Barcelona is a leading city internationally in terms of openness, democracy and diversity that all residents and visitors can experience freely and without fear. A city whose wealth lies in the multiplicity of identities and cultures that co-exist and make Barcelona a place for everyone. Nonetheless, the city is not immune to conflict and expressions of discrimination, hatred and intolerance. 

The Councillor’s Office for Citizenship Rights and Participation at Barcelona City Council strives to protect and guarantee respect for the rights and liberties of all the city’s residents, which translates as developing public policies to combat discrimination. 

Since 2016 the program "Barcelona, city of rights" has been promoted with the aim to ensure the right to the city and safeguard human rights in the city. Human rights are not abstract but need to be thought through and promoted under the framework of the territory they are exercised in; in this case, as we have mentioned, the city and its neighbourhoods. Under the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City, “the city is a collective space belonging to all who live in it. These have the right to conditions which allow their own political, social and ecological development but at the same time accepting a commitment to solidarity”.

Our approach to citizen rights is based on inclusivity with regard to diversity in our city, with an intercultural perspective.  We are therefore working here in Barcelona for a diverse, intercultural and multi-faceted city model where everyone has real and effective access, under equal conditions, to all human rights recognised and guaranteed in the city.  This intercultural perspective, which Barcelona is now an international benchmark in, means recognising diversity from the perspectives of positive interaction and non-discrimination.

It is here that the “Barcelona, city of rights” programme has the challenge of coordinating itself and seeking synergies with the “Intercultural Barcelona” programme, by combining an intercultural perspective with a human-rights-based approach, these being the two strategic and methodological lines they are founded on.

In the framework of the work against racism, there are two municipal programs: 

• The Office for Non-Discrimination is committed to guarantee the rights of everyone to build a fairer and more cohesive society. Therefore, it offers a people-oriented assistance to anyone who suffers discrimination; provides legal advice to report it, and raises awareness about this issue amongst the citizens of Barcelona.
• Barcelona Discrimination Observator, an initiative born in 2018 from the will to have a real approach to the problems of discrimination that occur in the city. A tool to measure the magnitude, typology and severity of discrimination, as well as to size and design the actions to face them.