World Human Rights Cities Forum 2018

Rights Based Approach for SDGs Implementation

Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, in World Human Rights Cities Forum (WHRCF)

AMONG the global agenda that the world is pursuing, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are prominent with the commitment ‘No One Left Behind’. Envisioning a better world, global leaders have united and international forums were organised to offer suitable approaches for local (and national) governments. UCLG ASPAC, in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) and the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) introduced a rights-based approach in Human Rights Cities in the context to localise SDGs discussion, under the World Human Rights Cities Forum (WHRCF) event in Gwangju, South Korea from 18 to 21 October 2018.

Representing UCLG ASPAC was Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General, she enhanced the knowledge of attending participants by promoting the various works that UCLG ASPAC has done in relation to the SDGs: developing a roadmap for local governments and local government associations respectively on SDGs

implementation, collaborating with the Ministry of Home Affairs Indonesia and the National Planning Agency of the country under the LOCALISE SDGs programme to build the capacity of local governments in Indonesia to implement SDGs in their local development plans.

The opportunity was also taken by UCLG ASPAC and RWI to sign a letter of intent during the event laying out the intent to work together to establish a collaborative program to promote a rights-based approach to localising the SDGs in the AsiaPacific. This program will give UCLG ASPAC and RWI a chance to work together to build up capacity and understanding in local government on how the SDGs can be localised with a rights-based approach.

World Human Rights Cities is an annual forum organised in Gwangju, South Korea. It has become the paramount meeting point for the international human rights cities movement and aims to “realize the vision of being a human rights city as articulated by the Gwangju Declaration of Human Rights Cities�. The event brought together 2000 participants including government officials from cities implementing their own human rights cities, UN human rights experts, city leaders, NGOs, local councils, scholars, and stakeholders such as children, women and migrants.