat. The Committee aims to ensure balanced geographic representation, and those members not belonging to UCLG will be encouraged to adhere to the organisation.
The 102 Committee members are the plenary body, which is responsible for defining the general political directives of the Committee.
Specification and implementation of the political directives will be the responsibility of the Committee’s bureau, which consists of a President, First Vice-president and several Regional Vice-presidents. The Committee will ensure balanced political representation in its bureau. We propose the following governing body for the period 2011 – 2013:
President: Barcelona (Spain) First Vice-president: Saint-Denis / Plaine Commune (France) Regional Vice-presidents: Africa: Passy (Senegal) Latin America: Guarulhos (Brazil) and Montevideo (Uruguay) Asia: Federation of Municipalities of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka) Europe: Aubagne, Nantes (France) and FAMSI (Spain)
The President of the Committee is its leading political representative. The First Vice-president will be in charge of the institutional relations of the Committee in general, and will particularly participate at UCLG statutory meetings on behalf of the Committee. The regional vice-presidents will contribute to expanding the work of the Committee in their respective territorial areas and will represent it on a collegiate basis. The members of the bureau will ensure the financing of the Committee.
Working groups can be created based around the Committee's three areas of work (social inclusion, participatory democracy and human rights) in order to contribute to the development of each one of these areas, and they will support the bureau in the definition and execution of the working plan. Each working group will be chaired by a bureau member. Nowadays the Committee has a working group on Local Economic Development, chaired and coordinated by the FAMSI (Andalucian Fund of Towns for International Solidarity). This group has its own Strategic Plan 2012-2013.
The Executive Technical Secretary will be responsible for co-ordinating the implementation of the working plan, fostering the 3 groups and organising and following up Committee meetings.
List of members. [6]
The Committee meets once or twice a year in a plenary session to monitor the progress of its strategic objectives. Committee meetings will take place at the statutory meetings of UCLG (Executive Bureau, World Council or World Congress) or on the occasion of events organised by a city, international network or organisation with which the Committee collaborates.
The political directives of the Committee will be specified in these meetings, and will be produced using participatory methodologies with decisions reached on the basis of consensus. Members that are unable to attend these meetings will be able to send their contributions in writing to the Executive Technical Secretary, who will be responsible for presenting them at the meeting and duly informing of the decisions taken.
The Committee's working groups can also convene sectorial meetings, the proposals of which will be notified to the bureau by the Executive Technical Secretary for assessment.
The working languages of the Committee are Spanish, English and French.
The 1990s was a milestone in terms of recognition of the role of local governments as pillars of states' democratic quality. Some years later, recognition of cities as key players in the guarantee of human rights in their role of providers of public services and agents responsible for education, health and housing policies would gain ground. This international debate would be translated in the claim for "the right to the city", according to which the city is a collective space which belongs to all its residents and which must offer the necessary conditions for a decent life from a social, political, cultural, economic and environmental point of view. As a result of this process, various local human rights charters were adopted from 2000 onwards:
The concept of the "right to a solidarity-based metropolis" would emerge afterwards intensively in the framework of the Forum of Peripheral Local Authorities (FALP) and is now being developed.
The European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City (Saint Denis, 2000) is the result of the preparatory work initiated in Barcelona in 1998 in the framework of the Conference "Cities for Human Rights", which was organised to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hundreds of Mayors and political representatives participated in the event and united their voice to call for a stronger political acknowledgement as key actors in safeguarding human rights in a highly urbanised world.
Participating cities adopted the "Barcelona Engagement", consisting of a roadmap to draft a political document aimed at fostering the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights at local level.
During the two proceeding years, the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City was drafted as the result of a plural dialogue between European cities, civil society representatives and human rights experts. The draft was discussed and finally adopted in Saint-Denis in 2000. Since then, a European conference is held every two years to share the progress made by signatory cities, more than 400 today, to implement the Charter. The following conferences have been organized to date:
After the conference in Geneva (2008), the most active cities in the network (Barcelona, Saint-Denis/Plaine Commune, Lyon, Geneva and Nantes) decided to entrust the promotion of the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City to the world organization of cities, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), through its Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.
The Committee, initially under the political leadership of the Provincial Council of Barcelona (Spain) and subsequently the city of Nantes (France), was working since 2006 on the production of a municipal charter of human rights with a worldwide scope, the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City. UCLG formally adopted this charter in 2011 at its World Council in Florence, which was attended by over 400 mayors from all over the world.
The main differences between the Charter-Agenda and the European Charter lie, on the one hand, in the different geographic scope of each document (one is global, while the other is European) and, on the other hand, in the agenda or local action plan that the Charter-Agenda contains. As a result, in the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City each right is accompanied by an action plan that is a benchmark for use by local governments when taking concrete steps for human rights implementation. [7]
In order to contribute to the international promotion of the right to the city, the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights drafted the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City, an initiative that emerged from the Local Authorities Forum for Social Inclusion and Participatory Democracy (FAL) that took place in Caracas in 2006. Based on the discussions between local governments from around the world that took place in this Forum, a group of experts from various countries wrote a first draft (2007-2008), which was then discussed and amended by elected representatives, experts and representatives of civil society from all over the world (2009-2010).
Under the leadership initially of the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona and subsequently of the city of Nantes and the Pays de la Loire Region, the Global Charter-Agenda has been collectively discussed at several international events, including the last three FALs and World Social Forums (Nairobi, 2007; Belém do Pará, 2009; and Dakar, 2011), the I and II FALPs (Nanterre, 2006; Getafe, 2010), the 5th World Urban Forum of UN HABITAT (Rio de Janeiro, 2010), the 4th World Forum on Human Rights in Nantes (2010) and the 3rd UCLG World Congress (Mexico City, 2010). Research centers such as the Institute of Human Rights of Catalonia (IDHC) and the Social Studies Centre (CES) of Coimbra University have also been involved in this process from the very beginning.
The added value of the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City is that each human right featured in the document is accompanied by an action plan that serves as reference for concrete steps to undertake by local governments. Signatory cities are invited to set up a local agenda with deadlines and indicators in order to assess their efficiency in implementing these rights. The Charter-Agenda will come into effect in each city after a consultation and participation process allowing residents to discuss it and adapt it both to local reality and to the national legal framework; and upon acceptance by a qualified majority of the municipal assembly. The result of this process will be the adoption of a Local Charter-Agenda in each signatory municipality.
The World Council of UCLG held in Florence in December 2011 formally adopted the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City and invited all UCLG members to sign it. In the current situation of economic crisis and a possible reduction in rights, the Charter-Agenda is a tool for local governments to build more inclusive, democratic and solidarity-based societies in dialogue with urban dwellers. [8]
The Observatory is a space for analysis and reflection on local social inclusion policies. It contains over sixty case studies on innovative policies for community development, access to basic services, gender equality, environmental protection and the eradication of poverty, among others.
The initiative has been developed with the scientific support of Prof. Yves Cabannes from the University College of London and a team of researchers from the Centre for Social Studies (CES) at the University of Coimbra, which has worked under the supervision of Prof. Boaventura de Sousa Santos.
Through this Observatory, the Committee has identified and researched successful experiences that might inspire other cities to design and implement their own social inclusion policies. [9]
The policies included in the Inclusive Cities Observatory have been the basis for the production of a study on the impact of citizen participation on social inclusion policies. This study has been produced by the IGOP (Institute of Government and Public Policy) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). [10]
The publication that we present contains the policy paper on local social inclusion promoted by the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participative Democracy and Human Rights of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). This paper presents the main policy guidelines that cities are recommended to follow when designing and developing public policies for social inclusion. Along the same lines, its objective is to help the position of UCLG on this matter and direct its discourse toward other international agencies and organizations.
This document was approved by the UCLG World Council, which took place between 27 and 30 November 2008 in Istanbul. It draws on the findings of the "1st International Seminar on Innovative Local Policies for Social Inclusion", held in Barcelona on 27 and 28 September 2007, as well as the political discussions that took place within UCLG, through its regional sections and working committees.
The "1st International Seminar on Innovative Local Policies for Social Inclusion" was organized by Barcelona City Council and the Committee on Social Inclusion, with the support of the Catalan Government and the scientific advice of the DPU (Development Planning Unit), University College London. The seminar was attended by representatives of Eldoret (Kenya), Rosario (Argentina), Diyarbakir (Turkey), London (United Kingdom), Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre (Brazil), Palmela (Portugal), Tacoma (United States), Cotacachi (Ecuador), Barcelona (Spain), Saint-Denis (France) and Bandung (Indonesia). Representatives of these 12 cities, all from very different realities, reported on their various policies of inclusion, while faced with the task of reflecting and deliberating together on three topics: (i) ensuring social justice and rights; (ii) citizen participation and generation of social networks; (iii) planning and sustainability policies.
The Committee on Social Inclusion, Participative Democracy and Human Rights of UCLG is especially grateful for the key contributions made to the draft of this paper by the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, the European Observatory Cities and Towns for All; the cities of Cordoba, Barcelona, Terrassa (Spain), Ecatepec de Morelos (México), Guarulhos (Brazil), Villa El Salvador (Peru), Nanterre, Saint-Denis, Plaine Commune (France), Junín (Argentina), Cotacachi (Ecuador) and Eldoret (Kenya); Malaga Provincial Council (Spain) and the Province of Milan (Italy); the Andalusia cooperation fund FAMSI (Spain), the Forum of Local Authorities (FAL) and the Forum of Peripheral Local Authorities (FALP); the UCLG committees on Peripheral Cities, City Diplomacy, Urban Mobility and Urban Strategic Planning; and UCLG World Secretariat. [11]
Participatory democracy, participant democracy, participative democracy, or semi-direct democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected representatives. Elements of direct and representative democracy are combined in this model.
Governance is the overall complex system or framework of processes, functions, structures, rules, laws and norms borne out of the relationships, interactions, power dynamics and communication within an organized group of individuals which not only sets the boundaries of acceptable conduct and practices of different actors of the group and controls their decision-making processes through the creation and enforcement of rules and guidelines, but also manages, allocates and mobilizes relevant resources and capacities of different members and sets the overall direction of the group in order to effectively address its specific collective needs, problems and challenges. The concept of governance can be applied to social, political or economic entities such as a state and its government, a governed territory, a society, a community, a social group, a formal or informal organization, a corporation, a non-governmental organization, a non-profit organization, a project team, a market, a network or even the global stage. Governance can also pertain to a specific sector of activities such as land, environment, health, internet, security, etc. The degree of formality in governance depends on the internal rules of a given entity and its external interactions with similar entities. As such, governance may take many forms, driven by many different motivations and with many different results.
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows citizens or residents of a locality to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent.
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements and Sustainable Urban Development held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976. UN-Habitat maintains its headquarters at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, Kenya. It is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group. The mandate of UN-Habitat derives from the Habitat Agenda, adopted by the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996. The twin goals of the Habitat Agenda are adequate shelter for all and the development of sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world.
Multi-level governance is a term used to describe the way power is spread vertically between levels of government and horizontally across multiple quasi-government and non-governmental organizations and actors. This situation develops because countries have multiple levels of government including local, regional, state, national or federal, and many other organisations with interests in policy decisions and outcomes. International governance operates based on multi-level governance principles. Multi-level governance can be distinguished from multi-level government which is when different levels of government share or transfer responsibility amongst each other. Whereas multi-level governance analyses the relationship of different state levels and interaction with different types of actors.'
Public participation, also known as citizen participation or patient and public involvement, is the inclusion of the public in the activities of any organization or project. Public participation is similar to but more inclusive than stakeholder engagement.
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is the largest organisation of local and regional governments in Europe. Its members are 60 national associations of towns, municipalities and regions from 41 countries that are part of the Council of Europe. Together these associations represent about 130,000 local and regional authorities.
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is the pan-European political assembly representing local and regional authorities from the forty-six member states of the Council of Europe. Its role is to promote local and regional democracy, improve local and regional governance and strengthen authorities' self-government, according to the principles laid down in the European Charter of Local Self-Government. It is made up of two chambers, the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions and holds its plenary sessions twice a year at the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, where its permanent Secretariat is located.
United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is an umbrella international organisation for cities, local and regional governments, and municipal associations throughout the world that is concerned with representing and defending the interests of local governments on the world stage.
The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) is a global local government organisation, bringing together local authorities, their national associations and the ministries responsible for local government in the member countries of the Commonwealth. CLGF works with national and local governments to support the development of democratic values and good local governance and is the associated organisation officially recognised by Commonwealth Heads of Government as the representative body for local government in the Commonwealth.
The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights is an Argentine non-governmental human rights organization; founded in 1975. According to its official website the organization is the product of a "call from people coming from distinct areas: the church, politics, Human Rights, sciences, culture, and labour Argentines in response to the increasing violence and the collapse of the most elemental Human Rights in the country".
Patrick Braouezec is a member of the National Assembly of France. He is the current President of Plaine Commune metropolitan region and represents the Seine-Saint-Denis department and is a member of the Gauche démocrate et républicaine. Patrick Braouezec is also an active member of the world organization of local and regional governments United Cities and Local Governments, and is the acting co-chair its Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.
Culture 21, also known as Agenda 21 for culture, is a program for cultural governance developed in 2002–2004 and organized by United Cities and Local Governments.
The INGO Conference is the body representing civil society in the Council of Europe, a European organisation founded in 1949. The Council of Europe has 46 member states with some 800 million citizens and its seat is in Strasbourg, France. The current president is Gerhard Ermischer.
The Mediterranean Interregional Commission is one of the twelve Committees of the United Cities and Local Governments.
Alter-globalization is a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation and interaction, but oppose what they describe as the negative effects of economic globalization, considering it to often work to the detriment of, or to not adequately promote, human values such as environmental and climate protection, economic justice, labor protection, protection of indigenous cultures, peace and civil liberties. The movement is related to the global justice movement.
United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA) is one of nine regional sections of United Cities and Local Governments, with headquarters in Istanbul.
The World Forum for Democracy is a gathering each November in Strasbourg, France to debate the complex challenges facing democracies today and foster democratic innovation. The Forum is hosted by the Council of Europe and brings together members of civil society, political leaders and representatives of business, academia, media and professional groups. Past editions have revolved around themes such as "Bridging the gap: democracy between old models and new realities", "Re-wiring Democracy: connecting institutions and citizens in the digital age" and "From participation to influence: can youth revitalise democracy?".
A Human Rights City is a municipality that engages with human rights. There are other definitions of human rights city available which are more specific and look at the human rights city from a particular angle. One says that a Human Rights City is a municipality that refers explicitly to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards and/or law in their policies, statements, and programs. Another definition states that a Human Rights City is 'a city which is organised around norms and principles of human rights'. This sociological definition emphasises the Human Rights City as a process to which to a varying degree a variety of agents contribute: from activists, experts and academics to international organisations, state governments, and local authorities and officials. Also, this definition does not qualify human rights as international, based on the fact that cities sometimes articulate human rights in their own charters in ways that have no formal or immediate recognition in international law, and may anticipate their appropriation by international bodies and incorporation into international law. The author claims that this definition captures better the different ways in which cities engage with human rights and participate in their co-production, not simply as receivers but also agents of human rights.
Local citizenship is an emerging political approach to citizenship. Developed in particular by local civil society, human rights defenders and local governments, the main aim of this concept is to provide a framework to guarantee universal, non-discriminatory access to public services and full political and recognition of all inhabitants of a given urban territory, regardless of their administrative status.