ABU DhABI, FEBRUARY 2020 |
Achieving Spatial Equity through Human Rights and the Rule of Law
Amidst the overwhelmingly dense programme at the 2020 World Urban Forum held in Abu Dhabi from 8 to 13 February this year, IRGLUS hosted a session entitled “Achieving spatial equity through human rights and the law”.
The overall objective of the session was to explore the concept and dimensions of spatial equity as well as the emerging human rights challenges associated with them, and to consider how to address these challenges legally. The session aimed to discuss the linkages between legal frameworks, their cultural predilections and human rights impacts, and their effects on urban residents in different socio-economic and cultural urban settings.
Given that inter- and intra-urban spatial discrepancies and polarisation threatens the realisation of the urban SDGs, it is imperative to tackle these through appropriate human rights standards imbedded into urban laws and governance systems in ways that are relevant and speak to local cultural and socio-economic needs.
Joint IRGLUS coordinator professor Marius Pieterse (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) introduced the session by linking different fields of law to spatial inequality at city, regional and global scales, and asked participants to reflect on ways in which to proactively imbed appropriate human rights standards within these laws rather than to simply use rights defensively when the laws fall short, as seems to be the trend.
The panel, consisting of professor Marta Lora-Tamayo Vallve (UNEP, Madrid); justice Zione Ntaba (Malawi HIgh Court); Mr. Ali Imran (UCLG Asia Pacific) and Mr. Robert-Lewis Lettington (UN Habitat), covered a variety of issues in their reflections. These included the ways in which different legal systems treat informality, the special significance of local government law and spatial governance instruments in promoting spatial equity (with the greatest untapped potential argued to lie in functional laws and processes in relation to, for instance, land use management; administrative processes; municipal systems, structures and financing mechanisms; and participation processes), the limits of local government lawmaking power in this context, the importance of meaningful public involvement and the role of courts in providing rights-aligned interpretations of relevant legal standards and processes.
The panel discussion was followed by lively discussion among the audience members, after which everyone scattered to their next engagements. While only a small cog in the massive WUF wheel, the session provided much-needed space to reflect on the role of law in a Forum typically dominated by policy, planning, politics and international relations.