The challenge
The impact of legislation is important: it can set meaningful frameworks for sustainable development or accentuate inequalities and exclusion. The multiplicity and rigidity of laws and regulations compel citizens to pursue informal routes in areas such as land and property transactions, so urban legal informality becomes the norm. Practical legal interventions are needed to create robust, fair and effective legal instruments for a stable and predictable framework and to guarantee the inclusion of the interests of vulnerable groups, while also providing a catalyst for local and national discourse.
Impact
News and Stories
Story
The way in which cities are planned, managed and designed determines the opportunities for inclusion of the elderly: Euskal Hiria 2020
Story
New Urban Land Management Law to guide land issues in Puntland, Somalia
“Without appropriate legislation, the implementation of the New Urban Agenda is impossible”
Training participant
Leaving no one and no place behind
Hover over or click the icons to learn about UN-Habitat's work on social inclusion here.
UN-Habitat believes in ‘rights-based’ legislation as it will help promote participation as well as the integration of urban dwellers in the development decisions and planning outcomes that affect their daily lives.
Women are often excluded in urban development initiatives. UN-Habitat advocates for the participation of women and other groups in urban legal interventions as it is a key criterion of success for sustainable urban development
Youth, children and older persons, especially those in situations of particular risk of marginalization, such as girl child and female-headed households, are often excluded from access to housing, urban basic services, public spaces and infrastructure, and the overall benefits of urbanization. Young women and men have been a key focus of UN-Habitat’s work. The agency has successfully advocated for the role of youth as leaders in sustainable urban development, recognizing the guiding principle of the SDGs of “leaving no one behind,” and the New Urban Agenda vision of cities for all.
Sustainable urban development can only be achieved if persons with disabilities are included meaningfully in decision-making and are able to access their rights. UN-Habitat partners with representative groups and individual rights holders, as well as national and local governments, relevant UN bodies and civil society to maximize impact and to meaningfully ensure that the rights including accessibility and universal design of persons with disabilities are promoted, respected and protected.
Donors and partners
The success of UN-Habitat’s work on legislation relies on a network of partners for developing mechanisms to create and disseminate legal tools and knowledge and to support legal reform processes.
UN-Habitat jointly organizes annual urban law days with academic institutions to exchange best practices, expertise, and innovation in the field of urban legislation and development among a multidisciplinary circle of professionals. This collaboration has brought about greater sustainability, comprehensive outreach and increased awareness of strategies to develop functional effective legal systems.
UrbanLex is UN-Habitat’s principal means of collecting and openly sharing primary information on urban law. As well as providing direct access to the largest collection of legal instruments organized and summarised according to urban priorities, UrbanLex provides a platform for comparative analysis and the identification of patterns and innovations in urban law and is supported by a growing network of partners, such as FAO, CNJUR, University of Wits, etc.
The Urban Legislation Unit is collaborating with UN Environment, UNFCCC and the Commonwealth Secretariat for the development of the Law and Climate Change Toolkit. The Toolkit provides a global resource to help countries to put in place the necessary legal frameworks for effective national implementation of the Paris Agreement and their Nationally Determined Contributions.
Our Experts
Related Sustainable Development Goals
