Human rights on a local level: A study of Piteå's and Jönköping's approaches to human rights

Abstract: The meaning of human rights locally can vary depending on a city's context. Therefore, the approaches of working with human rights locally can differ. Swedish municipalities tend to lack a structure of approaching human rights. However, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is about to publish a framework for how European human rights cities can approach human rights. This thesis studies how Jönköping and Piteå approach human rights. To accomplish this, eight interviews were conducted with the municipalities, and various policy documents were studied. The framework of FRA is used as a methodological tool and theoretical lens to detect the municipalities' human rights work to investigate if it would be eligible to apply the framework given the lack of approaching human rights and the various ways of practising human rights locally. The theoretical standpoints of the right to the city and the human rights city narrative are applied to frame the implication of human rights within the municipalities. Overall, the municipalities fulfil the FRA-framework. The municipalities perceive human rights as an embedded part of the services they provide. Human rights are translated into the municipalities' sections, departments and employees' professions due to the variation of activities. Therefore, the meaning and approaches of human rights seem to differ within the municipalities. There is no specific strategy for translating human rights except for a rights-based approach. Consequentially, the thesis concludes that an application of the FRA-framework on a section or department level could make the human rights work more tangible.