In June 1996, at the Partner Committee of Habitat II, local authorities made the case for the preparation of a worldwide charter on local autonomy. The Chairperson’s summary of the hearings refers to the matter as follows: “It was suggested that the experience gained in the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government could be used as a basis for developing a global charter that would set out the key principles underlying a sound constitutional or legal framework for a democratic local government system.”

UN-HABITAT followed up on this request from local authorities in a Memorandum signed with the World Associations of Cities and Local Authorities Coordination in July 1997. An expert group meeting was held in April 1998 to prepare a first draft of the charter, which was thereafter submitted to consultations in all regions of the world in 1999-2000. These consultations, held in Agadir, Strasbourg, Santiago de Chile, Mumbai, Chonju and Accra, involved hundreds of local authorities representatives as well as ministers and government officials.

The draft charter was then revised and submitted to the UN Commission on Human Settlements in February 2001. However, the Commission could not reach a consensus on the proposed charter because some governments felt that it could contradict their constitutions and that therefore they would prefer a less binding declaration of principles. As a result, the Commission adopted a resolution (18/11) calling on the Executive Director “to intensify dialogue among governments at all levels on all issues related to effective decentralization and the strengthening of local authorities, including principles and legal frameworks in support of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda”.

The Special Session of the General Assembly (Istanbul +5) of June 2001 welcomed “the efforts made by many developing countries in effecting decentralisation in the management of cities”. But the General Assembly did not issue specific guidelines.

The international dialogue started in earnest on 30 April 2002 during the first session of the World Urban Forum which recommended the development of constructive guidelines on effective decentralisation as a tool for development. UN-HABITAT then commissioned a set of case studies on the current legislative frameworks on decentralisation which formed the basis for a dialogue session at UN-HABITAT’s Governing Council of May 2003. This resulted in a new resolution (19/12) calling on the Executive Director “to take further steps and measures to intensify dialogue with the aim of developing recommendations to be presented to the next session of the Governing Council” in April 2005. The establishment of an Advisory Group of Experts on Decentralisation to support the dialogue process was also endorsed by the Governing Council. This group met for the first time in March 2004 in Gatineau, Canada.

Yet eight years after the Istanbul Summit, international guidelines on decentralisation are not officially available. This is a cause for concern in many developing countries. However, a real dialogue has started at the inter-governmental level and one could consider that the process has been quite useful and stimulating. So far, the process has been more important than the product, but the product (guidelines or recommendations) seems to be within reach. The new World Organization may have to lobby to speed up its finalisation.