Montreal’s Human Rights Charter

As the recent Law & Society meeting in Minneapolis, I had the opportunity to learn about Montreal’s remarkable Charter of Rights and Responsibilities (MCRR), in force since January 1, 2006. A hat tip to Professor Benoit Frate for sharing information on this topic drawn from his work in progress on the Charter.

Explicitly referencing human rights norms, the MCRR was developed through an extensive public consultation process. It is the only such local human rights charter in Canada, and is more extensive than any local human rights provision in the U.S. UNESCO reports that it has no known equivalent.  

The MCRR addresses the main sectors of municipal activity: democracy, economic and social life, cultural life, recreation, physical activities and sports, environment and sustainable development, security and municipal services. It establishes the principle of collective rights and responsibilities of city residents. Though the Charter cannot be invoked in a court of law, it is binding on the City of Montreal, its elected officials and city employees.  The MCRR designates Montréal’s ombudsman to identify solutions when citizens and the city disagree on issues based on the Charter’s content; this is the only formal recourse available when citizens feel that the Charter has been violated.

Academic analysis of the MCRR has not yet been extensive, though Frate is working to change that. Currently, two of the most complete works are:

-Lucie Lamarche, ‘Economic and Social Rights and the Era of Governance and Governance Arrangements in Canada: the Need to Revisit the issue of the Implementation of International Law of Human Right’ in Chi Carmody and Valerie Oosterveld (eds.), Is Our House in Order? Canada’s Implementation of International Law (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010), pp. 115-140.

-Lucie Lamarche, ‘Le droit à la ville “Made in Québec”: un exercice de gouvernance marqué par le pragmatisme? Le cas de Montréal’ (2009) 5:1 Revue Gouvernance. Available at: http://www.revuegouvernance.ca/files/Spring2008/Lamarche.PDF

In addition to these academic writings, UNESCO and UN-Habitat published a report with some entries on the Charter. The City of Montreal also maintains a website dedicated to the Charter.

A review of the Ombudsman’s work provides a window into the MCRR’s effectiveness.  The Ombudsman maintains a website and also publishes annual reports.  According to the 2013 report, the Ombudman dealt with 55 complaints that invoked the Charter, out of more than a thousand complaints handled by the office during the year.  The MCRR complaints dealt with issues ranging from public participation in government, to nuisances, to protection of the urban forest. Frate reports that though the Ombudsman approach might seem a weak implementation mechanism, the Ombudsman has been able to build support for human rights and for the MCRR through savvy use of political capital. 

As more local governments in the U.S. consider adopting and implementing human rights norms on the local level, they should consider Montreal’s example.