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The acceptance and publication of advertisement of products and services does not indicate endorsement of such products or services. The publishers cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. by GRAEME BRISTOL, mraic Executive Director of the Centre for Architecture & Human Rights (CAHR) H ousing is a right. It says so in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25). This was something I learned while I was an architecture student at the University of British Columbia. I didn't learn it in architecture school though, instead it was at the United Nations habitat conference in Vancouver in 1976, the first major UN conference on human settlements. I spent years wrestling with the nature of the relationship between architecture and the right to housing. Afterall, architects are involved in the design of housing, so shouldn't they be involved in the protec- tion of housing rights? But, if they are, then how are they involved? It didn't connect until many years later while I was teaching archi- tecture at a university in Bangkok, Thailand. Every year, I held a studio focused on the United Nations' habitat agenda. My fourth-year archi- tecture students studied in one or more of the many slums in the city. The people in the communities became their teachers. In 2002, the Pom Mahakan community of some 400 people was under threat of imminent eviction by the Bangkok city authorities who proposed to "beautify" the area for tourism. In response, the architec- ture students proposed an alternative plan. It included a design for a park that would improve the district, preserve vernacular teak archi- tecture and also allow the residents to stay. In 2003, the community took the students' design study along with an argument about its economic, social and design viability to the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand. After represen- tatives of the planning department, the National Housing Authority and the Governor's Office presented their arguments for eviction, community leaders laid out their argument for their right to stay. The commission chair saw nothing wrong with the alternative plan and ordered city authorities to cease. The community is still living there. After this important decision, the connection between design and human rights became evident. The rights at stake concern participa- tion, self-determination, environment, history, culture and economic inclusion along with civil and political rights. Planning, design, zon- ing and land-use regulations are often the context for eviction. When we understand that context in terms of rights, we can find new argu- ments and new means that may help communities to prevent evic- tions. Design can be used as a negotiating tool. It was out of that experience that I founded the Centre for Architecture and Human Rights (CAHR) – a Canadian non-profit foun- dation intended to better understand those connections and pro- mote them through formal and informal education, research and demonstration building programs. Along with an active board of directors with members from the U.S., Canada, Malaysia and Thailand, we work with volunteers, students and local citizens. Know Your Rights In 2007, the centre started building portable schools for the children of migrant construction workers in Thailand. Since 2012, we have been working on the establishment of a UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Community Architecture. Here in Canada, the Centre is working with home- less citizens and the City of Victoria, B.C., through a steering committee and a new non-profit organization called Micro-housing Victoria Society, to develop micro-housing as a response to growing homelessness. As I see it, there are at least five connections between architec- ture and human rights: ❱ ❱ Cultural rights: Architecture is involved in the creation and pro- tection of culture. Recently the International Criminal Court began war crimes hearings on the 2012 attacks committed against mon- uments in Timbuktu, Mali. Do architects and our representative institutions support the court in viewing as war crimes these attacks on world cultural heritage? If so, what actions or state- ments have we made about these developments? ❱ ❱ Rights of access: Architects typically understand rights of access as a building code issue concerning people with disabili- ties. However, access also means access to the services of the city – water, energy, communications, social services, space and land. Do we agree these are rights? If so, how is this access accomplished? ❱ ❱ Right to housing: Both the federal government and the provincial governments have all but abdicated their responsibilities for hous- ing. This has left municipalities on the frontline of homelessness. Do we agree with that devolution of responsibilities? Would we pro- pose changes to housing policy? What might they be? ❱ ❱ Environmental rights: There is more to sustainability than the 2030 Challenge. As important as the goal of carbon-neutrality is, we should be considering our right to a clean environment. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in the U.S. has been working on successfully establishing municipal law to protect the environment as a matter of rights. In Canada, there is a move to change Canada's constitution to include the right to a healthy envi- ronment. What implications might there be for architecture if such an amendment to our constitution took place? ❱ ❱ Workers' rights: On construction sites in Canada workers' rights are reasonably protected. However, when Canadian architects are work- ing abroad how do they respond to the abuse of migrant workers on construction sites? These abuses are regularly reported by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The response of many inter- nationally renowned architects to these reports has been silence. A For more information about this visit architecture-humanrights.org