Facing One Billion Challenges: A rights-based approach to slum upgrading

Abstract

There are currently one billion people living in slums today facing poor sanitation, high levels of violence and overcrowding. Forced evictions and slum demolition has been a common practice, despite being deemed a gross violation of human rights. Slum upgrading has increasingly become recognized as an effective urban poverty strategy that can best address the livelihoods of slum dwellers. This research will explore how a rights-based approach (RBA) to slum upgrading can improve outcomes. The first section will discuss definitions and characteristics of slums, illustrating their deep complexities. Following, slum upgrading will be introduced as a theory, practice and the challenges and failures of past initiatives. The third section will present slums as a human rights problem and how a RBA can best respond to it. By utilizing international discourse- mainly through conventions and agreement- the right to adequate housing, women’s rights and the right to participation, can provide a solid foundation for a RBA to slum upgrading. Finally, the two selected case studies will reveal how attention to the aforementioned rights, especially participation, can lead to positive and sustainable outcomes.