Institutional and Cultural Approaches for Strengthening Human Right Cities and SDG’s at the Village Level

Abstract

Two global policies and guidelines on Human Rights Cities, i.e. Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City, and Swedish Platform for policy and operational development of human rights at the local and regional level have provided basic principles to protect, respect, and fulfil human rights of inhabitants of cities and municipalities. However, not many researchers discuss those policies and guidelines at the village level. Thus, this study aims to explore on how villages have strong resources to support human rights principles and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 through institutional and cultural approaches. This empirical study was conducted in the context of Indonesia and found that global policies and guidelines on Human Rights Cities fit in to the Indonesian situation and context where villages, under Law Number 5 Year 2014 concerning Village in Indonesia, have strong resources in terms of financial budget allocation and social capital. By having these two types of resources: finance and social capital, villages in Indonesia have more flexibility and independency in setting up programs to support the achievement of sustainable development, and at the same time village governments could show their commitment to human rights. This study, therefore, discusses conceptually how the institutional approach helps to strengthening the village development planning system through village financial budget and increase the capacity of village officials. In addition, a cultural approach could also work to glue villagers to participate in all aspects related to citizen rights. Through mutual cooperation or in the Indonesian called the culture of “Gotong Royong”, a participatory mechanism also emerges in the process of planning and implementing of SDGs related agenda such as on SDGs number 6 “clean water and sanitation”. Thus, this research concludes that two approaches: institutional and cultural, are promising in anchoring human rights in order to achieve SDGs 2030 at the village level. Keywords: Village government, social capital, Acceleration, SDGs agenda, human rights city.

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