First International Steering Committee Meeting Held

The first International Steering Committee (ISC) meeting in the year 2024 was held online on March 7, focusing on the theme of the 14th World Human Rights Cities Forum

The meeting began with a brief announcement about Peter Lundberg replacing Morten Kjærum as the director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights (RWI), as well as taking over his role as RWI representative in the Committee. Morten Kjærum’s long-lasting advisory role in the WHRCF is expected to be continued through his role in the International Advisory Committee.

Following that, the Committee reviewed and discussed the concept note contents, aiming for its finalization after incorporating shared feedback. First draft of the concept note was drafted by Prof. KIM Gi-gon, the head of the WHRCF Planning Committee, and shared with the International Steering Committee members for review and further input.

The discussion on the concept note highlighted the importance of civic space as the backbone of democratic governance and citizen empowerment that are the foundation of human rights cities. The Forum’s agenda aims to reflect this, as well as explore current trends and what role human rights cities can play in enhancing and institutionalizing participatory processes, together with countering efforts to shrink civic space.

To achieve this, the ISC agreed to focus on exploring the mechanisms through which democratic innovations unfold across three distinct levels: deliberative spaces, participatory arenas, and collaborative governance spaces, while focusing on 4 main agendas: “First, how is civic space constituted in the context of human rights cities?”, “Second, what are the major challenges facing civic space on regional and city levels?”, “Third, what are new strategies for human rights cities to create, protect, and expand civic space?”, and “Fourth, how should the multilateral and multi-stakeholder collaboration regarding civic space in cities and territories be structured at the global level?”.

The concept note will undergo a second revision following the fruitful discussions and Committee members’ inputs, and is expected to be finalized by Prof. KIM Gi-gon by the end of March. The next International Steering Committee meeting is anticipated in early April when the main agenda will be the discussion on the main speakers of the 14th WHRCF and more detailed planning of the Plenary Session.양식의 맨 위