3. Regret that conflicts and wars continue around the world. We urge the international society to work together to eradicate the violence of armed conflicts, which, in addition to direct physical and mental damage, causes further difficulties for minorities and the socially vulnerable and worsens inequalities in many areas, including energy, food security and education. 

4.  Emphasize the message that the climate crisis aggravates inequalities and threatens the rights to housing, health, education, and survival itself, and stress the significance of proactive solidarity and communication, cooperation and sharing of knowledge, information, and action plans among local governments. Despite this, the lack of meaningful actions over the past year is regrettable.

5.  Recognize that poverty leads to inequalities in housing, health, education and justice. Furthermore, it enables structured inequality that deprives people of their economic, social, cultural, and political rights. Poverty and inequalities hamper the sustainable development of cities, and risk being passed down to future generations.

6.  Highlight the positive impression of the diverse human rights-based approaches taken by cities and local governments to address poverty and inequalities. We further anticipate that continued information sharing and cooperation will lead to legal, political and substantial solutions.

7.  Acknowledge that, despite our determination for social justice, climate action, peace and human rights, the fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated global inequalities. Even so, we welcome the UCLG-CSIPDHR leading the global campaign “10, 100, 1000 Human Rights Cities and Territories by 2030,” together with the cities of Gwangju, Utrecht, Grigny, Mexico City and Vienna, to demonstrate the strong will toward local governments and human rights.

8.  Recognize and support those local governments that have already begun action to enhance human rights, using cross-sectional approaches in order to understand the relationship between human rights issues, poverty and inequalities. Additionally, we hope that these movements and efforts will result in sustainable public policy.

9.  Acknowledge the issues and proposals made during the thematic sessions. During these sessions, we sought responses to poverty and inequalities considering persons with disabilities, children, youth, and immigrants. We further discussed major issues such as how household labor, housing, and SDGs impact and are impacted by civic society.

10. Anticipate more in-depth discussions on the issues of ageism and poverty of older persons, issues of developing countries, and eradicating poverty through a human rights economy. A human rights economy centers on people and the planet in all economic, social, and environmental policies, plans and programs. It means human rights norms and principles firmly guide all decisions regarding development, economic, industrial, and trade policies, together with investment, consumer protection and choices as well as business models. Pursuing a human rights economy requires transparency and accountability and the creation of space for social dialogue, scrutiny and participation, especially for affected individuals, groups, and communities, for example in the budget process.

11. View corruption as a major impediment to human rights. Corruption hinders access to essential services, such as education and healthcare, and exacerbates inequalities, directly impacting people’s human rights, especially those in vulnerable situations and contexts. We must continue to construct responsive governance based on transparency and integrity that promotes legitimacy, diversity and trust.

12. Value the time spent together in person this year and look forward to meeting again at the 14th World Human Rights Cities Forum in Gwangju in 2024.

The participants of the 13th World Human Rights Cities Forum make the following commitments:

1.       We promise to guarantee first and foremost the autonomy, dignity, well-being and empowerment of persons in order to effectively address the human rights issues experienced by various population groups due to the persisting and growing issues of poverty and inequalities

 2. Recognizing that all forms of inequalities and discrimination threaten the realization of human rights for all, we promise to draw up strategies and implement initiatives that address the issues of poverty and inequalities, leveraging the power of this network for cooperation, solidarity and social justice with concerned groups through proactive engagement and civil participation.

3. In the context of stalled progress towards the SDGs, we promise to strengthen the efforts of local governments at the local, regional and global levels to achieve inclusive and sustainable change through a human rights economy and anti-discrimination policies.

4. We promise to closely monitor our human rights-based policies for evaluation, accountability and transparency purposes and to report on our progress and challenges at the next WHRCF.