We live in a world without moral boarders. Many of us who are engaged in interdisciplinary analysis combined with social activism have abandoned (or never fully held) the holistic approach in assessing symptoms and causes, urgencies and/or long term solutions theoretically or practically to this challenging development. It is not often that the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of human rights concerns becomes part of a genuine systemic analysis that which stands to avail us with the necessary compass for real economic and social transformation. Yet the increasing complexity of the world demands this holistic response to its many challenges. .
Many around the globe whose rights are not actively protected become vulnerable to the three ‘Ps’: Patriarchy, Power and Politics. What is most disheartening is the lack of an ongoing dialogue throughout all sectors of society about human rights. We, who are facilitating learning processes at the community-level speak of developing human rights cities through learning human rights as a way of life. In 20 years of working around the world, I have witnessed first-hand how the vision and mission of human rights answers the dreams, hopes and expectation of humanity; moving charity to dignity.
This work describes succinctly the purpose, the processes, and the phenomena of social structures as understood by the framers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They give credibility to people’s own hopes, their values, their dignity and made the promise for human rights to serve humanity. Indeed, the holistic human rights framework guides communities into a journey of hope that informs societal development and positive change towards economic and social justice and the closing of the widening gap of dignity around the world.
More than two billion people live in cities today. Cities are a microcosm of a state with all its promises and concerns. Four billion people will live in cities within 15 to 20 years. With the multitudes of people and issues interacting and interrelating there are no inherent knowledge, support systems, or guidance of how to live with one another in dignity and how practically to abide by moral values in today’s fast-changing and harsh world. The multiple and pluralist realities of people in the information age and the growing number of people of which 50% are under 25 years old need urgently to be attended to, morally and politically. Scientist and researchers devoting their lives to learn, analyze and understand societies must learn human rights and bring the message to a world that is yearning for change.
To move from the vision to a practical mission that enables people to belong in community in dignity, in trust and respect with others, a new phenomenon has begun to take form, in some cities in Latin America, Africa and recently in the US. Community activists working alongside local authorities are developing programs that will have their citizens learn, know and own human rights and take actions to change their lives guided by the human rights framework. Certain cities have chosen to call themselves ‘Human Rights Cities’ when they aspire to become centers for knowledge. These cities encourage their citizens to work together to build communities based on economic and social justice, equality and non-discrimination; realizing that we have no other option but human rights as a way of life.
In human rights cities, we remind ourselves what a true human rights educator is: a person, a woman or a man, who is capable of evoking systemic analysis and critical thinking, at the community level, guided by the fully comprehensive human rights framework that leads to action. This is a tall order both for the educator and the learner. Yet the call of Nelson Mandela to develop a new political culture based on human rights is being investigated and implemented by, for and with the people as they become mentors and monitors in a human rights city.
The assumptions being made in developing human rights cities are:
• every woman, man, youth and child knows when injustice and/or justice are present;
• every human being expects to live in dignity and away from humiliation;
• the holistic human rights framework provides a viable guideline for economic, societal and human development;
• millions of people will be born and die and will never know that they are owners of human rights which they can claim as their own to break through the vicious cycle of humiliation;
• human rights represent not only a litany of their violations but strategies for social and economic development;
• people belong in dignity in community with others, women and men alike;
• if we are to achieve economic and social justice no one human right can violate another and all conflicts must be solved within the human rights framework;
• democracy, to be true to its mission, must be a delivery system of human rights to all, in full equality and without discrimination;
• people can move power to human rights – moving from patriarchal verticality to human rights horizontality.
In a human rights city people consciously internalize and socialize to overcome fear and impoverishment. The city provides human security, access to food, housing, education, health care and work at liveable wages, sharing these resources with all citizens, not as a gift, but as the realisation of human rights. A human rights city is a practical, viable model that demonstrates that developing and living in such a society is possible. Often joined by the local authorities and law enforcement agencies, residents work together with a wide array of stakeholders and organizations to devise and design a dialogue and learning programs in the neighbourhoods. The purpose of these is to instil a sense of ownership of human rights as a way of life as relevant to people’s concerns. The city, its institutions, and its residents, as a complex social economic and political entity, becomes e a model for citizens’ participation in their social, economic, and cultural development. This process leads to the mapping and analysis of causes and symptoms of violations such as poverty and patriarchy and work to design ways and means to achieve the well-being of every person in their city.
As human rights are realized, people no longer live in fear and desperation so conflict is often avoided altogether. Appropriate conflict resolution is an inevitable consequence of the learning process as women and men work to secure the sustainability of their community as a viable, creative, caring society.
Steering committees in human rights cities representing public sector employees, religious groups, NGOs and community groups, community activists working on the issues of women, children, workers, indigenous peoples, poverty, education, food, housing, healthcare, environment and conflict resolution, and all other non-affiliated inhabitants. These committees work together to design the process of learning and reflecting about the ownership of human rights as significant to the decision-making process. Together they design actions that ensure that democracy abides by human rights principles, norms and standards, and that these are integrated in the policies that guide the life of the city. They work to strengthen activities that ensure community development and accountability. Individuals and groups take part in the action – every citizen is considered a creative partner of sustainable change. And, as they identify needs, they adopt this inclusive framework, giving momentum to attain a better life for future generations.
After learning about the various human rights treaties that their government have ratified, an analysis with a human rights perspective would examine:
• The laws of the city. Do these abide by human rights?
• The policies that guide the life of the city. Are they guided by the obligations undertaken and commitments made?
• The relationships in the city, in the community and with the authorities. Are they developing a community guided by the human rights’ principles?
To achieve these goals the democratic committees create a vertical and horizontal progressive learning process. Step by step, neighbourhoods, schools, political, economic and social institutions, and NGOs, examine the human-rights framework relating it to their traditional beliefs, collective memory and aspirations with regard to environmental, economic and social justice issues and concerns. As agents of change, they learn to identify, mentor, monitor and document their needs and engage in one of the most important actions in the city: developing alternative participatory budgets progressively to realise the human rights needs of the community, thus moving power to human rights.
It is important to note that human rights learning and socialization highlights the normative and empirical power of human rights as a tool in individual and collective efforts to address inequalities, injustices and abuses at home, in the workplace, in the streets, prisons, courts, and more. Even in recognized democracies, citizens and policy makers must learn to understand human rights and the obligations and the responsibilities they represent in a holistic and comprehensive way. In human rights cities people learn to enforce human rights effectively. As an integral part of social responsibility citizens can demand that their cities ratify various human rights covenants and conventions to accordingly scrutinize domestic laws, policies, resources and relationships.
Finally, it must be noted that the human rights cities are not an urban nor a uptopian agenda. Cities are microcosms of states. And as with the state, the city and its institutions are complex social, economic and political entities. All the usual day-to-day economic problems, societal dilemmas and stressful issues of inequality, discrimination, violence and poverty that are present in a state are present in cities with greater intensity.
In summary, it is evident that all political, civil, economic, social, and cultural human rights concerns for which human rights norms and standards have been elaborated are present in the life of the city. Social responsibility is a major result of these activities where people own and claim their human rights and those of others, within their social and economic realities. And most importantly, people will experience the power that grows from the knowledge that each individual can make a difference.
This is not about Utopia. This is about hope! A new understanding of human rights to can change the world.
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