Building and Sustaining Human Rights Cities in the South – Gathering in Atlanta

Turn South and partners co-presented the second Building and Sustaining Human Rights Cities in the South convening in Atlanta, GA April 26-28, 2019. Presenters addressed challenges faced by Atlanta communities including human rights concerns such as access to affordable housing, home owner displacement, economic justice, reproductive justice and immigrant rights. Participants explored how to shift discourse to center human rights protections in policy debates and to press policy makers to prioritize people and communities over corporate profit. The April 2020 US Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was highlighted as an opportunity to focus on the human rights reality in the US South and to expand the Human Rights Cities movement in the region. The UPR Cities Project was introduced which encourages community members and organizations to work together to submit a report on local human rights conditions as part of the UPR and to develop recommendations for reform to promote with local officials and community members.

The gathering was presented by the National Human Rights Cities Alliance, American Friends Service Committee, US Human Rights Network, Turn South: Southern Women for Change, Organization for Human Rights and Democracy, SisterSong, 9to5 Working Women – GA and the Ubuntu Institute for Community Development.