ABSTRACT
Human rights cities (HRCs) have recently earned a distinctive place in the human rights localisation scholarship, which focuses on the role of individuals, civil society organisations and subnational public authorities in the protection and realisation of human rights. This chapter presents in detail Bologna's gradual engagement with international human rights over the last two decades. In addition, intergovernmental disputes can be the very reason for invoking international human rights in the first place, prior to any subsequent human rights city-branding exercises. Grigolo, for example, notes that cities with progressive culture and orientation can invoke human rights, in order to ‘challenge and modify’ state practices, using human rights' ‘higher, morally superior status’. In the meanwhile, international human rights started slowly appearing on the agenda of the municipality of Bologna as well.
