Promoting Opportunities Easier to Implement than Reducing Privileges»: The Case of Human Rights and Equality Policies at Local Level

The paper introduces the latest developments in local human rights discourse. It puzzles the normative pieces from the international human rights implementation forum of the Congress for Local and Regional Authorities over the Committee of the Regions’ multi-level-governance claim to the UN Human Rights Council’s report on the role of local governments in the fulfilment of human rights. This picture will be complemented by local and regional examples on implementation efforts drawn from previous research the authors cooperated on. In the interdisciplinary applied research project ADPOLIS, the Toolkit for Equality was developed as a guidebook for local decision-takers pursuing anti-discrimination and equality policies in Europe. The authors will in this paper present their work on the Toolkit for Equality and their methods of research on local human rights policies. Research was undertaken in three steps, starting with desk research, conducting a survey in order to identify successful policies and by carrying out interviews for the selected policy-models. Interviews were conducted with local authorities, NGOs, civil society and academics involved in the implementation thereof. From the research on more than 60 cities and over 40 policy-examples compiled to more than 10 municipal policy models for equality, the authors will present overall observations on the commonalities in the implementation of equality policies in European cities.