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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