{"id":33186,"date":"2016-10-12T13:54:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T16:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=33186"},"modified":"2016-10-18T02:36:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T05:36:44","slug":"brazils-critique-of-the-habitat-iii-zero-draft-of-the-new-urban-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=33186","title":{"rendered":"Brazil’s Critique of the Habitat III ‘Zero Draft’ of The New Urban Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The New Urban Agenda<\/a> is responsible for establishing\u00a0the policy frameworks that will guide the governance of the world\u2019s cities for the coming 20 years.<\/h3>\n

After the release of the New Urban Agenda Zero Draft<\/a>\u00a0document in May, each country was given the opportunity to write its own critique and offer suggestions for any additions or revisions. The Brazilian response\u00a0to the Zero Draft can be found here<\/a>, and key elements of that response are summarized in this article. Some of those critiques likely influenced the final New Urban Agenda<\/a> which forms the basis of next week’s Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador.<\/p>\n

Brazilian experts\u00a0who contributed to the response were critical of the Zero Draft\u2019s relatively neutral language and were also uncertain whether the document will, or will not, advance the previous promises of the Habitat II conference made in 1996 and revised in 2001. They say a further examination should be undertaken.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian response paper states that the current draft \u201cdoes not fit the reality of exclusion<\/a>, regression and rights violations<\/a> lived by populations daily. With this, it does not recognize or show empathy for the many conflicts that pervade this process, like land conflicts, environmental issues and political disputes for public land present in many parts of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contributors to this response document say the Zero Draft\u00a0did not adequately detail the true realities of vulnerable populations. \u201cIn the document, the analysis is centered on urban poverty and the treatment of vulnerable populations only in terms of income, leaving out the discussion from the point of view of socio-territorial inequality<\/a> (like\u00a0access<\/a> to services, goods, and opportunities).\u201d Other underdeveloped topics in the document include\u00a0public security<\/a> and urban violence<\/a>, which they view should be expressly mentioned in order to find adequate solutions.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian response offers a possible alternative, saying that \u201ctheir vision\u201d would include \u201cthe search for equity, the just distribution of costs and benefits of urbanization, the social function of ownership and property, among others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most important part of the Brazilian critique is that it points out a huge contradiction within the Zero Draft that is easily looked over, which is the contradiction between<\/a> the \u201cRight to the City<\/a>\u201d and emphasizing competitiveness as a goal for cities. The basic question the Brazilian response asks is: how is it possible to advocate for inclusive and just growth, and also competition, which inherently means promoting losers and winners?<\/p>\n

The Brazilian response also says that the Zero Draft incorrectly conflates the \u201cRight to the City\u201d with the \u201ccity for all.\u201d The \u201ccity for all\u201d they say, has a primary dimension of equality and non-exclusion. The \u201cRight to the City,\u201d however, is a much broader and older concept that views the city as a common good. The \u201cRight to the City\u201d can be used as an approach to human rights<\/a> and a platform for action, whereas the \u201ccity for all\u201d is simply a framework.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian response also favors a clearer role for the public sector in the development of cities<\/a> beyond just public-private partnerships<\/a>. The document stresses the importance of regulating business and real estate markets<\/a> and coming up with better ways to distribute the costs and benefits of city construction.<\/p>\n

As a whole, the Brazilian critique\u00a0did not believe the Zero Draft adequately addressed\u00a0themes like informality<\/a>, the concentration of property or offered concrete plans about how to regulate these sectors. In line with the Brazilian constitution<\/a>, the Brazilian response calls for a stronger confirmation of the social function of land and establishing mechanisms for the prevention and mediation of land conflicts.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Brazilian response agrees that a variety of solutions are integral to the success of the New Urban Agenda in areas like housing<\/a> and that the government should not be the only actor involved. The Zero Draft also talks about the importance of public space<\/a>; the Brazilian response calls for an affirmation of what public space actually means, in that it is not actually regulated by the government, but open to all. If left too controlled by government, the Brazilians say, there is a risk of repression or \u201ccriminalization<\/a> of diverse expressions of citizenship<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the Brazilians were\u00a0skeptical of the current methods of implementation and believed there should be a panel created to continuously monitor the progress of the New Urban Agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The New Urban Agenda is responsible for establishing\u00a0the policy frameworks that will guide the governance of the world\u2019s cities for the coming 20 years. After the release of the New Urban […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":32160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1293,1854,1668,1271,335,329,1329],"tags":[1448,750,2251,1075,11,2277,203,359,1033,434,936,147,2278,344,152,744,301,171,2074,1008,1403,41,2279],"writer":[1732],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-evictionswatch","8":"category-housingwatch","9":"category-participationwatch","10":"category-favelaqualities","11":"category-policies","12":"category-solutions","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-favelasareassets","15":"tag-access","16":"tag-asset-based-development","17":"tag-critique","18":"tag-forced-evictions","19":"tag-habitat-iii","20":"tag-inequality","21":"tag-informality","22":"tag-land-rights","23":"tag-land-tenure","24":"tag-land-titling","25":"tag-morar-carioca","26":"tag-new-urban-agenda","27":"tag-new-urbanism","28":"tag-participation","29":"tag-policy-critique","30":"tag-public-policy","31":"tag-public-space","32":"tag-qualities-of-informality","33":"tag-right-to-the-city","34":"tag-solution","35":"tag-un","36":"tag-un-habitat","37":"writer-david-robertson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33186"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=33186"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=33186"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=33186"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=33186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}