EU Agency for Fundamental Rights

First stakeholder meeting on Connecting rights. A Joined-up Governance Approach to Fundamental Rights Implementation

Vienna, Austria, 1-2 June 2010

“The role of local and regional authorities in the implementation of human rights”

Speech by Lars O. Molin, Vice-President of the Institutional Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I wish to thank the organisers of this meeting for giving me the opportunity to present to you the position, and the planned action, of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe with regard to the human rights implementation.

The Congress is a fully-fledged stakeholder in this project, whose theme, “Connecting rights”, is very fitting to the situation at hand. Indeed, our understanding of what constitutes human rights has been evolving, and along with it our understanding of ways to protect and realise them. As a result, human rights today is a vast category – we can speak about civil and political rights, social and economic rights, cultural rights, the rights of the child, minority rights, the rights of vulnerable groups, and this list is growing. At the same time, the complexity of their realisation, which relates to different levels of governance, is also increasing and brings to the forefront the need to connect these various rights and their delivery into a single coherent approach, involving a multitude of actors.

We in the Congress are convinced that in order to define this approach, we should begin by looking at what constitutes the implementation of human rights. Because beyond legal texts, human rights are concrete, even if we often speak of them in abstract terms. And because human rights are concrete, so is their realisation, which takes place not in an abstract legal space but in a concrete environment where people live, work and interact – in the environment of our communities, of our towns, cities and regions.

This is why in the Congress, we have oriented the overall axis of our human rights action at creating an equal and sustainable environment in our communities, geared towards guaranteeing equal access to public services and to social rights such as housing, education and health care, ensuring non-discrimination, gender equality, protection of minorities and equal opportunities, and fostering integration and cohesion. This would mean an environment which integrates political, economic, social, ecological and cultural aspects of every-day life of our citizens, an environment in which they can exercise and realise their rights freely and to the full.

It was Eleanor Roosevelt that once said: “It is in the local community, close to the home … that people seek justice, equal opportunities and equal dignity without discrimination. If these rights have no significance there, then they are of no great importance anywhere else either.”

Indeed, local and regional authorities implement on a daily basis much of human rights principles and standards set out in international treaties, such as the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. However, usually we do not refer to social services, basic needs and services of general interest as human rights.

For example, the right to housing means building and maintaining proper places of living. The right not be discriminated against and be treated equally with other members of community means overcoming intolerance and eradicating prejudicial attitudes. The rights to have access to public services, to employment, to education, to health care all imply the direct involvement of local authorities. I could also add the whole panoply of social rights or economic rights linked to employment and work conditions, which have to be enforced at local level.

As competences of local authorities enlarge, so do their responsibilities in terms of human rights protection and advancement. The exercise by citizens of their rights begins and is felt most in our communities, which is why we say that local authorities are the first line of defence of human rights but also the launching pad for their realisation. All human beings are bearers of human rights regardless of their legal status as non-citizens, refugees, migrants or foreign residents, regardless of whether they are women, children, elderly or disabled, regardless of their religion, ethnic background, political views or sexual orientation. In the eyes of local authorities, they are – they must be, in any case – equal members of the community.

Today, it is important for governments to recognise that the national level is not the only deliverer of human rights, and that local and regional authorities must have the independence and autonomy to make decisions in response to the needs of their communities, within the law but free from undue control from the centre. In fact, this independence is guaranteed by the European Charter of Local Self-Government, this cornerstone treaty for local democracy, adopted by the Council of Europe twenty-five years ago. It stems from the fact that local self-government is a fundamental political right in itself, which must also be recognised and protected at the national level.

We must admit that the situation has been changing in the right direction. Over recent years, there has been growing ambition to fulfil the implementation of human rights at local level, and national legislation has often given the responsibility for managing those rights to local and regional authorities. However, while some of their responsibilities in this field have been indeed delegated by the national government, some others follow directly from the principles of local and regional self-government, from the right of territorial authorities to organise their responsibilities in the most functional way. Thus, local or regional authorities are not only “agents” of central government – they have their own responsibilities to manage human rights on the same basis as central government will have the main responsibility for implementing human rights treaties.

There is also a growing recognition of the strong interrelationship between local governance, human rights and democracy. The balance between the delivery of human rights on the one hand, and local or regional self-government on the other hand is crucial to democracy. No human rights can be achieved without democracy, and no “real” democracy can be achieved without respect for human rights. At the same time, there is no real democracy without local democracy, and if human rights are not respected in everyday life, they never will be respected. It means that there is no conflict between the delivery of human rights and local self-government.

Quite the opposite. Today, our democratic system is based on our deeply-held conviction that effective democracy and good governance at all levels are essential for creating sustainable societies where people can enjoy a good quality of life and effective participation. Unconditional compliance with fundamental rights is a sine qua non of good governance, including at local and regional level. In other words, there is no good governance and no democracy without compliance with human rights. This interdependence means that respecting human rights also adds to the importance of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

At the same time, in addition to the recognition of their role by national governments, local and regional authorities themselves must be aware of their duties in the human rights implementation. After all, they bear the primary responsibility for implementing human rights policies and strategies in their communities, tailoring them to the specific situations on the ground and to the needs of their citizens, and taking concrete steps for improving citizens’ daily lives. Raising their awareness of their rights, duties and means in this field is our overarching task.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

These considerations compelled the Congress to introduce the implementation of human rights at local and regional level as a new dimension of its work. The Congress is a representative body of more than 200,000 territorial communities in 47 European countries, and the only institution legally tasked with monitoring the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government – and thus the development of local and regional democracy on our continent. This makes the Congress best placed to watch over the delivery of human rights in our communities, to make local and regional authorities aware of their responsibilities for implementing human rights, and to ensure that our communities are providing the same protection to all their residents.

Drawing on its pan-European dimension, the Congress also serves as a forum for an exchange of ideas and proposals, for sharing experiences and best practices, and recommending them to other communities – in other words, as a launching pad for pan-European action on human rights at local and regional level. This makes our action on human rights key to complementing the policies and strategies at national and European level.

The human rights dimension of the work of local and regional authorities has been an important issue on the political agenda of the Congress, and has recently resulted in the report on the role of territorial authorities in the human rights implementation, for which I was responsible.

The Congress debated the report in March this year, and adopted a resolution and a recommendation, deciding on several key points.

First, promoting and protecting human rights is a responsibility shared by all the tiers of governance but it is in regions and cities that human rights need to be nurtured, and local and regional authorities have a key role to play in their day-to-day application. Second, they must set up structures and procedures to monitor and improve human rights situations, in particular in providing public services. Third, the structure of the Council of Europe provides scope for a multi-level approach to human rights, and the Congress can make an invaluable contribution to the pooling of information and experience, recording of good practices and raising awareness about human rights issues. Finally, national governments must encourage and support local and regional action on human rights, in particular their monitoring and systematic implementation.

But most importantly, we have proposed an action plan. The Congress called on local and regional authorities to implement a number of measures, dealing with the elaboration of indicators to gauge the fulfilment of human rights, as well as action plans, and budgeting of human rights action; setting up of independent complaints mechanisms at local level; human rights training for elected representatives and their staff; as well as guarantees of equal access to public services, and a system of their quality control.

Last but not least, the Congress decided to include the human rights implementation as an integral part of its monitoring process, an activity which in itself has been expanded to 15 monitoring missions this year alone.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before describing in greater detail the action plan proposed in the report, I would like first to recall several events which prompted its elaboration. In this regard, I am particularly proud to say that the government of Sweden, my native country, has been very active recently in bringing the issue of the human rights implementation to the top of the agenda of European governments.

The start was the Council of Europe Forum for the Future of Democracy, organised in Stockholm and Sigtuna in June 2007, which had as its central theme “Interdependence of democracy and human rights, including at local and regional level”. This Forum affirmed that democracy and human rights are interdependent and that the development of local democracy, as the cornerstone of democracy itself, must be considered as both a tool and a core objective of all countries in their efforts to improve the implementation of human rights in our societies. To strengthen human rights in Europe, local and regional authorities could play a more important role within their countries, engaging in action plans for human rights and elaborating indicators to monitor their implementation.

The Forum gave a major boost to our action, serving as a kind of “second wind” to reinvigorate one of the core dimensions of the Council of Europe, which is the realisation of human rights. It was followed, during the Swedish Presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in 2008, by the seminar on the systematic work for human rights implementation at local and regional level, and then by the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers on the same subject, both held in Stockholm. The Congress sent large delegations to these events and contributed with a report by Keith Whitmore, who is currently President of the Congress’ Institutional Committee.

During the seminar in October, organised by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions in co-operation with the Council of Europe, the participants stressed in particular that one important and practical means of targeting our action and combining measures to promote human rights at local level was through local action plans comprising packages of such measures, activities and specific projects in a given area. Taken together, these action plans can form a political action programme for fostering human rights in a given municipality or region. I should mention here a particular close involvement in this seminar of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Thomas Hammarberg, with whom we intend to pursue and intensify our co-operation.

 

The participants of the seminar adopted the Final Declaration, which served as a Congress contribution to the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers, held also in Stockholm in November 2008. This Declaration places particular emphasis on the need for a systematic approach to our work because human rights protection mechanisms which are tied together into a system – like the European system, centring on the European Court of Human Rights – cannot be made to last unless they are fuelled by constant activity, which in itself becomes part of the system.

The Declaration, transmitted to the Ministers, called on national governments in particular:

To make local and regional authorities aware of their responsibilities regarding human rights’ implementation and also aware of the possibilities which rights-based governance offers;

To actively involve civil society in human rights planning and implementation at all levels;

To encourage local and regional authorities to promote the respect for human rights through awareness-raising campaigns and through local and regional action plans;

To ensure that local and regional authorities guarantee equal access to public services for all without discrimination towards any individual, and the preservation of their social rights;

To make sure that local and regional authorities act in full compliance with fundamental rights, in particular in the area of data protection;

To promote and support the establishment and development of good methods of implementation, such as independent ombudsmen or human rights co-ordinators, at local and regional level;

To ensure that, in the implementation of the European Strategy on Innovation and Good Governance at local level, adopted by the Council of Europe, the inherent human rights dimension is effectively taken into account;

To create appropriate structures or procedures to facilitate effective monitoring and remedy of cases where fundamental rights are not fully respected in the delivery of local public services;

To foster respect for human rights through systematic training of local authorities elected representatives and staff, as well as of independent monitoring bodies, to make them aware of their responsibilities regarding compliance with human rights.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The report on the role of territorial authorities in the human rights implementation integrated the results of our work done so far, including the results of the three events organised in Sweden which I have just mentioned. The report offered an analysis focusing on three aspects of implementing the rights: the balance of ensuring fundamental rights and honouring local self-governance, the variety of rights, and the challenge to find good methods for implementation.

To begin with, we need to identify which rights we are talking about. Some rights serve as a basis for others, applicable to all individuals regardless of nationality, while some should by necessity be treated as based in their economic and cultural environment (like “newer” socio-economic rights).

Local and regional authorities have varying degrees of responsibility depending on which rights and which areas affecting their citizens they are dealing with: whether they are dealing with refugees, racial discrimination or sexual intolerance; the right to the opportunity to work and to obtain employment free from prejudice and discrimination; the right to a decent home without undue restrictions; the right for children to be educated; the right to a good health care; or  the right of different nationalities and religions within our communities to be given the same opportunities as indigenous citizens as well as the tools to enable them to take up those rights.

So, which are these rights? Some rights, like freedom from racial discrimination are protected by law and upheld by the European Court of Human Rights. They are not subject to negotiations. Civil and political rights and freedoms relate mainly to the state. Individuals also have economic and social rights, stemming from the solidarity between citizens. Those rights must be interpreted by the member state, being committed to do its outmost to comply with the Convention. The right to adequate housing, for example, might be fully established even if the standard is a “variable geometry” between member countries. It may even differ within a country. If the national level decides the minimum standard, then decision-making at local level might balance individual rights and local priorities. The challenge of giving everyone at least the national standard may be solved by a system of equalization.

Then, there is an issue of the welfare part of the local and regional responsibility. In a civilized society, social welfare places a significant role in recognizing the support required to disadvantaged groups such as disabled, ethnic minorities, sexually discriminated against persons, young children and older people. Local and regional authorities have direct responsibilities in these areas and in particular in enabling members of these groups to become full participatory and respected members of society.  

There is also a question of the costs of human rights, which are not easy to calculate. Respecting freedoms or delivering social services in a way that respects human rights might not involve any additional costs other than administrative readjustment of procedures and training. But special support for sick or elderly people might result in additional economic pressure. In this context, Article 9.1 of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, guaranteeing adequate financial resources to local authorities, is of crucial importance and must always be respected. Negotiations between the stakeholders of different levels of society are also a good way of achieving a reliable result. They are the nexus between the human rights and the right to local self-government. Also, not complying with human rights may cost even more. Those costs are not only economic and social but also political.

Finally, the report addressed the question of methods for human rights implementation, including the needs of awareness-raising, pro-active approach, exchanges of experience and human rights mainstreaming. They all are building blocks of the action plan which we propose and which concerns both individual municipalities and the Congress itself.

What are the main lines of this action plan?

The first is training, awareness-raising, benchmarking and setting up an independent complaints’ mechanism.

Local and regional elected representatives and their staff should be trained to respect human rights. Better awareness results in better governance and there is much to be gained by this. When people feel confident having their rights seen, and if possible fulfilled, their trust for society may grow. Democracy requires a ceaseless communication between elected representatives and their voters.

There is no standard solution for implementing human rights. We need a tool-kit of methods available, adapting them to local circumstances. Exchange of good practices is a key to success. The Congress has a significant role to play as a mediator of successful experiences.

In order to promote good practice and avoid mistakes, human rights should be integrated into ordinary work of public administration, budgets and service delivery. National action plans and indicators must be drafted in co-operation with the local and regional level. This is a responsibility for the member states and for Congress. A systematic multi-level dialogue must be encouraged between levels of society.

If things go wrong, citizens must have recourse to an independent complaints’ mechanism at local or regional level. It may take different forms - an ombudsperson (local or regional, national or thematic, decentralized from the national level), a consumer complaints’ board, patient injury board or anti-discrimination agency. Civil society organizations should also be involved as far as possible, and even private institutions advocating and promoting human rights may be used. Our inhabitants must have sufficient support and advice to exercise their rights. This means lessening the burden of the national court system and ultimately the Court in Strasbourg.

In this regard, the Congress is launching another initiative, that of building a network of local and regional human rights ombudsmen. Their role as trusted mediators between authorities and citizens is extremely important and was also discussed by the Congress in March. We intend to pursue this initiative in close co-operation with the International Ombudsman Institute and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

The second main line is monitoring.

Each delegation who goes on monitoring visits should take the human rights perspective into consideration. Human rights should be made an indicator when monitoring the European Charter of Local Self-Government. In addition to this, the Congress should prepare on a regular basis a special report on the human rights situation at local and regional level in the Council of Europe member states. This gives substance to an important topical debate that can be linked to those of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers and that of the Parliamentary Assembly.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is clear that implementing such measures and action plans is a major challenge for local and regional elected representatives. It is a challenge because this is a political commitment which must be backed up by the necessary legal skills, financial resources and co-ordination with other stakeholders. This, in turn, entails the involvement of all tiers of governance, and their concerted efforts.

Among limitations faced by local authorities in carrying out their work in favour of human rights I would list, first and foremost, limitations on their legal competences and the scope of their application. The legal framework delineating the distribution of responsibilities between national, regional and local authorities is specific in every country, but this is where boundaries are established on what local elected representatives can do.

These legal limitations go hand in hand with the adequacy or not of financial means and possibilities with which local authorities are endowed and which should correspond, ideally and as required by the European Charter of Local Self-Government, to the competences transferred to the local level. Adequate financial and human resources are essential for the implementation of specific measures, initiatives and projects, which is why – I should stress in this context – political and financial support from national governments is crucial for the success of our human rights action in communities. It is also of paramount importance to join and coordinate our efforts with all other stakeholders involved in human rights issues – private sector and civil society across the board, and the regional, national and international level on the bottom-to-top ladder.

Last but not least, I would also underline the importance of professional qualifications of elected representatives and their staff, which should match today’s human rights requirements – including the knowledge of legal frameworks – and responsibilities allocated to the local level. This highlights, once again, the need for effective human rights training.

Needless to say, in our work at the Congress we welcome and take on board all innovative ideas and action at territorial level, aimed at building an environment in our cities and our regions which would be conducive to the full realisation of human rights and their protection. These ideas are coming to us from particular communities or their networks with which we maintain close cooperation – such as Cities for Human Rights, Cities for Children, the Berlin Process for integrated youth policies in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods, or Cities for Local Integration Policy (CLIP), which is dealing with the working and living conditions of migrants and their integration into our communities.

These municipal networks play a key role as generators of ideas, catalysts for positive change and a tool for pooling resources to advance proposals and implement measures in specific areas of community life.

But first and foremost, we need to reach out to our institutional partners, stakeholders like all of us present here. Connecting rights also means connecting our action on human rights, which is the main objective of this meeting.

Within the Council of Europe, the Congress will be “connecting” its action with that of the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Conference of international NGOs.

In fact, refocusing the Council of Europe on its core objectives of democracy and human rights, a better targeting of its action and making it more efficient and more relevant to the needs and expectations of our citizens are also among the key objectives of the current reform of this Organisation, launched by its Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland. As an integral part of the Council of Europe, the Congress is pursuing its own reform process, and our report on the human rights implementation follows this logic. Together with other recent steps, expanding monitoring activities and adding the human rights dimension are essential elements of this reform and the redefined priorities of the Congress.

Outside the Council, we need to join forces with the EU Committee of the Regions and other European organisations and networks of local and regional authorities. In this regard, a speedy accession by the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights is crucial, as a vital element for a joined-up approach to the human rights implementation across our continent.

This is why this first meeting is so important. This is the first step in this direction, in defining a joined-up approach, in connecting our action. Rest assured that the Congress is your committed partner in this endeavour.

Thank you.