Abstract

The presentation gives an overview of the local human rights policies issued by local governments, with special attention to the United States and Europe. The main study cases are the existing policies in New York, San Francisco and Barcelona. Three dimensions of these policies are considered and analysed: the applied concepts of human rights, the institutions that should implement them and the obtained results. The case comparison shows some clear discrepancies, but also some interesting convergences between the three cities' policies, which, in turn, present both elements of divergence and convergence facing the corresponding national and continental traditions of human rights. Although marginal and clearly limited by restrictions, both legal and political, the local human rights policies of the three cities are not inefficient from the human rights' perspective, being, occasionally, very relevant for the city, at the service of many citizens. This presentation's conclusions will focus on the future of the human rights policies and their potential contribution toward an increasing redefinition of human rights.

Biographic Note

Michele Grigolo is a Post-Doctoral student at CES, with a post-doctoral grant from FCT. He holds a Doctoral Degree in Social and Political Sciences, obtained at the European University Institute (EUI), in Florence, and a Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratization. His research and teaching interests lie in: politics, sociology and equality rights, non-discrimination and human rights, as well as social and urban policies. At CES, Michele Grigolo is, currently, producing scientific papers and his first monograph based on his doctoral research on human rights and cities. He has published papers in the European Journal of International Law, the International Journal of Human Rights and the Ethnic and Racial Studies journal, for which is also co-editing a special issue on race and discrimination.

Michele Grigolo has a vast international research experience. In 2010, he was a guest researcher at the Government and Public Policies Institute of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. During his doctoral degree, he was an exchange student at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, in New York. In 2003, he was awarded with the Robert Schuman scholarship at the European Parliament, where he studied at the Directorate-General for Research, in Luxembourg. In 2002, he spent five months at the Danish Centre for Human Rights in order to conclude his master's thesis.

He is both a researcher and teacher. Between 2008 and 2009, he was a scientific collaborator of the Max Webber Programme at the EUI. In 2009, he participated in a research project funded by the European Parliament on the integration (mainstreaming) of human rights in the EU's foreign relations. Previously, he worked in a project funded by the EU Committee of the Regions on local and regional governments. He taught European Social Policies at the Master's Degree Programme in European Studies of the James Madison University, in Florence. He lectured in seminars and conferences held by Italian and Spanish universities.

Organization: Research Group on Democracy, Citizenship and Law and Research Group on Humanities and Research Group on Humanities, Migration and Peace Studies.