AMB participates in the Cities Defending Human Rights project, making it possible for nine international activists to share their work with metropolitan municipalities
By making a donation of €14,000, the AMB wants to contribute to making the work of human rights advocates around the world more visible, and to demand the right to peace, solidarity and fundamental liberties. AMB's participation lets the smallest metropolitan municipalities take part in the project
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 AMB, which wants to disseminate the work of the people defending human rights and help to raise awareness on the need to integrate the defence of human rights and fundamental liberties into our daily lives.
This year in its 4th edition, 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 also includes meetings with diverse Catalan institutions (Parliament of Catalonia, Generalitat, Ombudsman, Diputació de Barcelona...) and with representatives in organisations from civil society (Casa Amèrica de Catalunya, Fòrum de Síndics i Defensors Locals...). In the framework of the visit, the AMB 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.
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.
The AMB, as an administration at the service of metropolitan city councils, and in turn committed to defending human rights, has the objective to enable the smallest metropolitan municipalities, without financial or management capacity to participate in the project, to be able to do so.
Starting from AMB's participation in the project, the metropolitan municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants (Begues, Cervelló, el Papiol, la Palma de Cervelló, Sant Climent de Llobregat, Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Tiana and Torrelles de Llobregat) shall have a series of resources available to carry out activities related to education for development (videos, dossiers, educational worksheets and postcards of each of the defenders, posters, etc.). In addition, the participating municipalities commit to submit the approval of the Institutional Declaration they will draft for the project to the respective municipal plenaries.
These measures are detailed in the collaboration agreement signed on 26 July between AMB and the Sant Boi de Llobregat City Council (municipality coordinating the project), through which the AMB commits to funding the project, contributing €14,000, which will let metropolitan municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants participate.
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.
Invited guests
The nine human rights advocates invited this year are:
This year in its 4th edition, 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 also includes meetings with diverse Catalan institutions (Parliament of Catalonia, Generalitat, Ombudsman, Diputació de Barcelona...) and with representatives in organisations from civil society (Casa Amèrica de Catalunya, Fòrum de Síndics i Defensors Locals...). In the framework of the visit, the AMB 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.
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.
The AMB, as an administration at the service of metropolitan city councils, and in turn committed to defending human rights, has the objective to enable the smallest metropolitan municipalities, without financial or management capacity to participate in the project, to be able to do so.
Starting from AMB's participation in the project, the metropolitan municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants (Begues, Cervelló, el Papiol, la Palma de Cervelló, Sant Climent de Llobregat, Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Tiana and Torrelles de Llobregat) shall have a series of resources available to carry out activities related to education for development (videos, dossiers, educational worksheets and postcards of each of the defenders, posters, etc.). In addition, the participating municipalities commit to submit the approval of the Institutional Declaration they will draft for the project to the respective municipal plenaries.
These measures are detailed in the collaboration agreement signed on 26 July between AMB and the Sant Boi de Llobregat City Council (municipality coordinating the project), through which the AMB commits to funding the project, contributing €14,000, which will let metropolitan municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants participate.
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.
Invited guests
The nine human rights advocates invited this year are:
- Zaina Erhaim, journalist and coordinator of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Syria
- Lin Muyizere, husband of Victoire Ingabire. In 2010, his wife returned to Rwanda and has been in prison since then due to having given a speech against the ideology of the governing party. She was sentenced for 15 years.
- Valdenia Paulino, activist fighting poverty and violence in the most marginal neighbourhoods of Brazil.
- Jeihhco, activist for peace, peaceful coexistence and non-violence in the ‘comunas' of Medellin, Colombia, through hip-hop
- Sandra Zambrano, human rights advocate at the Association for a Better Life for People Infected and Affected by HIV-AIDS in Honduras (APUVIMEH)
- Essam Daod, Palestine doctor and founder of Humanity Crew, an organisation that offers professional emergency assistance to refugees arriving from the Greek islands
- Esperanza Huayama, president of the Women's Association in the province of Huancabamba. She has been fighting for over 20 years for the 300,000 indigenous women forcibly sterilised during the term of President Alberto Fujimori
- Victor Ochen, founder in 2005 of the African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET). He has been working for 15 years helping girls who were raped and children who were mutilated during the war.
- Rebiya Kadeer, activist defending the rights of the Uyghur Muslim minority, subjected to systematic oppression by the Chinese government. She is the president of the Uyghur World Congress.
