Dignity in the Built Environment - 2021 Highlights from IHRB and Partners

Many countries are prioritizing construction of buildings and infrastructure within their economic recovery plans: a recent forecast projected construction output through to 2030 will be 35% more than in the ten years to 2020.

The Coalition for Dignity in the Built Environment advances a global agenda for integrating human rights and accountability throughout the built environment lifecycle – using a Framework that flows from land use, finance and planning, through design, construction and management, to redevelopment. The coalition harnesses two core strategies: policy advocacy and project-level implementation, supported by dynamic research and communications.

Here are some of the highlights from our work in 2021, with references to work ahead in 2022.

Public procurement of infrastructure: Mitigating social risks, maximizing social outcomes

IHRB (coalition secretariat) and the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of South Wales testified to an Australian Parliamentary Inquiry on public procurement of infrastructure, advocating for the consideration of social risks and outcomes from the very earliest stages of project planning and procurement, an approach that was well received by participating MPs.

Building decarbonization and a just transition

As finance flows into reducing emissions from buildings, IHRB highlighted the actions policy-makers and investors must take to align policies with human and workers’ rights – through a policy report; multi-stakeholder event with an emphasis on implications for the right to housing; COP26-related engagement; and serving on the taskforce for the World Green Building Council’s “Beyond the Business Case” report. This work will develop further into global research on the built environment just transitions through 2022 – 2024, with deep-dives into specific countries combined with global-level communications and advocacy.

Urban planning, human rights and just transition in Cartagena, Colombia

IHRB, Rafto Foundation and IHRB’s sister organization in Colombia CREER conducted fieldwork in Cartagena from October – December 2021. This involved participation in three community consultations on the city’s new territorial plan in predominantly afro-Colombian neighborhoods of the city as well as research, and interviews with representatives of government, civil society and business. The findings will inform recommendations for the approach to the territorial plan, a workshop in March 2022 and development of ongoing partnerships with key actors in the city. This work will develop into similar efforts in other ports and coastal cities.

“Turning the tables” - Participatory decision-making in the built environment

IHRB conducted in-depth interviews with organisations working to strengthen local community participation and agency in decisions about what gets built and how, in countries ranging from Portugal to Bangladesh, from Senegal to Bulgaria and Albania. Summaries and analysis will be published in 2022, and interviewees will be invited to join a virtual global teach-in to share their experiences and recommendations on how to strengthen community agency in the built environment. 

Convening UN experts on Dignity by Design

Coalition members IHRB, Raoul Wallenberg Institute and Rafto Foundation hosted a virtual discussion for UN Rapporteurs on risks and opportunities for human rights in the built environment, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The session was attended by the Rapporteur on the Right to Health and the Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, with representation from the mandates on the Right to Privacy, Rights of People with Disabilities, and Rights of Older Persons. The event highlighted the ways in which the built environment and its power dynamics have major implications across the full spectrum of human rights.

Bringing a human rights approach to “smart cities” 

Coalition members provided input to an OHCHR/UN Habitat initiative on human security approaches to smart city development in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. In 2022, IHRB will work with UNDP Asia Pacific to develop a toolkit on smart cities, business and human rights, with recommendations for governments (particularly municipal government procurers of technology), the private sector (technology and implementation companies), and civil society.

This initiative recognises the growing role of technology within the urban fabric: which can contribute to the realisation of rights but also poses significant risks of rights abuses, including on privacy, targeting of defenders, discrimination, and differentiated benefits throughout a city. (See pages 61-62 of IHRB’s foundational report “Dignity by Design” on technology, smart cities and human rights).

Addressing architecture and the right to housing in Egypt

IHRB co-presented together with housing expert and 10Tooba co-founder Yahia Shawkat on a webinar hosted by the John D. Gerhart Centre for Philanthropy at the American University of Cairo, attended by a large group of architects and architectural students.

The session honed in on the roles and responsibilities of decision-makers throughout the built environment lifecycle. It elevated in particular the responsibilities of architects for human rights, through design decisions for buildings, for planning processes, and even for regional and national socio-economic plans. Shawkat made the case for a “Hippocratic oath” (to do no harm), for architects. And he elevated the ways in which related principles are in fact already included in existing engineering and architectural codes – but need to be put into practice.

Management school students develop built environment case studies

On a placement with IHRB, three management school students mapped challenges and opportunities for advancing human rights in the built environment in India, Czech Republic, Germany, Canada, and Ukraine. These mapping studies will be a powerful stepping stone in developing plans for future work with local and national partners in these countries.

Advancing the “Building Dignity Project” in Bergen, Norway

The city of Bergen published its second report on progress on integrating the Framework for Dignity in the Built Environment into a specific project - the conversion of a former teacher training college into a centre providing services for newly-arrived migrants and refugees. The process has provided vision and purpose across the project team, and specific lessons on how to put the city’s designation as a “human rights city” into practice in the context of building projects. Cities in all regions have the opportunity to learn from this project and take up the approach in their own projects.

Presenting the Dignity by Design Framework in planning and building processes 

Coalition members advocated throughout 2021 for rights-based approaches, with the lifecycle “Framework Dignity in the Built Environment” as a touch-point, in multiple fora. These included engagement:

• At city level, for example with municipal officials from Guayaquil, Lisbon, Utrecht, and Munich, and through participation in the “Conscious Cities – Warsaw” event on  Diversity and Inclusion in a City;
• With finance, for example through IHRB’s submission to the EU social taxonomy process, as well as presentations to UNEP-FI North America, Climate Positive Europe Alliance and individual banks;
• And with industry, for example through participation in BRE Group’s social equity working group; a presentation to the Spanish Green Building Council; and input to the Global ABC guidelines on building material passports.

Get in Touch!

To get involved in IHRB’s built environment programme, review our materials and get in touch with the programme team: Annabel Short (Senior Advisor); Andreia Fidalgo (Programme Manager, Europe); and Alejandra Rivera (Research Consultant) – email format: firstname.lastname @ihrb.org