Charter of Educating Cities

The right to the educating city is proposed as an extension to the fundamental right of all people to education. All the inhabitants of a city have the right to enjoy, in liberty and equality, the resources and opportunities it provides for education, entertainment and personal development. The educating city is constantly renewing its commitment to the lifelong education of its inhabitants in the most varied aspects. And to make this possible, all groups must be taken into account, with their particular needs.

The city’s policy-makers and public servants will implement policies aimed at overcoming any type of obstacle that undermine the right to equality and to non-discrimination. Both the city council and other administrations will be responsible for this, while citizens themselves will also be involved, both individually and as members of the organised civil society.

Cities will effectively exercise the powers that correspond to them in matters of education. Whatever the scope of these powers, the municipal authorities should propose a far-reaching, cross-cutting and innovative educational policy, which includes all forms of formal, non-formal and informal education and their constant interaction with different cultural manifestations, sources of information and approaches to the discovery of the reality of the city and each of its neighbourhoods.

Municipal policies for education will always be understood as referring to a broader context inspired by the principles of social justice, equality, democratic community spirit, sustainability, quality of life and the personal development of its inhabitants.

The city will promote education in diversity for social understanding, international cooperation, recognition of and respect for indigenous peoples and other ethnic groups subject to discrimination, and world peace. This education fights against any form of discrimination. The educating city will foster freedom of expression and worship, cultural diversity, dialogue and active listening in terms of equality. It will also host all types of initiatives in line with these principles, no matter their origin. It will help remedy any inequalities as a result of social class, origin, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, functional diversity or any other type of diversity. In turn, it will promote the recognition, knowledge, learning and use of the languages present in the city as a way to integrate people and foster cohesion.

The educating city will promote the right to culture and the engagement of all citizens and, in particular, of the most vulnerable groups, in the cultural life of the city as a way of inclusion and fostering the feeling of belonging and harmonious living. In addition to the enjoyment of cultural assets, this cultural participation will include the contribution that all citizens can make to a dynamic and ever-changing culture and citizen involvement in the management of cultural facilities and initiatives. In turn, the educating city will stimulate artistic education, creativity and innovation by promoting and supporting cultural initiatives, whether avant-garde movements or popular culture, as a means of personal, social, cultural and economic development.

The educating city will foster proximity and cooperation between generations and will fight ageism, not just as a formula for peaceful and harmonious living, but also as a way to find common and shared projects between groups of people of different ages. These projects should be geared towards civic initiatives and actions that embrace an intergenerational nature and take advantage of the respective skills, experiences and values of different age groups.

The educating city recognises that knowledgebased political decisions allow for more appropriate responses, so local governments should have accurate information on the situation and living conditions of its inhabitants and the territory, while also carrying out or endorsing studies, which they will keep updated and accessible to citizens. In the formulation of projects and policies, their educational impact must be formally and explicitly taken into account and permanent open channels of communication with individuals and groups must be ensured.

The city should guarantee sufficient and understandable information and encourage its inhabitants to access all available information. The educating city, considering the value of selecting, understanding and processing the vast amount of information currently available, will provide resources that are accessible to everyone and will guarantee access to connectivity in all areas and spaces of the city. The educating city will set up training programmes in information and communication technologies for all ages and social groups in order to take advantage of the possibilities on offer, to leave nobody behind and to combat the digital divide. Likewise, it will promote the scientific and research capacities and abilities of all people, and especially children and young people, with a view to bolstering a critical and objective view of reality.

It will also attend to groups that need tailor-made mentoring, providing them with specialised points of information, guidance and mentoring. As a response to the advancement of possible control instruments such as artificial intelligence and big data, the city will strive to guarantee respect for privacy, intimacy and autonomy.

The educating city will be built from a governance paradigm, where public administrations and citizens will cooperate in its design and progress. This collaboration will be a hallmark of the educating city

It will also encourage citizen participation in municipal management and community life from a critical, constructive and co-responsible point of view, thereby opening up decisionmaking processes to citizens. It will have civil and social institutions and organisations, taking into account private initiatives and other forms of spontaneous participation. To do so, the local government will provide the necessary information in advance and will use interaction to foster training activities and approaches from childhood onwards. At the end of a participatory process, the citizens will receive information about its nature and results, and the effectiveness and limits of the procedure followed will be analysed.

Children, adolescents and young people will be recognised as citizens of the present day, with the right to participate in the management and improvement of community life on the same terms as adults, with the city providing the appropriate channels and tools for this.

The city will evaluate the educational, social and ecological impact of municipal policies in order to guarantee their continuous improvement.

The city’s educational project, its values, its quality of life, its celebrations, and its campaigns or projects will be the subject of reflection and evaluation, together with the necessary tools to guarantee the coherence of policies that can help people develop personally and collectively.

The city needs to know how to find, maintain and showcase its own complex and ever-changing identity, while also underlining the tangible and intangible heritage and historical memory that makes it unique. This is the basis for a fruitful dialogue with its surroundings and with the world. The recognition of its customs and their origins must be compatible with human rights. In this way, the city will provide an attractive image without distorting its natural and social environment, while fostering among its inhabitants the feeling of belonging and shared responsibility.

The layout of public spaces will meet the needs of accessibility, care, health, socialising, security, play, recreation and the balance between personal, family and work life. The educating city will place a special focus on the needs of children, people with functional diversity and senior citizens in its urban planning, amenities and services, in order to ensure a friendly and respectful environment in which they can develop with the highest possible degree of autonomy. Likewise, it will ensure urban planning with a gender perspective. These multiple views will guarantee an urban space fully committed to all citizens.

Educating cities will promote the installation of outdoor sports and play areas that enable contact with nature and foster social relationships

The transformation of a city should adhere to the harmony between new needs, sustainability and the continuity of buildings and symbols that are clear references of its past and its existence. The city will promote the harmonious living and integration of the community in public spaces, buildings and natural spaces, always avoiding the formation of ghettos.

Furthermore, the city will ensure that its inhabitants live in spaces where they can discover beauty. To do so, it will introduce aesthetic and environmental criteria in all its projects and engage artists in the planning and design of public spaces.

The municipal government will create and guarantee the upkeep of the spaces, amenities and public services appropriate to the personal, social, moral and cultural development of all its inhabitants, providing them with specifically trained professionals to pay special attention to children, adolescents, young people, senior citizens and people with functional diversity.

The educating city will undertake to satisfy the rights and material needs that guarantee a dignified life: food, water, housing, sanitation, energy, transport, and a safe and healthy environment. The city will take into account the eco-dependent condition of human life and the physical limits of the planet. The participation and joint responsibility of all its inhabitants will be actively fostered in the adoption of fair, resilient and sustainable lifestyles and consumption, under the principles of sufficiency, sharing and justice, while also taking precautions to protect community assets that guarantee a dignified survival for current and future generations.

The educating city will ensure the all-round and healthy growth of all people, fostering their physical, emotional and mental well-being. To do this, it will promote universal access to healthcare and endorse healthy environments and lifestyles.

Health promotion will include physical activity and emotional, interpersonal, sexual, nutritional and addiction prevention education. Likewise, it will promote the construction of the city as a space that cares for all people and it will foster active ageing and social relationships that help combat loneliness and isolation.

The city will make every effort to provide families with the training to accompany the growth of their sons and daughters, ensuring a balance between the need for protection and self-reliance for the discovery of the city, within a spirit of respect and trust.

Along the same lines, it will develop training proposals for professionals and for other agents who carry out educational tasks in the city, often without being aware of it. It will also ensure that the municipal security and civil protection forces act in accordance with these proposals.

The city should offer its inhabitants the prospect of taking on a role in society, providing them with the necessary advice for their personal and vocational guidance and fostering entrepreneurship. Cities will work towards offering studies, profession and trades free of gender stereotypes.

In the specific field of the connection between education and employment, there should be a close relationship between educational planning, the needs of the labour market and the needs of the community.

In this sense, cities will define lifelong training and mentoring strategies, of a formal and non-formal nature, for groups in situations of inequality, exclusion or engaged in the non-formal economy, which will help them improve their quality of life. In this sense, they will cooperate with trade union and business organisations in the creation of jobs that enable their socio-labour insertion.

Cities should develop policies against the various mechanisms of violation of rights, exclusion and marginalisation

In particular, they will attend newcomers, migrants or refugees, who in addition to the right to freedom of movement between countries, have the right to feel the city in which they arrive as their own. Their interests, specific needs, knowledge and skills should be valued to allow them to develop a recognised role in society. Cities will also dedicate efforts towards fostering social cohesion between neighbourhoods and all their inhabitants, no matter their status or condition.

With the same aim in mind, attention will also be paid to local collectives that suffer from social stigmas and marginalisation.

The educating city will commit to eradicating all forms of violence and harassment, paying special attention to violence related to gender, sexual identity and orientation, origin and ethnicity, age, physical appearance, etc.

Interventions aimed at fighting inequalities may take on several forms, but they should be based on the overall vision of the person’s rights and interests. Any significant intervention in this area needs to guarantee joint responsibility and coordination between the authorities involved and their services, based on the best knowledge that the local government has of the needs and the territory.

In the fight against inequalities, cooperation will also be fostered between the authorities and civil society, NGOs, the business community and other private initiatives.

The city will foster community involvement and volunteering as forms of participation and shared responsibility, in order to channel actions for the community and share information, materials and ideas for the all-round development of people. To this end, educating cities will support community involvement initiatives in areas as diverse as culture, sport, solidarity, knowledge exchange, etc., all based on respect for human rights and democratic values.

Meanwhile, they will provide training for greater efficiency in the collective decision-making, planning and management processes that community life entails.

The educating city should provide the entire population with education in the values and practices of democratic citizenship that foster respect, tolerance, participation, responsibility, interest in public life, and commitment to the common good.

Furthermore, the educating city will raise awareness about the interdependence of the local and international dimension posed by global challenges, thereby facilitating an education for global citizenship which enables citizens to participate, commit and contribute both locally and internationally.

All of this, added to the other principles, should allow all individuals to feel the city, its surroundings and the planet as their own.