Nantes Forum Calls for Greater Local Governance of Human Rights
HUMAN RIGHTS, LAW & JUSTICE, SOCIETY & CULTURE
Monday, July 21, 2008
At the Third World Forum on Human Rights, held in Nantes, France from June 30 – July 3, several key participants called for increased cooperation between international multilateral agencies, regional human rights organizations, and municipalities in the promotion of human rights. The forum ended with news that later this year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), several regional human rights organizations, and municipal authorities from around the world will adopt and pursue the implementation of a Global Charter-agenda of Human Rights in the City.
This “top-down” involvement of international multilateral agencies and regional human rights organizations has the potential of diluting national authority for the implementation of international human rights instruments.
In an attempt to augment the influence of local authorities on the international scene, Antonio Papisca, director of the UNESCO chair on Human Rights, Democracy and Peace in Italy, and Geneviève Sevrin, former president of Amnesty International France, stated that local governments need to be fully recognized as essential parts of the global governance process. In the view of the speakers, local governments can serve as role models to national governments and can thereby help make human rights credible at an international level. This allows international agencies and regional human rights organizations to bypass national governments and to form partnerships for the promotion and protection of human rights. Then, municipal authorities will be better able to put pressure on national governments to adopt “emerging” human rights that are not clearly defined in international law.
This year’s 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) provided forum participants with special impetus for bypassing national authorities when interpreting and applying international human rights instruments. Specifically, speakers stressed that the “theoretical” rights contained within the Declaration now need to be put into practice through implementation at the local level. According to Emmanuel Decaux, supplementary member of the Sub-Commission of Human Rights of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not directed at States, but towards individuals, and human rights are only effective when they are localized. Furthermore, local governments are equally as important as States in terms of enforcing the UDHR. While Mr. Papisca acknowledged that it is the role of States to develop a human rights framework, he asserted that local governments can and should be included in the decision-making process, because they will help citizens see these frameworks as tangible and credible.
In order to facilitate this local implementation and enforcement of human rights, UNESCO, along with several other organizations, is a participating member of the driving group which is working to create the Global Charter-agenda of Human Rights in the City. Several similar charters already exist at the local level (for example, the Montreal Charter and the European Charter); however, many now see the need to take these ideas to the universal level in order to make “virtual rights effective rights” by bringing them closer to the reality of individual citizens and providing a tangible action plan on how to implement them. Such a document would affect national sovereignty, as it would allow local entities to identify “emerging rights,” and would task local authorities with ensuring that basic rights are provided for each individual citizen.
While local governments are free to promote human rights within their jurisdictions, the question is whether UNESCO, NGOs and other international organizations should be working directly with municipal authorities, as some have maintained that this violates the sovereignty of the State governments that are parties to the governing human rights treaties. Impatient with the pace at which national governments are promoting and protecting human rights, UNESCO and others see the Global Charter as a vehicle for holding States and businesses accountable for human rights.
An initial draft text of the Global Charter is scheduled to be published in November 2008.
Jim Kelly is the President of Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, P.C., a public interest civil and human rights law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. The opinions expressed herein are his own.
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