Which principles should guide policies and laws that regulate public spaces?

Author: 

Kristen Petersen

Summary:

Public space forms the setting for a number of activities, including the setting for community life and livelihoods of the urban poor, such as street vendors or waste-pickers. Growing evidence points to problematic ways in which public spaces are governed. In many developing countries, laws and policies, particularly at a local government level, tend to restrict the ability of people to earn a livelihood or perform life-sustaining activities in public spaces. Contraventions of local ordinances or by-laws are frequently treated as criminal offences, compromising informal dwellers and workers’ livelihoods, denying due process protections and often violating their human rights. In this factsheet, we contextualise how laws and policies result in the criminalisation of the poor and consider principles that are fundamental to good policy-making, placing much emphasis on the process of policy-making. These are amongst others:

• Policies should be designed around outcomes.
• The policy-making process should be inclusive, meaning that consultations should take place with those affected by the policy and authorities should seek feedback on law or policy from the public.
• The policy-making process should consider varied influencing factors (nationally, regionally and internationally), draw on experience in other countries or localities and be assessed against a country’s international and regional commitments to key human rights treaties.
• The policy-making process should be flexible and innovative.
• The policy-making process must look beyond departmental boundaries and identify inter-departmental solutions to cross cutting issues.
• Good policy-making learns from experience of what works and what does not.

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LINK TO FACTSHEET