Abstract
The idea for editing a collection of articles on spatial planning and human rights arose in the meeting of Planning Theory’s Editorial Board during the 2012 Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) conference in Ankara, Turkey. I had just published a book containing a chapter on this topic (B Davy, 2012) and was involved in research on the human rights approach to global social citizenship (B Davy et al., 2013). I am grateful to Ulrike Davy, who inspired me to contemplate human rights and spatial planning, although I recognize that many scholars have written about planning and rights (see, for example, Alexander, 2002; Alterman, 2010; Needham, 2006; Webster and Lai, 2003). Human rights are relevant enough, however, to consider their relationship to spatial planning in particular.
In selecting articles for the Special Issue, I have encouraged all authors to apply the concepts of spatial planning, planning theory, and human rights in a broad sense. The following articles examine international human rights (both UN sponsored and regional), domestic human rights, or just very important rights. Some authors consider planning tools such as land administration or planning law; others compare the rights of street vendors in several jurisdictions or engage in the examination of effects that rights-based planning has for marginalized individuals or groups.
Focusing on human rights means to address rights in the most fundamental way. Legally, human rights often rank highest in the hierarchy of norms, yet human rights also can be construed of as a fundamental approach to the moral negotiations on human needs and aspirations (Sen, 2004). Human rights and spatial planning enjoy a relationship of mutual influence:
The right to life, the right to work, or the right to housing never are enjoyed in a spatial void, but always need to be contextualized with a certain place and realized in a spatial environment of many—and often conflicting—demands and claims to the use of space (“spatiality of rights”).
Spatial planning benefits from human rights as the foundation of individual and collective claims. Such a foundation can be a powerful tool in achieving essential planning goals such as social equality, poverty reduction, the provision of public space, or environmental justice.
Human rights law is the source of a common understanding of fundamental values. Even if human rights are critically neglected and violated in many countries, they embody a global consensus on what rights all women, men, and children are supposed to enjoy notwithstanding the political, economic, social, or cultural situation in their place of residence.
The protection of human rights can benefit from spatial planning. After all, the implementation of human rights often needs much time and the coordination of multiple stakeholders—a classical task for planners!
The human rights discourse is highly politicized. Recent examples include the bashing a UN special rapporteur received in the press from British politicians for her comments on the “bedroom tax”; the clash between protesters and police over rights to public space and the development of urban land in Istanbul, Turkey; or the intolerably high number of refugees who have perished in an attempt to enter the EU “illegally”. Planning theory cannot expect from a participation in the human rights discourse a tranquil debate. Whenever fundamental rights are threatened, theory needs to calibrate itself with the needs of everybody whose fundamental rights are at stake. Occasionally, this requires that not all of planning theory’s mainstream is put under consideration. Planning theory, however, can benefit from listening to the plight of all whose human rights are threatened. Their outcry speaks to what is most precious in life.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Michael Gunder and Emma Fergusson for guiding me through the editorial process. Above all, however, I want to thank the authors and peer reviewers who made the Special Issue possible.
