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Human Rights at Home Blog
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Global Human Rights: Insights from Across the Pond

By humanrightsathome

At a time when the US federal government is not only stepping back from, but redefining the meaning of human rights, US cities are critical partners in advocating for continued realization of rights nationwide.  Self-proclaimed “Human rights cities” are particularly well situated to take a leadership role.  In the US, human rights cities include Washington, D.C., Boston, Pittsburgh, Eugene Oregon, and Mountain View, California, among others.

But having embraced human rights as a goal, some US cities and local advocates have struggled to develop meaningful next steps.

A new article in the Political Quarterly by scholars/activists Paul Gready and Liz Lockey may provide some guidance.  Working in York, the first human rights city in the UK, Gready and Lockey provide an insiders guide, spelling out their “lessons learned” in the article titled “Rethinking Human Rights in York as a Human Rights City.” 

Law profs may be chagrined to see that one of the early missteps the authors identify was that York activists approached human rights too much from a legal perspective.  Still, it’s an important reminder that human rights is not only law, but also a social framework for local interactions of all kinds.  

Here’s the authors’ abstract:

“Human rights is in crisis in the UK. It lacks significant political backing and public support. This ‘insider account’ of York becoming a human rights city suggests that there is a need to rethink approaches to human rights. The article looks at the strategies adopted in the city; the annual city‐based indicator report which provides the key reference point for all local activities; and the declaration of York as a ‘human rights city’ in 2017 alongside its subsequent impact. The discussion is linked to two debates within human rights: how to define and build a culture of human rights, and what it means for human rights to be truly relevant at a local level. The new approach advocated can be summarised as participatory, locally informed, and related to everyday concerns.”