Sometime this year, the City Council is expected to discuss the possibility of pursuing a “human rights city” designation, indicating that city officials are expected to consider the impact on human rights in all decisions.
Local advocates include council member Ken Rosenberg and Human Relations Commission member Lucas Ramirez, who say focusing on human rights isn’t much different from what city staff does on a daily basis.
“If you are placing human rights at the front of your decision making, you may make different decisions,” said Rosenberg, who last month asked his council colleagues to make it a top goal. “It’s a recognition of ‘What are we doing? What are we trying to accomplish?'”
If council members decide to pursue the designation, it could mean making the United Nation’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights a guiding document for the city, with some language changed to promote gender inclusiveness. The Human Relations Commission voted in support of that in February, drafting a resolution similar to one approved by the city council of Richmond, one of several American cities to take on the designation. The resolution says the city would aspire to be a global leader in advancing human rights, “explicitly embracing the principles of equality, inclusion, social pluralism, and the recognition of human dignity.”
Rosenberg, who was a member of the commission for years, also wants to rename Mountain View’s Human Relations Commission the Human Rights Commission.
When human rights and human dignity come up in the context of local government, it is often during discussions about the need to house the homeless, institute rent control, or the need for people to be treated justly and without unnecessary violence by law enforcement. Housing the homeless and training police to avoid racial profiling and excessive force have been key efforts for human rights cities, but advocates say many other things can be done, including making budget and land-use decisions with human rights as a priority, making sure minorities feel welcome in city buildings, providing translations for those who can’t speak English, and making sure that those with no address can still receive services, such as library cards.
While some cities have taken on the designation as a largely symbolic effort, in Eugene, Ore., city officials have really embraced the human rights city approach, says Ken Neubeck, a member of Eugene’s Human Rights Commission, which has been allowed to take the lead in Eugene’s transformation. He recently spoke on the topic to Ramirez and other members of Mountain View’s Human Relations Commission.
Neubeck, a soft-spoken former sociology professor, says he had brown bag lunches with Eugene city staff where he told them that they are “already doing human rights work,” though they may not realize it.
Eugene, home to 160,000 people and the University of Oregon, is a city surrounded by forests. Neubeck says the city has been able to house 65 percent of its 2,000 homeless people in designated tent camps and villages of tiny homes, created by local nonprofits; these include one called the “Opportunity Village” and another being built called the “Emerald Village.” About 80 people live in their cars in designated car-camping areas, supervised by police — an idea that has also been discussed by advocates for the homeless in Mountain View after people had their cars towed and were unable to pay fines to retrieve them.
“Just to have a safe and legal place to be, people are feeling so much better,” Neubeck said of efforts in Eugene. “Some of them are beginning to find jobs — it stabilizes their life.”
Mountain View’s skyrocketing rents have meant growing numbers of homeless individuals and families in the city, many living in motor homes, camped along creeks, and in cars. A 2013 count found 139 homeless people in Mountain View, nearly four times higher than in 2011.
“You can choose to look at it or you can choose to ignore it,” Rosenberg said of the city’s housing problems. “If the solution to housing more people is (more housing) development, then you are not really impacting the people who need it right now.”
Rosenberg said the tendency for some in Silicon Valley to want government to emulate corporate practices is wrong-headed — an unusual statement for a Morgan Stanley financial adviser who was solidly backed by business interests in the November election.
“They are not the same, not the same at all. Corporations are not designed to solve the problems of poverty or water desalination — that’s what governments are supposed to do,” Rosenberg said. “When governments are reduced to number-crunching, then that’s government gone wrong.”
The city’s government needs to make sure “we are not going down the path of net-present value over the dignity of our residents,” he said.
Neubeck describes the human rights city effort as confronting entrenched perceptions. He encourages people to stop and talk to the homeless, to listen to their stories.
“The city manger really bought into this idea, and that was really helpful,” Neubeck said of Eugene’s human rights city efforts that began in 2007. “The city manager invited in some trainers to give training in implementing human rights to managers and supervisors. We’re asking people to work in a different way, to put on a different lens. It’s been successful, but there’s much, much more work to do.
“Our police officers take mandatory training to avoid racial profiling. I tell them that’s human rights work. They take training on how to respond to people out on the streets who are autistic — their behavior is different than one would expect. We want people like that treated with care and respect. The public library figured out how to give library cards to people who are homeless; that’s doing human rights work because you are extending to people the human right of education, and giving people equal access. Everybody has some role to play in protecting the human rights of people.”
Eugene city officials also now use something called a “triple bottom line tool” in decision making, which makes social equity a top priority, followed by economic development, and finally, environmental sustainability.
“It doesn’t make a decision for people but it prompts them to think about the implication of the decisions they are going to make,” Neubeck said. The tool has helped as the city considers potential development outside of its designated urban limit line, set up to preserve the wilderness outside the city.
Human rights don’t necessarily cost a lot of money, Neubeck said. “This is in hard budget times. It doesn’t seem to cost more to do this.”
More information on the efforts in Eugene can be found at humanrightscity.com.
