Human Rights in Cities and Other Human Settlements

A/HRC/RES/35/24View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2017.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 topics

Cities Human Rights Human Settlements Right to Housing Sustainable Development Urban Development Urban Planning

What does this mandate say?

16 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms the vision of cities for all, referring to the equal use and enjoyment of cities and human settlements, seeking to promote inclusivity and ensure that all inhabitants, of present and future generations, without discrimination of any kind, are able to inhabit and produce just, safe, healthy, accessible, affordable, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements to foster prosperity and quality of life for all, that envisages cities and human settlements that, inter alia, fulfil their social function;

Also reaffirms the need to promote equitable, affordable and accessible sustainable basic physical and social infrastructure for all, without discrimination, including affordable serviced land, adequate housing, modern and renewable energy, safe drinking water and sanitation, safe, nutritious and adequate food, waste disposal, sustainable mobility, health care and family planning, education, culture, and information and communications technology, while ensuring that these services adhere to the human rights obligations of States and respond to the needs of women, children and youth, older persons and persons with disabilities, migrants, indigenous peoples, local communities and others that are in vulnerable situations, and in this regard encourages the elimination of legal, institutional, socioeconomic and physical barriers;

Reiterates that each country has primary responsibility for its own economic and social development and that the role of national policies and development strategies cannot be overemphasized, respecting each country’s policy space and leadership to implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development, while remaining consistent with relevant international rules and commitments;

Encourages States to strengthen urban governance, as appropriate, and urban-rural linkages, with sound institutions and mechanisms that empower and include relevant urban and related rural stakeholders, as well as appropriate checks and balances, providing predictability and coherence in urban development plans to enable social inclusion, sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and environmental protection;

Urges States to take deliberate and effective steps to foster the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, by ensuring legal security of tenure which guarantees legal protection against forced eviction, harassment and other threats, and developing and implementing, at all levels, integrated housing policy approaches that address the strong links between education, employment, housing and health, preventing exclusion, discrimination and segregation, and by promoting inclusive slum upgrading and prevention strategies that go beyond physical and environmental improvements to ensure that slums and informal settlements are integrated into the political, social, cultural and economic dimensions of cities;

Also urges States to consider promoting, adapting and implementing road safety policies to protect persons in vulnerable situations, in particular children, youth, older persons and persons with disabilities, in line with relevant United Nations legal instruments, as appropriate, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

Further urges States to promote safe, inclusive, accessible, green and quality public spaces equally accessible to all without discrimination, that are multifunctional areas for social interaction and inclusion, human health and well-being, and also promote economic exchange and cultural expression and dialogue among a wide diversity of people and cultures, and that are designed and managed to ensure human development and build peaceful, inclusive and participatory societies;

Urges States to promote a safe, healthy, inclusive and secure environment in cities and human settlements enabling everyone to live, work and participate in urban life without fear of violence and intimidation, taking into account vulnerability and cultural factors in the development of policies concerning public security and crime and violence prevention, including by preventing and countering the stigmatization of specific groups as posing inherently greater security threats;

Reaffirms that the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation as components of the right to an adequate standard of living are essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life as well as all other human rights;

Invites States to promote adequate public and private investments in protective, accessible and sustainable infrastructure and service provision systems for water, sanitation and hygiene, sewage, solid waste management, urban drainage, reduction of air pollution and storm water management, and to seek to ensure that this infrastructure is climate resilient and forms part of integrated urban and territorial development plans, including housing and mobility, among others;

Calls upon States to foster ecosystem-based solutions, including in areas that support cities and human settlements, to ensure sustainable consumption and production and waste management patterns, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 12, so that the ecosystem’s regenerative capacity is not exceeded, with a view to addressing the unprecedented threats faced by cities and human settlements from loss of biodiversity, pressure on ecosystems, pollution, natural and human-made disasters, and climate change and its related risks, noting that these threats undermine the efforts to end poverty in all its forms and dimensions and to achieve sustainable development;

Recognizes the need to move from reactive to more proactive risk-based, all-hazards and all-of-society approaches to reduce disaster risks and build resilience in cities and other human settlements by promoting the mainstreaming of disaster risk assessments into land-use policy development and implementation, including urban planning, and integrating “build back better” principles into the post-disaster recovery process, as well as to build the capacity of local authorities to develop and implement disaster risk reduction and response plans, such as risk assessments on the location of current and future public facilities, and formulate adequate contingency and evacuation procedures in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030;

Stresses the commitment of States to ensure full respect for the human rights of refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants, regardless of their migration status, and to support their host cities in the spirit of international cooperation, taking into account national circumstances, and recognizes that, although the movement of large populations into towns and cities poses a variety of challenges, it can also bring significant social, economic and cultural contributions to urban life;

Reaffirms the commitments on means of implementation included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, and invites international multilateral financial institutions, regional development banks, development finance institutions and cooperation agencies to provide financial support, including through innovative financial mechanisms, to programmes and projects for implementing the New Urban Agenda, particularly in developing countries;

Encourages relevant special procedure mandate holders, in fulfilling their respective mandates, to submit proposals that could support States in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 11;

Underscores the importance of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly, to be convened by the President of the Assembly during the seventy-first session of the Assembly, to discuss the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the positioning of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in this regard.

Paragraph content is machine-extracted from UN documents. For authoritative content, please refer to the official UN document.

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