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HIC at WUF12: centering the social function of housing, human rights and meaningful civil society participation

HIC

The World Urban Forum (WUF) is a global gathering convened every two years by UN Habitat to connect and facilitate the participation of different actors working on habitat-related issues. For HIC it is an important space to raise collective priority issues in relation to global agendas, processes and discussions, and to exchange, strategise and celebrate milestones with allies.  

The 12th edition of WUF (WUF 12) took place in Cairo from 4-8 November 2024, amid a global scenario of increased privatization and financialisation of housing and land, shrinking space for civil society, new leadership of UN-Habitat under Executive Director Anaclaudia Rossbach, and the ongoing development of the new UN-Habitat Strategic Plan (2026 – 2029).

With this context in mind, HIC’s priority issues at WUF 12 included:

  • Renewed focus on evictions, and partnerships for collaborative data collection on forced evictions  
  • Centering social production of habitat policies and practices for realizing the human right to adequate housing 
  • Solidarity with the Palestinian people, Sudan and all people and territories facing conflict, occupation and war
  • Meaningful civil society participation through systematic and permanent mechanisms, and community-public partnerships 

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Snapshot of HIC at WUF12

  • HIC delegation: 32 HIC Member organizations and 7 HIC Friends, HIC President and Vice-President, regional and thematic Board Representatives, Regional Coordinators, and the General Secretariat 
  • HIC Members meeting: on HIC’s food sovereignty efforts, and practical cross-regional solidarity with members facing displacement amid conflict, occupation and  war 
  • HIC events, collaborations and celebrations, including side-events and the collective Habitat Village stand and programme:
    • The WUF Grassroots Assembly co-organised UN Habitat, Huairou Commission, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and HIC
    • Feminist and care approaches to housing
    • Social and feminist movement convergence around social production of habitat 
    • Temporary rental platforms and the commodification of housing 
    • Housing, land and property solutions for displaced persons and communities 
    • Community-public partnerships for housing and land 
  • WUF 12 Outcomes: HIC priority issues raised at Civil Society Roundtable, informing the outcome document, WUF 12 Call to Action 

> HIC Members meeting: food sovereignty, and solidarity with Palestine & Sudan 

Hosted by HIC Member Nawaya Egypt, the gathering was attended by 45 people from 22 countries, including 27 HIC Members, Friends, Board, HIC Reference Centres and the General Secretariat. Nawaya works to preserve and promote Egyptian heritage food systems through an active network of community-based organizations, aiming to improve the socio-economic conditions of Egyptian farmers through seasonal tour programs and promote healthier, more traditional eating habits. 

While learning about the work of Nawaya, Members also discussed HIC’s collective advocacy on advancing recognition of food sovereignty and support for agroecology, with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). HIC is currently represented by Samual Ikua Thiong’o of Mazingira Institute (Kenya) and Hala Barakat of Nawaya (Egypt) on the Civil Society and Indigenous People’s Mechanism for Relations with the UN Committee on World Food Security (CSIPM), a platform consisting of 17 constituencies that engages the FAO. Sam and Hala, who were both present, spoke of their participation in the CSIPM working groups on Global Food Governance, and Urban and Peri-Urban Food Systems, and their representation of HIC in the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), a self-organised grassroots and civil society platform advancing the food sovereignty agenda.  

We listened to the experiences of HIC Members from Palestine, Egypt and Sudan, and learnt about the historical work of the HIC Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), developing legal norms and findings to influence policy consistent with the human right to adequate housing, the prohibition against forced evictions, and applying the UN Remedy and Reparations Framework for victims of violations. On HIC’s 30 years of solidarity with Palestine, we heard about how HIC advocacy has resulted in UN Treaty Body findings that reveal how Israeli housing and land sector laws and policies have institutionalized material discrimination against the Indigenous Palestinian People, and about which HIC-HLRN has published with HIC Members in Palestine. These underlay the long-standing HIC-HLRN proposal to re-establishing the UN Centre against Apartheid as a UN General Assembly (UNGA) body to monitor and investigate the Israeli apartheid system in Palestine, which the UNGA resolved to do very recently. In response to Palestinian HIC Members’ recommendations for further practical solidarity actions, we spoke of efforts of every individual to respect the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign and engage in solidarity actions in our home countries. HIC social movement and NGO Members present called for a joint HIC manifesto demanding the end to apartheid and genocide in Palestine. 

> HIC events, collaborations, and celebrations at WUF 12 

HIC Events 

Collaborations

Celebrations

With great pleasure, HIC joined Members in celebrating decades of achievements: 

The GPR2C celebrated 10 years fighting for and advancing recognition of the Global Platform for the Right to the City, initiated within HIC. This special celebration included a public discussion on Multiscale & Multi-actor partnerships to advance the right to the city & the New Urban Agenda, with contributions from the Brazilian Minister of Cities, the Executive Director of UN Habitat and the Secretary Generals of UCLG and HIC, and a big celebration with Members, Friends and Partners at the Habitat Village Stand 

World Habitat celebrated 40 years of housing innovation through the World Habitat Awards, in partnership with UN-Habitat. The event highlighted award-winning solutions, shared global experiences, and fostered networking to inspire new approaches to housing challenges.

  • 70 years of Development Planning Unit (DPU) 

The Habitat Village also held the celebration of the Development Planning Unit (DPU)’s 70th anniversary. This event brought together a wider community to celebrate the engagement across educational, research and practice-based work at urban, regional, national and international scales. that DPU has been developing for decades.

> WUF 12 Outcomes 

HIC priority issues at the Civil Society Roundtable 

HIC’s priority issues at the Civil Society Roundtable, which were considered in the drafting of the outcome document, the WUF 12 Call to Action:  

  1. Increased dialogue with and meaningful participation of civil society through
  • systematic, permanent and self-organised mechanisms for civil society, that differentiate between the roles of civil society and the private sector as stakeholders 
  • public-community partnerships instead of an overreliance on the private sector for the provision of basic goods and services 
  1. Strengthening work on forced evictions, and partnerships for collaborative data collection on forced evictions 
  2. Centering the role of social production of habitat and community-led solutions for housing within the framework of the human right to adequate housing, through enabling policies and budgetary allocations  
  3. Meaningful reflection, monitoring and evaluation process leading up to the 10th anniversary of the New Urban Agenda in 2026, assessing States’ progress on the social production of habitat and the right to the city, returning to accountability, core principles and commitments 

Read HIC’s full statement here. 

> WUF 12 Call to Action 

The Cairo Call to Action is the non-binding outcome document of WUF 12 and outlines key issues for consideration. For HIC the below references are noteworthy: 

  • Affirmation of adequate housing as a human right (p.1)
  • Prioritization of adequate housing as a foundation in local, national and global frameworks to realize sustainable development, and a pillar of social protection (p.1 -2)
  • Call for sustained and systematic representation of communities as political actors in local and national decision-making processes (p. 2)
  • Call for caring cities (p.3)
  • Reference to the social and ecological functions of land, and continuum of land rights (p.3) 
  • Local and grassroots data for decision-making and collaborative efforts for co-production (p.3)

These issues will be considered as part of ongoing processes within UN Habitat and the multilateral system, including:

  • the development of the new UN Habitat Strategic Plan (2026 – 2029) and its eventual adoption at the resumed UN Habitat Assembly II (mid 2026) 
  • the resolution on adequate housing for all (adopted at the UN Habitat Assembly II, June 2023), and the recently formed open-ended intergovernmental working group on housing 
  • the resolution on transformation of informal settlements and slums (adopted at the UN Habitat Assembly II, June 2023), and the Global Action Plan 
  • implementation of commitments in the Pact for the Future (adopted by the UN General Assembly, September 2024) to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing  

HIC will continue monitoring and advancing the collective HIC priority issues and demands as part of these various processes throughout the next months and years.