‘Human rights cities’ in Africa? Rights as resources for urban governance in the Global South
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| Author | MARIUS PIETERSE |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12449 |
DOI: 10.1111/j ols.12449
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
‘Human rights cities’ in Africa? Rights as
resources for urban governance in the Global
South
MARIUS PIETERSE
School of Law, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South
Africa
Correspondence
School of Law,University of the
Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3 Wits 2050,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Email: Marius.Pieterse@wits.ac.za
Abstract
This article considers the use of human rights law as a
resource for urban governance by African cities, thereby
supplementing the growing literature on ‘human rights
cities’ that has thus far focused on the experiences of
cities in the Global North. It considers the motivations
for and impact of human rights city initiatives, before
taking a closer look at reported instances of rights invo-
cation in and by African cities and pointing to factors
that explain the seemingly limited traction of human
rights law for urban local governments on the conti-
nent. The article shows that incomplete and politically
contested devolution arrangements across African con-
stitutional systems have combined with pressures per-
taining to the domestic enforceability of socio-economic
rights to structure a somewhat cautious and fraught,
but nevertheless promising, relationship between local
governments in African cities and human rights law.
1 INTRODUCTION
Human rights as legal and sociological phenomena are relevant to urban life in a number of
interlocking ways. Theorists distinguish between the use of rights in cities (referring to the extent
to which human rights are enforceable at the level of urban local government and the extent to
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© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Law and Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cardiff University (CU).
538 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jols J.Law Soc. 2023;50:538–557.
539
which urban governance actors and stakeholders may be held accountable for complying with
human rights standards), the rights of cities (referring to urban local government’s regulatory
power over urban governance stakeholders and/or to its assertion of legal competencies within
intergovernmental relations), and rights to the city (referring to a nascent collection of pecu-
liarly urban human rights, or specifically urban understandings of existing human rights, not
uncommonly theoretically grounded in Henri Lefebvre’s ‘right to the city’).1
Cutting across these but perhaps corresponding most to rights of the city,the notion of ‘human
rights cities’ broadly refers to cities where human rights contribute to the urban community’s
collective self-definition and where a local understanding of human rights is explicitly promoted
and pursued in the course of everyday urban governance activities. Of particular interest to this
article, human rights cities further frequently invoke rights in efforts to structure and cement
urban governance relationships and to legitimize particular urban policies or programmes in
the city, especially those aimed at advancing the rights of vulnerable and marginalized urban
dwellers.2
The term ‘human rights city’ originated as the moniker of a local government partnership
initiative of the non-governmental organization (NGO) People’s Movement for Human Rights
Learning (PDHRE) and is still sometimes used to identify the city members of that initiative.3
However, it has since gained wider meaning – buzzword status, even – and today not uncom-
monly refers broadly to cities that are self-consciously ‘organised around norms and principles of
human rights’.4Thusemployed, the label encompasses a range of activities by a diverse set of city
governments worldwide, and frequently also refers to the actions of collective urban local govern-
ment movements such as ‘new municipalism’, ‘climate cities’, and ‘sanctuary cities’, all of which
leverage the discursive authority of human rights in asserting an urban governance vision within
and beyond domestic intergovernmental relations.5
Human rights cities are located, therefore, at the intersection of urban politics, human rights
law, and those aspects of constitutional law concerned with intergovernmental relations (such
1H. Lefebvre, Writings on Cities (1996) trans. E. Kofman and E. Lebas, 173–174. See also E. Garcia Chueca, ‘Human Rights
in the City and the Right to the City: Two Different Paradigms Confronting Urbanisation’ in Global Urban Justice: The
Rise of Human Rights Cities, eds B. Oomen et al. (2016) 103, at 103–104, 107–108; M. Grigolo, The Human Rights City:
New York,San Francisco, Barcelona (2019) 3–6; B. Oomen, ‘Introduction: The Promises and Challenges of Human Rights
Cities’ in eds Oomen et al., id., p. 1, at pp. 3–6; United Nations Human Rights Council, Role of Local Government in the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights: Final Report of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee (2015) paras
42–49, at <https://www.uclg.org/sites/default/files/2015_report_en_role_of_local_government_in_the_promotion_and_
protection_of_human_rights.pdf>.
2M. Grigolo, ‘Towards a Sociology of the Human Rights City: Focusingon Practice’ in eds Oomen et al., op. cit., n. 1, p.
276, at p.279; Grigolo, op. cit., n. 1, p. 5; Oomen, op. cit., n. 1, pp. 7–8; B. Oomen and E. van den Berg, ‘Human Rights Cities:
Urban Actors as Pragmatic Idealistic Human Rights Users’ (2014) 8 Human Rights & International Legal Discourse 160, at
161; J. Smith, ‘Local Responses to Right-WingPopulism: Building Human Rights Cities’ (2017) 11 Studies in Social Justice
347, at 364; C. Soohoo, ‘Human Rights Cities: Challenges and Possibilities’ in eds Oomen et al. op. cit., n. 1, p.257, at pp.
257–258.
3GarciaChueca,op.cit.,n.1,p.103;Oomen,op.cit.,n.1,p.6;S.P.Marksetal.,Human Rights Cities: Civic Engagement
for Societal Development (2008) 47–50.
4Grigolo, op. cit., n. 1, p. 5. See also sources cited in n. 2 above.
5See E. Durmus, ‘A Typologyof Local Governments’ Engagement with Human Rights: Legal Pluralist Contributions to
International Law and Human Rights’ (2020) 38 Netherlands Q. of Human Rights 30, at 32–35; Grigolo, op.cit.,n. 1, pp.
48–49; B. Russell, ‘Beyond the Local Trap: New Municipalism and the Rise of the FearlessCities’ (2019) 51 Antipode 989;
C. Swiney,‘ The Urbanization of International Lawand International Relations: The Rising Soft Power of Cities in Global
Governance’ (2020) 41 Michigan J. of International Law 227, at 261–267.
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