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After the conferences in Barcelona (1998), Saint-Denis (2000), Venice (2002), Nuremburg (2004), Lyon (2006), and Geneva (2008), the Bosnian city of Tuzla will host the 7th Conference of the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City. On this occasion, the event is of twofold importance. First, because it ......
After the conferences in Barcelona (1998), Saint-Denis (2000), Venice (2002), Nuremburg (2004), Lyon (2006), and Geneva (2008), the Bosnian city of Tuzla will host the 7th Conference of the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City. On this occasion, the event is of twofold importance. First, because it will be celebrating 10 years of history of the Charter (Saint-Denis 2000) and second, because it will be the first time that the meeting will be held in a city in Eastern Europe.In a context of global crisis, the signatory cities to the European Charter will therefore meet from 7 to 9 October 2010 to deal with questions that are now vital, such as the need to promote peace and tolerance as a condition for overcoming any crisis or possible conflict, the importance of providing high quality public services and the urgent need to act in order to protect the environment. The city of Tuzla (with the essential support of the cities of Barcelona, Bobigny, Donostia/San Sebastián, Geneva, Ljubljana, Nantes and Saint-Denis) calls on the European authorities to support this process, which is taking place within the CSIPD.
The invitation to the Conference, the preliminary programme and registration form the can be viewed at:
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 The Local and Regional Leaders World Summit, which will be held in Mexico City from 17 to 20 November, will be preceded by a series of online debates on the website http://www.uclgcongress.com/. These forums are designed to provide local and regional authorities with a shared space where they ......
The Local and Regional Leaders World Summit, which will be held in Mexico City from 17 to 20 November, will be preceded by a series of online debates on the website http://www.uclgcongress.com/. These forums are designed to provide local and regional authorities with a shared space where they can engage in debate, share experiences and work together on the generation of new knowledge.
The forums will last one week and will cover some of the subjects that UCLG members have identified as priorities for the future international agenda of local and regional authorities, such as the promotion of innovation, new international governance, the city of 2030 and climate change. These forums will be active until the end of September.
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 The 2nd Forum of Peripheral Cities (FALP), held in Getafe between 10 and 12 June, brought together 600 mayors and elected representatives from thirty countries to debate how to construct solidarity-based, sustainable and democratic metropolises. Many round table discussions were held over the three days, dealing with issues as diverse as gender equality, metropolitan ......
The 2nd Forum of Peripheral Cities (FALP), held in Getafe between 10 and 12 June, brought together 600 mayors and elected representatives from thirty countries to debate how to construct solidarity-based, sustainable and democratic metropolises. Many round table discussions were held over the three days, dealing with issues as diverse as gender equality, metropolitan planning, recognition of suburban areas as poles of cultural innovation, decentralised cooperation between peripheral cities and the commitment to multiculturalism and participatory democracy.
In an extraordinarily urbanised world, in which cities have become mega-cities or have merged to form long urban corridors, peripheral cities demanded a role in the international scene.
Many suburban cities are advocates not only of the right to the city, but also of the right to inclusive metropolises, and met to express the need for metropolises to be structured with their outlying areas in order to create polycentric cities which ensure the equality of all those inhabiting them.
The next Forum of Peripheral Cities will take place in 4 years´ time. After two conferences in Europe (Nanterre and Getafe), the city scheduled to host the third FALP in Canoas, a city on the outskirts of Porto Alegre (Brazil). The conclusions of the 2nd FALP can be consulted at:
More information at: http://falp.getafe.es/
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 The first meeting of the Committee in 2010 took place in Getafe on 12 June in the framework of the 2nd FALP. The meeting was attended by more than 20 cities from all over the world, from Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, which worked together to construct the political foundations of the CSIPD for the period 2011 - 2013. The proposals arising ......
The first meeting of the Committee in 2010 took place in Getafe on 12 June in the framework of the 2nd FALP. The meeting was attended by more than 20 cities from all over the world, from Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, which worked together to construct the political foundations of the CSIPD for the period 2011 - 2013. The proposals arising from the meeting will be presented at the 3rd UCLG Congress (17 - 20 November 2010, in Mexico City), and essentially involve the configuration of the new governing structure of the CSIPD and future working plan.
The Getafe FALP hosted two other network meetings. First, there was a meeting of the Steering Group of the FAL Network, the objective of which was to debate the organisation of the next FAL, which will be held in Dakar in February 2011. And second, there was a meeting of the FAL member cities interested in creating a Network for human and gender emancipation, which led to a proposal for a draft International Declaration on the creation of the network.
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 Secretary-General of UN Ban Ki-moon nominated on the 23rd of August Joan Clos, former mayor of Barcelona, Spain, and one of the Founding Fathers of the World Organization, as the next head of the United Nations agency tasked with promoting environmentally and socially sustainable cities and towns, a key partner of UCLG on the international agenda. Elected by the ......
Secretary-General of UN Ban Ki-moon nominated on the 23rd of August Joan Clos, former mayor of Barcelona, Spain, and one of the Founding Fathers of the World Organization, as the next head of the United Nations agency tasked with promoting environmentally and socially sustainable cities and towns, a key partner of UCLG on the international agenda. Elected by the General Assembly, Joan Clos will serve as Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) for a four-year term starting on 18 October.
Joan Clos would succeed Anna Tibaijuka, who has headed UN-HABITAT in 2001 and has been an important ally for the cause of local authorities before the international community. Mr. Clos served as mayor of Barcelona from 1997 until 2006 and more recently he was industry, tourism and trade minister for Spain and then the country´s ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan.
The Presidency, World Secretariat and Members of United Cities of Local Governments, are thankful to Anna Tibaijuka for the work accomplished together allowing for a greater recognition of local and regional government on the international stage, and they celebrate the nomination of Joan Clos.
In the era of cities a former mayor will be leading the cities agenda of the UN. His nomination is an important sign of the progress by local authorities in the international arena and of the work that UCLG and its members are carrying out worldwide.
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 After more than 15 years of a worldwide campaign led by Bolivia, the United Nations recognised the right to drinkable water as a fundamental right. The resolution was adopted with 122 votes in favour and 41 abstentions at the UN General Assembly. This historic step voices deep concern on the 884 million people that do not have access to clean drinkable water and on the 2.6 billions inhabitants of the planet who have no access to basic sanitation. The resolution calls on the States and international organisations "to offer funding and technology to help poorer countries scale up their efforts to provide clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for everyone".
However, implementing this new human right also needs new governance practices that acknowledge the role of local governments in water supply and sanitation. From this standpoint is working the Committee of Social Inclusion and Participative Democracy of UCLG, as shows the draft World Charter-Agenda on Human rights in the City where the right to water is also recognised as a human right.
.jpg) From the 28th of June to the 1st of July, the city of Nantes hosted the fourth edition of the Global Forum on Human Rights in the City. The Forum, which was originally put forward by UNESCO, takes place every two years thanks to the support of the Greater Nantes Metropolitan agglomeration, the Loire Region, the county of Loire-Atlantique, and the city of Nantes, and has been under organization, since 2008, of the International Permanent Secretariat on ´Human Rights and Local Government´.
Focusing on the question "In a world in crisis, what about Human Rights?", the Forum featured around thirty round tables and gathered a record 2800 participants- the highest number in the history of the Forum. The message which featured throughout all the debates was that ´none of the economical, social, food related and environmental crises could justify drawbacks in the safeguarding of human rights around the world. Far from being inevitable, these crises force us to rethink the implementation of human rights and to imagine answers for the future´.
The local government representatives gathered at Nantes recalled the importance of the solidarity networks which are created or strengthened at each Forum, and highlighted the fundamental role played by cities in upholding human rights. This makes it all the more of a priority to support the network cooperation encouraged by the world organization of cities, UCLG, as well as projects as the Global Charter on Human Rights in the City.
The UCLG Committee for Social Inclusion and Participative Democracy (CSIPD) organized a number of activities as part of the fourth edition of the Forum : a debate on the Global Charter-Agenda on Human Rights in the City, a round table on the European Charter for Human Rights in the City, and a preparatory meeting for the upcoming conference on the European Charter, which will be held in the city of Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, from 7 to 9 October 2010.
On the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City
The Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City is a project supported by the UCLG Committee for Social Inclusion and Participative Democracy (CSIPD) and coordinated by the city of Nantes and the region of Pays de la Loire, whose aim is to encourage the implementation of local policy which supports human rights. Following a writing period (2007-8) and a participative debating period (2009-2010), the project shall enter the adoption and promotion phase following the III UCLG World Congress- the Local and Regional Leaders Summit, which will take place in Mexico City from 16-20 November 2010. The added value of the Charter-Agenda is that each of the Human Rights featured in the document is accompanied by an action plan which situates the actions of local governments with respect to the implementation of this right.
 The Second Forum of Local Authorities of the Periphery (FLAP) gathered, between 10 and 12 June in Getafe, 600 mayors and officials from around thirty countries, invited by the FLAP and the Committee of UCLG for Peripheral Cities. The mayor of Getafe, Pedro Castro, said during the presentation of the event that mayors from the five continents share "the space of peripheral cities which, being in the margin of cities, have less equipment, endowments, infrastructure and services."
"These are cities of metropolitan areas that have the same problems and seek the same solution, that is to say more integrated cities, more cohesive, who fights poverty and integrates innovation," he said.
The goal of the Forum, which was celebrated under the framework of the Spanish presidency of the European Union, is to agree for a commitment letter on the metropolis of solidarity, sustainable and democratic society, as recognized in the conclusions of the meetings and activities.
 The panel discussions focused on gender equality, metropolitan planning, recognition of the periphery as producers and innovative in the field of culture, participation and the involvement of adolescents and youth, culture of peace as a basis for coexistence, decentralized cooperation between the peripheries, the commitment to intercultural and participatory democracy.
The Committee of Peripheral Cities of UCLG brings together the members of the worldwide network "Cities in the periphery & participatory democracy". It shows the need for recognition of the social and political situations of peripheral cities within their conurbations and within the world of cities. It supports the construction of the engagement letter to be presented at the next World Congress of UCLG in Mexico.
 The CSIPD is making progress on the creation of the International Observatory on Local Social Inclusion Policies. The Observatory has 15 innovative policies available for consultation in Spanish, English and French on the Committee´s website.
By late 2010, it plans to have 50 more policies, from North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Africa, the Middle East - Western Asia and Asia Pacific. In this context, the CSIPD has recently called for all its member cities to send their most interesting policies before 9 April. The policies included in the Observatory will be selected based on various quality criteria drawn up by the CSIPD, which are available at: Quality criteria.
This second phase of gathering policies (the first was undertaken in 2007), aims to discover innovative experiences in the field of social inclusion that have been undertaken in sectors as diverse as public services, migrants, housing, gender, public transport, sustainable energies, fair trade, health, culture and urban planning. This is as well as the expansion of the Observatory to include areas already recorded in the 15 policy areas available to date, i.e. water and sewer systems, community development, eradication of poverty, the fight against racism, public participation, urban agriculture and social inclusion of young people.
An initial study will also be available at the end of the year, which will analyse the impact of public participation on the effectiveness of social inclusion policies. The new policies collected and this first study will be presented at the 3rd UCLG World Congress, which will be held in Mexico City on 20 November 2010.
 Between 22 and 26 March 2010, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) hosted the 5 World Urban Forum (WUF), an event that has been organised by the United Nations Habitat programme every two years since 2002. After Nairobi (2002), Barcelona (2004), Vancouver (2006) and Beijing (2008), this year´s WUF was based around "The right to the city: bridging the urban divide".
The CSIPD, and the "Human Rights and Local Governments" International Permanent Secretariat of Nantes-Pays de la Loire (SPIDH) organised a debate session on 24 March on "Local governments promoting the right to the city". The panel included representatives of local governments from Brazil, France and Spain, from the United Nations (UNESCO) and civil society organisations (HIC and COHRE). Two CSIPD member cities also participated in a session organised by UNESCO and UN HABITAT on "Inclusive cities for all: UNESCO, UN HABITAT and UCLG joint efforts". This activity took place on 23 March.
Other UCLG committees (Peripheral cities and Urban Strategic Planning) and networks such as the FAL and the IOPD also organised activities on the occasion of the 5 WUF.
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Comisión de Inclusión Social y Democracia Participativa
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