World Movement for Democracy 8th Assembly
Workshop Session A – No. 7: How Can Local Governments Provide Space for Democratic Development and Protection of Human Rights?
10:15 to 13:15, 2 November (Monday) 2015
Seoul, South Korea
- Organizer : Korea Human Rights Foundation (KHRF), Korea
- Supported by the Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
- Time: 10:15 to 13:15 on 2 November (Monday) 2015
- Languages : English, French, Korean, Spanish
- Key organizer : Anselmo Lee, Executive Director, Korea Human Rights Foundation (KHRF)
- Rapporteur Sooyun Suh, Coordinator, Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
Outline
The Workshop on Local Democracy under the theme “How Can Local Governments Provide Space for Democratic Development and Protection of Human Rights?” aims to address emerging opportunities and challenges facing local government and cities in their efforts to provide space for democratic development and human rights promotion.
Sharing and interactive dialogue among speakers and particiapnts will be conducted against the global trends and processes related to local democracy such the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development known as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), specially goal no 11 – Make Cities and Human Settlement more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, UN HABITAT III (Ecuador, Oct. 2016) and UN Human Rights Council report on Local Government and Human Rights (A/HRC/30/49).
Several speakers from Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Moldova, Indonesia, Mongolia and South Korea will share their concrete experiences of promoting local democracy or governance and human rights in different contexts.
* Reference documents
① Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), specially goal No 11 – Make Cities and Human Settlement more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. (25 Sept. 2015)
② Localizing the Post-2015 Development Agenda, UNDG (Oct. 2014)
③ UN HABITAT III (Quito, Ecuador, 17-20 Oct. 2016)
http://unhabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Habitat-III-Roadmap6.pdf
④ UN Human Rights Council report on Local Government and Human Rights (A/HRC/30/49).
⑤ Gwangju Guiding Principles for Human Rights City, Gwangju World Human Rights Cities Forum (WHRCF) (adopted on 17 May 2013) www.whrcf.org
⑥ State of Local Democracy Assessment Framework IDEA (Dec. 2013) http://www.idea.int/publications/sold-assessment-framework/index.cfm
Guiding questions
1) How has your project or activity contributed to the promotion of democracy and human rights at the local level?
2) What are pressing challenges you have been facing?
3) What are the lessons learnt to share with other local democracy advocates?
4) How we can promote democracy and human rights at the local level through international networking and advocacy at the forthcoming international meetings (e.g. HABITAT-III) and mechanisms (e.g. SDGs)
Presenters
- * Saudi Arabia – Jafar Alshayeb, Municipal Council of Qatif on “Breaking the Barriers around Municipal Councils”
- * Argentina – Sueiras Diego, Fundación Nueva Generación Argentina on “Vecinales y organizaciones de base: acercando el Estado al ciudadano” (Neighborhoods and grassroot organizations: bringing closer the State to the Citizen)
- * Moldova – Manole Olga, Promo-LEX Association on “Promoting local democracy and human rights in Moldova”
- * Q and A, and Discussion
- * Mongolia – Tur-Od Lkhagvajav, Mongolian Democracy Foundation on “How can Local Democracy foster Municipal Development: Mongolia Experience”
- * Indonesia – Mugiyanto, International Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) on “Ensuring Human Rights by Local Government; Initiatives and Challenges”
- * India – Kaustuv Bandyopadhyay, Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) on “Making Local Governance Institutions Accountable”
- * South Korea – Sooa Kim, Human Rights Office, Gwangju Metropolitan City on “Challenges to Gwangju Toward Solidarity Among Human Rights Cities”
- * Q and A, and Discussion
