A/HRC/38/22 I. Introduction 1. The Human Rights Council, in its resolution 33/8, decided to convene between its thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth sessions a panel discussion on the role of local government in the promotion and protection of human rights, the objective of which was to identify ways in which local governments could promote, protect and fulfil human rights effectively, particularly in the context of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in close cooperation with national Governments. The Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to liaise with States and all stakeholders, including relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, the treaty bodies, the relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, national human rights institutions and civil society, with a view to ensuring their participation in the panel discussion. 2. In resolution 33/8, the Human Rights Council also requested the High Commissioner to prepare a report on the panel discussion in the form of a summary and to submit it to the Council at its thirty-eighth session. The present report was prepared pursuant to that request. 3. The Deputy High Commissioner opened the panel discussion, which was moderated by John Fisher, Director of the Human Rights Watch office in Geneva. The panellists were Katharina Pabel, member of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee and Professor of Public Law at the University of Linz; An Hee-jung, Governor of South Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea; Sara Sekkenes, adviser on conflict prevention and partnerships, Governance and Peacebuilding Group, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); and Wanjiru Gikonyo, national coordinator and a founder of the Institute for Social Accountability. II. Opening statement 4. In her opening statement, the Deputy High Commissioner said that the panel discussion was concerned with power, possibility, purpose and proximity in governance. It was a question of how the most local, proximate and immediate powers of government might humanize, rather than dehumanize, their inhabitants and their environment. It was a tale of this third, sometimes even fourth, tier of the government of a State, which was most directly accessible and thus potentially most accountable, to the people, and which had not yet been brought sufficiently to the centre stage of the human rights story. 5. The Deputy High Commissioner added that this concerned all individuals in their daily lives and the services, utilities, freedoms and spaces that were the tangible manifestations of human rights that had been set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. That affected how the State worked at the local level to ensure that schools, courts, hospitals, roads, police, community centres, garbage removal and water and sanitation systems were woven together to craft a habitat that enabled the population to go about their daily lives in dignity, hope and productive endeavour. 6. The Deputy High Commissioner stated that the right to contribute to governments at all levels was deeply embedded in the human rights storyline and manifestly essential to democracy at the local level. She stressed that civil society was not merely a partner for effective local administration; it operated so that people could come together to tackle shared problems, express common aspirations, pursue common interests and alert the authorities to issues ranging from new needs to long-standing problems. Civil society organizations were essential strategic and operational partners for local governments. They had a consultative role to assist in human rights planning and implementation. They also had a monitoring and assessment role concerning the way in which local governments were implementing human rights. They acted as capacity-builders that could help to strengthen the human rights expertise and awareness of local government officials and provided a regular, open channel of communication between local governments and inhabitants. 2