Isabella Meier
Moderator
The WUF12 theme is “It All Starts at Home: Local Actions for Sustainable Cities and Communities”. The proposed side event aims at recalling, addressing and discussing examples of human rights based local action. Various visions, strategies, approaches, innovations and good practices to localizing human rights for sustainable cities and communities will be exchanged among leaders, politicians, technical experts and civil society at the local, national and international level. The proposed session aims to be interactive: active participation of the audience in the discussion is encouraged.
A representative from each partner organization will present opening remarks (10 min)
Ms Fatimatou Abdel Malick, UCLG Africa President, Chair of the Gender Commission of UCLG (tbc)
Ms Angela Mwai, Chief, Human Rights and Social Inclusion Unit, UN-Habitat
Ms Therese Arnesen, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section, Chief of Economic, OHCHR
Ms. Isabella Meier, Senior Researcher UNESCO Centre
The opening remarks will be followed by a 70 minutes in-depth discussion among the panelists and between panelists and audience. The moderator will take the last 10 minutes to wrap up the key findings, lessons learned, and recommendations shared.
Interpretation will be provided based on sponsorship / fundings that will be mobilised.
• Showcase how human rights-based governance at local and regional levels is more effective and sustainable;
• Raise awareness on the relevance of human rights at local and regional levels;
• Demonstrate how human rights-based local budgeting contribute to more sustainable societies;
• Explain why gender justice is a human rights issue;
• Raise awareness on how mainstreaming human rights at local and regional levels contributes to the right to an adequate standard of living for all, especially persons in vulnerable situations such as women, older persons, youth, persons with disabilities, etc.
• Sharing of good practices (all speakers will be requested to highlight lessons learnt and good practices)
• Creation of a community of practice for human rights-based cities: Fostering increased engagement between human rights specialists/experts and urban professionals to maximize the mutually reinforcing benefits of sustainable urban development and the localization of human rights;
• Showcase the transformative impact of human rights-based approaches in sustainable and resilient urban development;
• Establish partnerships to address the global challenges and to implement the Global Agendas.