The plenary session of the 9TH World Human Rights Cities Forum will be an opportunity to review the principles of practices for human rights cities and discuss innovative ways of promoting human rights cities internationally. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Cities and Local Governments Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (UCLG-CSIPDHR), and representatives of human rights cities around the world will take part. The target is for responsible bodies to reaffirm the values and norms that human rights cities should aspire to, and to redesign the future of human rights cities. To this end, the plenary session has two areas of focus.

Plenary Session I will handle the theme of “local governments and human rights” with the participation of representatives of major human rights cities worldwide with experiences of establishing human rights policies and designing human rights city. Shared experiences of human rights practice will be used to examine some of the issues faced by regions and local governments, with new measures mapped out to strengthen human rights systems. Discussions will consider ways for local communities to participate in the planning and implementation of human rights.

A human rights city is a goal to be pursued by the local community, and an unending process to protect and promote human rights. It also has to be shown in such diverse ways considering specific human rights situations and regional challenges. However, the principle of being a human rights city has to be more apparent. It is an in-depth conversation between central governments, local governments, civil society, and international organizations, requiring their joint cooperation. The plenary session will provide creativity and a lively discussion of human rights cities. This will be a further opportunity to expand the human rights cities movement worldwide.

Reinventing the Future of Global Movement of Human Rights Cities - Common Strategies and Partnerships
This session aims to develop a common response and strategy for an integrated local approach to human rights in global agendas. It will address the OHCHR report on “Local Government and Human Rights” (A/HRC/42/22) presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Sept. 2019 specially its recommendations, and draft framework for 2030 Agenda for Human Rights City. It will call on different stakeholders – from local government to international organizations, civil society and researchers – to think of different ways that help maximize local government impact over international human rights and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as to support local governments to integrate recommendations made by human rights mechanisms and vice-versa

“Bringing human rights home” - Local Challenges and Opportunities
This session will showcase the existing diversity of challenges and initiatives related to human rights across the world – be it in terms of capacities, regional contexts or approaches to local policy-making. It will do so from a “bottom-up” perspective; that is, by exploring the challenges and thematic areas that are central to this debate from a local government point of view, as well as several practices for human rights protection and promotion. It will also consider the contributions from civil society and international partners.