On October 9th, the «Housing rights: Looking back, looking forward » event was co-hosted by the Development Planning Unit (DPU), the Habitat International Coalition (HIC), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). In the framework of the Cities Are Listening process, the event contributed to the joint work for the right to adequate housing advanced in the UCLG World Congress’ Town Hall process last year.
The right to adequate housing has become prominent in the human rights agenda and increasingly so, in local and regional government’s agendas, as reflected by the Municipalist Declaration of Cities for Adequate Housing and the Cities4Housing movement.In the light of an increased financialization of housing that has raised precariousness, the intersection between climate change and housing rights and in the face of the current pandemic that has exposed pre-existing inequalities, jointly reflecting on the critical role of housing in how we are able to respond collectively is as necessary as ever.
The online gathering paid special attention to the need to open a dialogue between a wide array of speakers converging in the defence and production of the ‘right to housing’ as the ‘right to life’. This dynamic discussion has started in an important moment at the fore of the struggles we face, increasingly endangered through old and new machines of massive evictions, displacements and dispossession, and in the face of the current pandemic.
- Housing rights: Looking back, looking forward - video outputs from DPU co-hosted event published by UCL
- A collective conversation on Housing Rights: Looking back, looking forward by Habitat International Coalition
