Many eminent personalities have taken part in this event from different backgrounds: political, scientific, and cultural as well as advocates for Human Rights. In fact, they all gathered in Marrakesh to assess the situation of Human Rights across the world. More than 4000 participants attended the various activities, proposed by the forum organizers, such as special events, workshops, theme forums…
UCLG Africa Secretariat, represented by Mr. Lionel Nzamba, was invited to take part in the theme forum “ City and Human Rights”, organized by the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) on 28 November 2014. Experts from UN Habitat, Human Rights Watch-Brazil, representatives from the Ministries of Interior, Finances and Habitat as well as a representative from Ottignies City, Belgium, got together during this meeting.
The meeting was focused on the exchange and sharing of experiences, breakthroughs and hitches related to Human Rights protection and implementation within the city.
At first, the talks allowed the general framing of the discussions in order to better encompass the “Human Rights in the City” problematic. UCLG Africa representative highlighted, during his intervention, the necessity to preserve the identity of the cities to assure a better protection of the citizens and a resilience for cities facing big issues and challenges (such as Urbanization and Globalization). The speakers then oriented their interventions toward the participative approach in the conception of public policies and insisted on the “smart and connected cities” concept as a mean to engage the citizen in the future of his/her city.
Then, the floor was given to the audience to participate in the debate, in this case, elected representatives, NGOS and particularly women who have articulated their expectations and shared their diverse experiences of innovative initiatives. This theme forum led to the formulation of recommendations to the attention of States and International Institutions.