World Cities Day on Mon, 31 October 2021 is a call to cities, municipalities and citizens to advocate for sustainable strategies for cities. The city of Vienna declared itself a Human Rights City in 2014. Since then, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR) has supported the City of Vienna as the City of Human Rights in an advisory capacity.

The Human Rights Office of the City of Vienna works together with internal stakeholders as well as with civil society to make Vienna safer, more resilient, even more inclusive and more sustainable (Sustainable Development Goal 11). The Vienna districts, which are close to the expectations, goals and concerns of the city’s population, are a particularly good starting point for promoting human rights and creating awareness among people for their rights. So far, twelve Vienna districts have declared themselves Human Rights Districts. One of them is Neubau. A participatory process for the redesign of Bernardgasse was started here, under the motto “Good life for everyone is a human right”. This participatory process offers the opportunity to participate for everyone who lives and works in Bernardgasse. Together they will negotiate how the living and working environment can be made more inclusive and sustainable in and for the future. The LBI-GMR supports the human rights office and the human rights districts in developing action plans and measures to improve the realization of human rights at a local level.

Further information on the human rights district Neubau in Vienna can be found here: https://www.wien.gv.at/bezirke/neubau/verkehr/beteiligung-umgestaltung-bernardgasse.html

Details about our process consulting for the City of Vienna can be found on the project page: Vienna “Human Rights City”