GPN Webinar: "COVID-19 AND CITIES. BUILDING RESILIENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION". Presentation by Damien Short

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Webinar
Covid-19 and Cities.
Building Resilience on Human Rights and Environmental Protection
15° July
2.30 p.m. (CET) - 8.30 a.m. (EST) - 8.30 p.m. (SGT) - 00.30 a.m. (NZT)

Professor Damien Short
Human Rights Consortium
School of Advanced Study
University of London
damien.short@sas.ac.uk
‘Covid-19, Cities and Human Rights: summary of (some) emerging issues’

Human Rights: Ensuring Conditions for a Minimally Good Life
‘Human rights are not ideals of the good life for humans; rather they are
concerned with ensuring the conditions, negative and positive, of a minimally
good life’.
James Nickel, ‘Poverty and Rights’, The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol.55, No.
220, 2005.
If we apply even this minimalist idea to economic and social rights, it
suggests… that their focus should primarily be on preventing hunger,
malnutrition, preventable disease, ignorance and exclusion from
productive opportunities, access to clean water and air and the like…

The City - some key rights to consider
Even if we take Nickel’s minimalist understanding of human rights it is evident that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a
considerable negative impact on people’s ‘minimally good life’, in a very short space of time.
In cities, Covid-19 has highlighted the link between the rights below and the rights to health, dignity and life and ALL
are now threatened more than ever:
 Right to adequate housing;
Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, COVID-19 Guidance Note: Prohibition on Evictions, 28 April 2020 at
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Housing/SR_housing_COVID-19_guidance_evictions.pdf;
 Right to water and sanitation – privatised water is especially concerning where income levels are low and
unemployment high.
 Right to a healthy environment
(Air and water quality and noise pollution, waste, biodiversity - the natural resources of cities are also a key asset for
biodiversity and human enjoyment — including rivers, coastal zones, forested areas and open green land — and
should be protected and safeguarded)
 Political rights (inclusive governance; and the concept of “city of inclusive citizenship”, which means the
recognition of all inhabitants — whether permanent or transitional, living in legal or informal condition — as legal
citizens of the city).
 Cultural rights (education)

Human Rights: Covid impacts
• The negative Covid-19 human rights impact has been felt in cites both in
developing and developed countries.
• The pandemic is exacerbating social discrimination and injustice towards
vulnerable groups:
• Indigenous peoples/minorities, women, youth, migrants and refugees, and all those
living at, or close to the poverty line.
• Covid-19 is exacerbating the negative impacts of neoliberal global capitalism and
its ongoing structural failure to fulfil economic, social, and cultural rights.
• Added to these come significant environmental externalities.

Environmental degradation - increase in plastic pollution
- We may have all heard of the environmental ‘positive’ of large CO2 reductions globally
from reduced consumption, BUT
- there has been a surge in single-use plastic consumption, especially in cities:
- e.g. Greeners Action (Hong Kong) surveyed over 2 000 participants in early April and
found that people are ordering food (in plastic containers) at a rate more than twice as high
as 2019.
- understandable increase in plastic production, face masks etc (see https://earth.org/covid-
19-surge-in-plastic-pollution/ )
- BUT evidence of irresponsible disposal by consumers and poor waste management in
many countries
- UK city beaches particular bad examples.

Plastic Pollution: ‘More masks than jellyfish’ - coronavirus waste ends up in ocean’ 8/6/20
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/08/more-masks-than-jellyfish-coronavirus-waste-ends-up-in-ocean

Cities in Lockdown
- The lockdown resulted in serious concerns about the violation of dignity and other
human rights for people living in inadequate and overcrowded houses,
- Degraded social and family conditions, without internet connection and without
access to educational services.
- Massive increase in people reporting mental ill-health during lock-downs.
- The widespread closure of schools has interrupted the education of more than 1
billion children.

The Modern Slavery effect
- Explosion of cases around the world in both developed and developing
countries.
- Tend to affect minorities and vulnerable groups most, such as migrants, and
this poses an issue of social and environmental injustice, even in developed
countries…..
(Germany: ‘Modern slavery' at the heart of German slaughterhouse
outbreak; BBC News - Coronavirus: 'I can't wash my hands - my water was
cut off' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52384622)

The City and Civil Unrest
 Around the world, in informal settlements, there is a lack of water and sanitation and inadequate housing.
 Slums are in many cases, the source of increased contagion and difficulty in containing the virus due to
the inability to comply with minimum hygiene social distancing precautions and self isolation.
 “COVID-19 is sweeping through populous, high-density informal settlements and to refugee, IDP and
migrant camps, where physical distancing is challenging, access to health services limited, and popula-
tions are left especially vulnerable to disease.”
 Around the world, millions of people already live hand to mouth.
 Before this crisis, street protests about inequalities and falling living standards were common. People were
already frustrated and angry.
 Against this backdrop, the pandemic is creating further hardship that, if not mitigated, will raise
tension and could provoke considerable civil unrest
https://www.un.org/victimsofterrorism/sites/www.un.org.victimsofterrorism/files/un_-
_human_rights_and_covid_april_2020.pdf)

The resilient city?
To build resilient cities:
 Countries that have invested in protecting economic and social rights and in combating
inequalities are likely to be more resilient.
 Q- Could the Covid-19 crisis strengthen the duty (of public authorities) to fulfil
economic, social and cultural rights?
 These could be linked, of course, to the rights to health, dignity and life and to the duty
to ensure public health for all other citizens
 Can HRs benchmarks offer a paradigm for healthy cities?
 Could Covid19 strengthen the “right to the city” as a framework for a resilient city based
on the implementation of human rights and environmental rights? See the work of UN
Habbitat on this - https://unhabitat.org/

UK example – ‘the market’ will not provide- the return of the ‘big state’?
See - https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/03/21/the-virus-means-the-big-state-is-back
- Petition demanding Universal Basic Income during Covid-19 collected over 100,000
signatures.
- In the UK a public petition calling for a trial of Universal Basic Income (UBI) during the
coronavirus crisis very quickly reached over 100,000 signatures.
- UBI could ensure home and food security for all UK residents, and support the needs of
those who need to self-isolate.
- It would also keep money flowing through the economy.
- It has been supported by all parts of the UK, but particularly in Scotland, Wales
and south west England.

Other possible state interventions:
- In the emergency phase it is necessary to ensure that these rights are respected through
immediate measures such as:
- equitable access to the provision of basic public services, sanitation and even fresh water
regardless of the payment of bills;
- evictions ban, rent and mortgage payment deferment;
securing emergency shelter for the homeless.
- expanding domestic violence responses for victims of abuse.

Conclusion
- These are but some of the myriad challenges we face in the Covid-
19 world.
- Much evidence based research will be needed.
- Hopefully our working groups can help better inform policymaker’s
choices to improve people’s lives for the better.
- We welcome your invovlement!

Thank you!
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Covid-19 and Cities. Building Resilience on Human Rights and Environmental Protection

Right to the City? UN Habitat
- The right to the city is a new paradigm that provides an alternative
framework to rethink cities and urbanization.
- It envisions the effective fulfilment of all internationally agreed human
rights, sustainable development objectives as expressed through the
Sustainable Development Goals, and the commitments of the Habitat
Agenda.
- Against this framework, it nevertheless brings a new dimension to
serve as foundation for the New Urban Agenda based on an
understanding of the city as a place that strives to guarantee a decent
and full life for all inhabitants.

GPN Webinar: "COVID-19 AND CITIES. BUILDING RESILIENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION". Presentation by Damien Short

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GPN Webinar: "COVID-19 AND CITIES. BUILDING RESILIENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION". Presentation by Damien Short