Responding to Globalization and Urban Conflict: Human Rights City Initiatives

Abstract

Expanding globalization and urbanization have intensified the threats to human rights for many vulnerable groups and have restricted resources available to the primary guarantors of these rights—local authorities. Human rights cities initiatives are bottom-up efforts to advance human rights implementation in local contexts. They are emerging around the world in response to the global pressures on cities that intensify urban inequality and conflict. In this article I discuss how global changes are impacting cities and their abilities to protect the basic rights of residents. I then discuss the human rights cities model as a strategic response of social movements to secure people’s basic needs and strengthen local mechanisms for addressing social conflicts. I provide detailed analysis based on participatory research with Pittsburgh’s Human Rights City Alliance between 2013 and 2016. Drawing from literature on international peacebuilding, I argue that human rights cities are an emergent model of peacebuilding and governance that can guide policy and planning at multiple levels. Human rights movements are challenging neoliberal globalization’s emphasis on economic growth and putting forward frameworks that prioritize the needs of people and communities. In their appeals to international human rights norms, human rights cities advocates both advance international law and governance while giving voice to inherent contradictions between human rights and the policies of economic globalization.