Bergen is a human rights city. The status commits our organisation and the way we provide services to the inhabitants. We promote human rights in our public procurement and set a high standard for our partners and suppliers in this domain.
Human rights are universal. The city of Bergen has a special attention to wider global human rights issues such as fair trade, human trafficking and settlement of LGBT- refugees. Human rights is a focus area for our international strategy and follow up action plan.
Climate change is a real threat to human rights; including those to life, water, sanitation, food , health, housing, self-determination, culture and development. Human rights also cover children's rights, combating poverty, faith, the right to love independent of your sexual orientatoin, equal rights, language and cultural identity. Human rights are an integrated part of a vast range of the competences of the municipality.
The city of Bergen is already securing its inhabitants fundamental human rights through the way we run our schools, elderly care, child welfare, social insurance and integration, to name a few. This is an ongoing work where we strive to walk the extra mile to secure the needs of vulnerable groups.
Open and participatory processes is a fundamental part of our democracy. We want to facilitate for input and use it when we are developing and implementing local policies.
The human rights city Bergen wants to focus on the following areas to further develop our work:
- Apply for membership in the Human Rights Cities Network
- Highlight, discuss and place human rights on the international agenda
- Use the market position of the municipality to ensure human rights are respected globally
- Cooperate with international, national and local actors to develop Bergen as a human right city
- Put human rights and UN Sustainable development goals on the agenda in our international relations