Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

The AMB makes a donation of €14,000 to the project Cities Defending Human Rights to contribute to making the work of human rights advocates around the world more visible, in metropolitan municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, and to demand the right to peace, solidarity and fundamental liberties in pur daily life.

The project organises the stay of nine human rights advocates in Catalonia for two weeks, from 26 September to 8 October, who will participate in a series of activities (talks, conferences, institutional meetings, visits to schools, interviews with the media…) to publicise their work and the importance of supporting them.

The project schedule includes meetings with diferent Catalan institutions, the AMB among them, which will organise a meeting among the guest human rights advocates and representatives from the smallest metropolitan municipalities on Monday, 3 October at 6 pm in Santa Coloma de Cervelló. Participants to the meeting will be: Begues, Cervelló, El Papiol, La Palma de Cervelló, Sant Climent de Llobregat, Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Tiana and Torrelles de Llobregat.

Cities Defending Human Rights is a joint project of the Sant Boi de Llobregat City Council, the Catalan Commission for Refugee Aid, the Human RIghts Institute of Catalonia and the International Catalan Institute for Peace, with the participation of other Catalan municipalities –including Castelldefels, Esplugues de Llobregat, el Prat de Llobregat, Gavà, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Viladecans, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Molins de Rei, Sant Joan Despí and Sant Vicenç dels Horts– and other institutions and entities, among which is the AMB.

This year's project is also promoting a citizen campaign in favour of Rwandan Victoire Ingabire, sentenced to 15 years in prison for demanding acknowledgement of the suffering of all victims of genocide, regardless of ethnicity or nationality. And for Wafae Charaf, from Morocco, recently released after two years in prison for peaceful activism.

Likewise, the AMB will offer the schools in the involved metropolitan municipalities a catalogue of activities to be developed during the 2016-2017 academic year, all of them related to the project.