The UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights participated recently in the 5th World Forum of Human Rights that took place in Nantes (France) from 22 to 25 May 2013.
In this context, the Committee organized a round table entitled: “The struggle against urban poverty: Cities policies and experiments answers for the economic crisis negative effects on disadvantaged communities”, witch counted with the participation of: Mr. Carlos Derman, Vice Mayor of Guarulhos, (Brazil), Ms. Pam McConnell, Municipal Councillor, Toronto (Canada), Mr. Xavier Cubells, Director of Civil Rights, Barcelona Town Council, Ms Clementina Berro, Project Officer, Italian Commission of United Cities (CICU) (Italy), Sr. François Duchamp, Program Officer - Childhood, UNICEF France – France, Ms. Patricia Huyghebaert, Program Officer – Citizenship and Social Policies Department, GRET (French NGO), and Mr. Marc Lévy, GRET Scientific Director, Mr Michele Grigolo, Researcher, Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra (Portugal), member of the scientific team of the Inclusive Cities Observatoryy of UCLG.
Click here to access round table program and document presentation
Since its creation in 2004 under the aegis of UNESCO, the Nantes Forum, which is held every two years, gathers key actors in the field of human rights (elected representatives, experts, civil society members, international organizations,…) with the objective of promoting a collaborative work aiming at the implementation of useful public policies designed for and with inhabitants.
Under the title of Sustainable development – Human Rights: a common struggle?, this edition gave the opportunity to address the relation between sustainable development and human rights laws, at almost a year after the Rio+20 international conference.
During the debates that took place, it was reaffirmed the need for a sustainable development that is respectful of human rights in order to ensure real social progress and a fair development of a strengthened democratic framework that reinforces the protective environment.
As well, it was underlined the role of local authorities to reach these objectives, particularly in this moment of economic, social and environmental crisis currently experienced today.
The topics of this fifth edition of the Forum were:
- What development and what economic model(s) for a more human and fairer world?
- What equality between human beings in time of crisis?
- What territories for tomorrow? Towards public policies based on human rights, full citizenship for all and reinforced democracy