Session: Let’s talk about peace and human rights in urban settings: theoretical insights and lessons from Mexico

In recent years, the field of development has started to pay increasing attention to urban spaces and local administrations as avenues for the promotion of peace, violence prevention and human rights. Under this new lens, ‘urban peace’ and ‘human rights city’ become important concepts and subjects of discussion. This raises important questions, such as the primary issue of what these concepts incapsulate and what links them possibly together. At the same time, especially in bigger cities e.g. in Latin America, violence and human rights violations have increased. How can urban planning and local policies contribute towards a better implementation of peace and human rights in urban settings? What challenges might arise at the local level that development agencies should be aware of? How is the concrete situation in big Mexican cities and what should development cooperation projects that work on human rights violations in cities take into account? The event will address these and similar questions from both a theoretical and a practical perspective.