Cities vs States: Should Urban Citizenship be Emancipated from Nationality? The Next Step: Coupling City-zenship to Human Rights

Reading through this fascinating collection of essays on city-zenship, it struck me that they seem to answer only one half of the question in the title of the forum: “Should urban citizenship be emancipated from national citizenship?” They focus on what city-zenship should decouple from (the nation state), but not on what it should then be buckled up to. Here, I would like to argue that part of the answer lies in the international human rights framework for three reasons: (1) This is where local authorities are already looking for inspiration; (2) the legal framework of human rights offers an added value in meeting some of the underlying objectives of city-zenship; and (3) it could mitigate concerns legitimately raised in earlier contributions. Of course, such ‘glocal city-zenship’ does not only form a double portmanteau, but also raises concerns that need to be addressed to attain the underlying objective: the recognition and realisation of the dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all people, in particular places.