A/HRC/28/62 organizing themselves independently of national Governments and working with civil society and other actors to articulate models of direct human rights accountability. 57 58. There are significant advantages to subnational governments developing such independent approaches. They are best placed to respond to the distinctive challenges of implementing the right to housing at the local level and to enable residents’ empowerment and participation in local government. That offers an important foundation for communitybased, human rights approaches to local governance and programme administration. A. Cities and human rights 59. Over the last 15 years, the “human rights city” has emerged as an important initiative involving mayors, city officials, civic and human rights non-governmental organizations and experts and community-based organizations in cities across the world. 58 The Gwangju Declaration on Human Rights City, adopted in 2011, defined a human rights city as “both a local community and a socio-political process in a local context where human rights play a key role as fundamental values and guiding principles”.59 Accordingly, local government, parliament, civil society, private sector organizations and other stakeholders work together to improve the quality of life for all inhabitants in a spirit of partnership based on human rights standards and norms. The Declaration emphasizes that a legal basis — city ordinances and legal instruments such as human rights charters and legal organizations — should be established. Human rights cities also acknowledge that implementation is more important than policymaking and that effective accountability mechanisms need to be developed to make city government accountable to its commitments. 60. Seoul, in the Republic of Korea, has named itself a human rights city, having adopted an ordinance in 2012 to protect and promote human rights for its citizens. The ordinance establishes a Human Rights Division within the city government, human rights policies, a Committee on Human Rights and a Human Rights Ombudsperson to ensure access to remedies for rights violations. The Ombudsman has become a model for other local governments in the country. With respect to housing, Seoul has adopted measures and guidelines, particularly on forced evictions, to protect its residents. The guidelines are based on general comment No. 7 on forced evictions of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and prohibit evictions in winter or at night and require civil servants to be present to monitor any human rights violations when executing an eviction and to provide adequate remedies to those who are evicted, among others. 61. In keeping with human rights city initiatives, a number of cities and some provinces and states have incorporated the right to adequate housing specifically into local governance. Those developments should be seen as positive evidence of a “from local to global” approach to human rights implementation. 57 58 59 See, for example, the progress report of the Advisory Committee on the role of local government in the promotion and protection of human rights, including human rights mainstreaming in local administration and public services (A/HRC/27/59), paras. 38–51 and 56–59. There are a number of human rights city charters: the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City (2000), which has been signed by more than 350 European towns and cities, the Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities (2006), the Mexico City Charter for the Right to the City (2010), the Gwangju Human Rights Charter (2012), the Vienna Charter (2012) and the Global Charter-Agenda of Human Rights in the City (2011). 2011 World Human Rights Cities Forum, “Globalizing Human Rights from Below: Challenge of Human Rights Cities in the 21st Century”. Available from www.uclgcisdp.org/sites/default/files/Gwangju_Declaration_on_HR_City_final_edited_version_110524.pdf. 17