Local authorities, poverty and the implementation of human rights norms

Abstract

Cities, towns and their local authorities are often on the frontline when it comes to the fight against poverty. Their pivotal role becomes especially visible in crisis situations, as demonstrated by the recent outbreak of the coronavirus . When national governments had to take urgent measures to contain the spread of the pandemic and to keep economies afloat, many municipal authorities stepped in to ensure that socio-economically disadvantaged persons could survive the crisis. The German City of Düsseldorf, for instance, provided additional food packages and shelter for homeless persons. 1 The City of London booked 300 hotel rooms to make sure that homeless persons would be able to self-isolate. 2 In Spain's capital, Madrid, the City Council arranged continuous food delivery for 500 children from vulnerable families. 3 Finally, in what is probably one of the starkest cases of local action at a massive scale, the municipal government of New Delhi provided food to over 10,000 people per day in 234 shelter homes across the city. 4 There are many examples of localities, large and small, responding to the health-care and economic challenges that the outbreak of the virus posed to the poorest in society. Often helped by local civil-society organisations, municipal authorities immediately-and seemingly out of what has been described as 'a sense of direct responsibility' 5 -recognized that it was important for them to step in and mitigate the often desperate situations that their residents faced.Admittedly, not all local authorities were exemplary actors, such as hotel-rich Las Vegas, which faced widespread criticism for 'sheltering' homeless persons in parking lots. 6 Yet, 1

Unmoored, not Adrift

“…Whilst not as clear-cut as the local and urban turn in migration studies, human rights scholars have also increasingly explored local approaches to human rights (De Feyter et al, 2011). Their studies examine local government actors' proactive engagements with human rights and point towards a broad spectrum of local human rights initiatives on various issues, such as antidiscrimination, smart technologies, poverty and culture (Grigolo, 2018;Kempin Reuter, 2019;Sakkers & Bagchi, 2020;Baumgärtel, 2021). Human rights cities, local governments that explicitly base their policies on international human rights, have garnered particular scholarly attention (Oomen & Baumgärtel, 2014;Davis, Gammeltoft-Hansen & Hanna 2017;Goodhart, 2019).…”