Reds asks local governments to protect human rights also outside Catalonia

The Reds association has launched the 'Our rights, everyone's rights' campaign to highlight the capacities of Catalan local governments when it comes to making decisions in favor of respect, protection and promotion of human rights beyond our borders. The campaign aims to highlight that "in a globalized world, local actions have an impact beyond their borders".

The initiative has the support of eight leading organizations in the field of global justice: Acaps, Desos, Intered, The People's Rights League, Musol (Municipalists for Solidarity and Institutional Strengthening), the Table for Mexico , the South Network and the Solidarity NGO Coordinator of the Girona counties.

The driving entities of the campaign, in addition, ask for "political will from the municipal government teams when it comes to protecting human rights internationally", as well as reminding the administrations that, "as members of public institutions, they have the responsibility to fulfill" this mission.

Specific requests to the administrations

In addition to contextualizing the state of human rights at the international level, the campaign of the Reds association makes specific demands on local governments.

In the manifesto of 'Our rights, everyone's rights', great importance is attached to co-responsibility as an "indispensable value to guarantee human dignity", as well as ensuring that "divisive views of the world must be ended ". In this sense, Reds claim that making distinctions between 'Northern countries' and 'Southern countries' or 'developed' and 'underdeveloped' is seriously harmful. The entity also assures that it is necessary to move towards a "we, because our rights are everyone's".

In addition to transcending what, from Reds, they describe as a "polarized vision of cooperation", the manifesto also calls for the "political will on the part of the new governing teams of the Catalan councils" to be made clear. In this sense, the association asks that the councils assume "international cooperation, especially the international protection of human rights, as an inescapable responsibility of their positions".

Beyond the political will, the Reds manifesto also calls for action through motions, international observations of trials, delegations on the ground, letters to authorities and companies or responsible public procurement. All together as actions to incorporate political influence in the international protection of human rights, an axis that is considered fundamental in the work of the areas of international cooperation.

The last request of the manifesto is the request for coordinated and networked work from the areas of cooperation with local civil society organizations and defenders in the international protection of human rights.

Since last week, the manifesto has been available on the 'Our rights, everyone's rights' website so that entities and individuals can sign it. The campaign will be officially presented next September 28 at 1 p.m. in virtual format and will feature the interventions of Jeimi Aguilera, Colombian lawyer specializing in human rights, and Patricia Domínguez Zea, member of the Center for Human Rights Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas de Chiapas , in Mexico.