The Trafficking of Women and Women's Human Rights in the City

I was invited to had a speech on Human Trafficking and the city in the "Human Trafficking in the context of Human Rights" panel. This panel was organized by Gaziosmanpaşa Soroptimist Club and Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held on wednesday 15th December 2010 in Gazi University Faculty of Architecture. The title of my speech was "The Trafficking of Women and Women's Human Rights in the City" and I tried to underline the problems of gendered spaces and genedered cities in my presentation. Other invited speakers of this panel were Ahenk Dereli (MFA) , Prof. Dr. Ayşe Ayata (METU) and Meltem Ersoy (IOM). The moderator of this panel was Prof. Dr. Nur Çağlar from Gazi University.

WORKSHOP: Human Rights Based Design Studio

SOCIAL FORUM OF ARCHITECTURE 2010 

21-23 Oct. 2010 - Ankara TURKEY


HUMAN RIGHTS BASED DESIGN STUDIO

Sen. Lect. Dr. Hossein Sadri

Assist. Prof. Dr. Senem Zeybekoğlu Sadri

Architectural practice and its harms to human being and environment has become a broadly discussed issue during recent years. Architectural education constitutes the foundation of this practice and is meant to create a deep understanding of and sensitivity for human life and environment. However, most of the time, this understanding and sensitivity remain at the level of following the latest trends and cannot go beyond a hunt for designing spectacular, hi-tech buildings. Consequently, we think that architectural education should be reconsidered and design studios play an important role during this process. 

With this motivation, we have designed a workshop that aims at questioning the formal design studio system in architectural education and bringing up the ethical responsibilities of profession of architecture, through its theoretical background, methodology and results. Within this framework, we are going to realize “Human Rights Based Design Studio” workshop under the Social Forum of Architecture program. Sharing the background, methodology and results of the workshop will give us the chance to discuss alternatives to current approaches in architectural practice and education.

Our Critics to Contents of Design Studio

Today, our cities are changing rapidly through great urban projects that are created and executed by states, municipalities or great investors. According to Henri Lefebvre, state and capital try to homogenize spaces by creating hegemony on spaces, therefore produce absolute spaces which exclude differences and social life and which is focused on consumption.  Architects and planners play a crucial role in these hegemonic processes as designers and representatives of institutional knowledge[1]. These urban projects tend to protect the benefits of state and capital, rather than serving people and society: historical sites become tourist attractions; natural resources of the city are occupied by private investments; luxurious housing areas separate themselves with high security walls from their poorer neighboring communities; formerly public areas become privatized and city space become more fragmented and polarized each day. As a result, vulnerable persons and groups become more excluded from the city life, a condition which is paralleled by the deprivation of these people from their basic human rights as well. In addition, it is not only the vulnerable groups that are affected by these urban processes. Each and every inhabitant of cities gradually loose their right to equitable usufruct of their cities and participate in its design and development.

Awareness of these human rights violations in cities and attempts to prevent them and restore their devastating results as much as possible are the points that we see lacking in architectural education so far. Therefore, we will deal with what should be done and what should not be done by architects and students of architecture during our workshop and discuss duties and responsibilities of profession and education by a human rights based approach to design studio.

Our Critics to Methodology of Design Studio

To be able to raise an awareness of human rights issues in architecture, we think that the methodology should also be reconsidered. By inspiration from Paulo Freire’s “The Pedagogy of Depressed” we tried to apply techniques that render education more egalitarian and libertarian. According to Freire, the formal education system is based on teacher-student and subject-object relations, a system in which one side dominates the other side with the power of knowledge. To eliminate this situation, it is needed to build up a system based on subject-subject relations instead of subject-object and moderator-participant relations instead of teacher-student relations[2]. By this approach, the process of learning goes beyond a one way transformation of information from teacher to student and it becomes a personal experience in which knowledge is discovered by both sides through research, discussions, group studies, simulations, role playing activities, case studies and other creative modules. This kind of education which emphasizes participation in learning breaks the domination of one idea and absolute knowledge and brings sharing and diversity of ideas and experiences. In addition to that, participation turns learning into an enjoyable process, thus keeps motivation of students in a high level. We find this kind of learning crucial in creating a real understanding and sensitivity in architectural education, and generating activism especially in human rights area.

Human Rights Based Design Studio Workshop

Under the light of these discussions, we have developed our workshop in the interdisciplinary area of architecture and human rights. Our workshop is going to be a 3 day activity, aiming at learning human rights and their spatial dimensions; creating awareness of human rights violations and their reasons; preventing these violations and developing ways and methods to restore the consequences of these violations through architecture and design. To be able to reach these aims, we are going to use modules which are based on participatory education methods. Some of these modules are adapted from human rights education books such as Compass[3], Making Rights a Reality[4] and Service Learning[5], and other modules are designed by the workshop organizers. We expect to have 20 students from different disciplines, including but not limited to architecture, urban design and planning areas.

       

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[1] Lefebvre, H. (1991) “The Production of Space”, translated by Donald Nicholson Smith, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.

[2] Freire, P. (2006) “Ezilenlerin Pedagojisi”, çev: Dilek Hattatoğlu ve Erol Özbek, Ayrıntı Yayınları, İstanbul.

[3] Brander, P. Gomes, R. vd. (2008) “Pusula: Gençlere İnsan Hakları Eğitimi Kılavuzu”, çev: Burcu Yeşiladalı, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, İstanbul.

[4] Amnesty International (2005) “Making Rights a Reality: Human Rights Education Workshop for Non-Governmental Organizations”, Amnesty International Publications, London.

[5] Belisle, K. ve Sullivan, E. (2007) “Service Learning: Lesson Plans and Projects”, Amnesty International USA, New York.

Panel - Call for Papers: Urban Transformation & Human Rights in the City

International Conference on

Mega-Urbanisation and Human Rights:

Emerging Challenges and Opportunities

Commission on Urban Anthropology and Commission on Human Rights, International Union of Anthropological & Ethnological Sciences; in collaboration with West Bengal StateUniversity

CALL FOR PAPERS

Session Convenors:   

Senem ZEYBEKOĞLU SADRI (Assist. Prof. Dr. The American University – Girne CYPRUS)

Hossein SADRI (Sen. Lect. Dr. The American University – Girne CYPRUS)

Title of Session:

URBAN TRANSFORMATION & HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CITY

Within the last thirty years, world cities have been confronting massive transformations under the impacts of neo-liberal economy policies. There is a strong competition between cities to attract global capital, which leads to urban restructuring of cities around the world. This competition is manifested in urban transformation programmes, which require privatization of vast urban areas and construction of glamorous projects for business, tourism, consumption and luxury living. Catering an upscale portion of the society, these urban transformations generally tend to ignore poorer populations within the city and result in evictions, devastation of natural resources, loss of jobs, social security, education opportunities and last but not least, loss of social networks of people. The more urban areas are subject to the demands of trans-national flows of capital, investment and people, the more they become places of inequality and polarization.  

Growing conditions of inequality are paralleled by violations of human rights in the city. As people are forced to leave their homes due to urban transformation and development programs, their basic rights including right to housing, employment, education, healthy environment, recreation, privacy of family life, participation in political processes, etc. are being violated. These rights are basic human rights, which are clearly defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and states are responsible for protection and fulfilment of these rights.

With these concerns in mind, this session aims to discuss the relationship between urban transformation programs and human rights in the city through raising several questions:

·  Urban transformation programs, how do they impact the lives of inhabitants of cities?

·  What are the sources of inequality, exclusion and human rights violations in cities?

·  What are the human rights issues in cities, how can they be achieved?

·  What are the changing roles of local governments, what are their duties and responsibilities?

·  What is the condition of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in cities (minorities, people living in poor conditions, people with disabilities, immigrants, women, children and elderly people, etc.). Are there ways to empower these groups?

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 31th of October 2010

Please send your abstracts to senemzeybek@yahoo.com and hosadri@yahoo.com

Abstract of My Ph.D. Thesis: Architecture and Human Rights

Today, one can observe that the capital oriented power relations have transformed the process of formation of space into a sphere of production; therefore space has also been transformed into consumption good and a means for obtaining surplus value. Space that is formed as a result of this understanding of production-consumption does not contain diversity and exclude vulnerable groups.

To prevent these exclusions and to guarantee free and equal life for all people in dignity, principles which include everybody during production and utilization of space should be determined and these principles should manifest human rights and minimum standards concerning those rights.

Based on Henri Lefebvre’s idea of the right to the city, this dissertation attempts to explain in detail the right to appropriation and the right to oeuvre through rights of human beings regarding their living spaces in order to determine above mentioned minimum standards. A comparative analysis looks at different documents of human rights in the city in order to achieve norms of human rights regarding space.

All actors taking part in the process of production and utilization of space are responsible for protection of these rights. Among these actors, the architects’ role is vital, since they can affect the process of production and utilization of space both directly by their personal practices and indirectly by their collective activities. Therefore, an ethical code illustrating the ethics of the profession of architecture as well as the responsibilities of architects could guarantee the protection of norms of human rights regarding space.

It is possible to classify the documents of ethics of architectural profession into two categories in terms of their binding force. One category consists of codes of ethics that are binding, and the other includes declarations that are not binding.

The dissertation examines four different ethic codes and 12 different declarations that were published by the American Institute of Architects, the Royal Institute of British Architects, Architect’s Council of Europe and the Union of International Architects as case studies and evaluates these documents in terms of human rights related with space.

This evaluation illustrates that declarations in contrast with codes of ethics are sensitive to norms of human rights. However, it is observed that, human rights norms which are related to public space are not covered within these declarations due to apolitization of architecture in recent years.

The conclusion discusses the results of those evaluations on codes of ethics and declarations in terms of human rights norms related to space. It also suggests recommendations for developing codes of ethics sensitive to human rights related with space. 

City and Human Rights Design Studio

Collaboratively with Dr. Senem ZEYBEKOGLU SADRI, we participated in the wokshop of "the City of Kyrenia" and we conducted a design studio about Human Rights in the City. This workshop was held on June 7-15 2010 in The American University - Girne (Kyrenia) Cyprus.

Iranian architect fellow designs for human rights, public spaces

Friday, February 5, 2010

Justyna Szewczyk

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Uninterested in designing hi-tech architectural projects for big companies, Hossein Sadri, an Iranian fellow at one of Turkey’s leading research facilities, instead focuses his work on the relation between human rights and public spaces.

The social dimension of architecture has long been Sadri’s main interest. His master’s thesis, which he defended back home in Iran, was concerned with democracy and public space. He has investigated the role public spaces have played in democratic processes in Iran and in post-communist countries. For example, in Ukraine, Georgia and Romania there are many large public spaces that can be used as places for assembly, providing opportunities to demonstrate dissident opinions.

Public space and democracy

Democratic revolutions that took place in recent years, both in Ukraine and Georgia, seem to confirm the relationship between space and democracy. In Iran, on the contrary, public spaces are not big enough to allow protesters to gather and feel the power of the crowd. Even when big demonstrations take place, with hundreds of thousands of participants, they are often marching through narrow streets. This makes it difficult for demonstrators to assess their own numbers, which can have a very empowering effect, and makes them easy targets for police forces.

Public activities brought to private spaces

In Iran, Sadri said, “public space is limited” through a number of rules, which has changed Iranian life as public activities have been brought into the private space of homes. Both traditional celebrations as well as civil activism have sought refuge in private houses, a situation that contributes to the scattered nature of Iranian civil society. Since it is very difficult to register a nongovernmental organization, or NGO, activists meet in homes, where they are exposed to potential police raids. Furthermore, such private/public organizations lack the international links that could provide protection or help in the event of police persecution.

This raises the question of whether public space is necessary for democracy. Sadri’s answer is that “private space can do some work temporarily, but it can be easily attacked by the government and no one will know.”

Capital, government and professionals

Sadri’s doctoral fellowship at TÜBITAK focuses on economic and social rights in relation to space. He listed human rights related to space as follows: the “right to participate in the production of space and the right to change it” and the “right to appropriation.”

The Fatih Municipality’s recent decision to evict the Roma population of Sulukule is an example of a case where capital, government and professionals such as architects and city planners have decided to change space without consulting these changes with the people inhabiting the space in question. In Sadri’s opinion, people’s right to produce and change space has been violated by these actors, which he calls the main “enemies” of the poor.

The problem is that the government failed to empower members of the Sulukule community so that they could decide about their own neighborhood. The situation of the district would be different if people were able to ask for some educational or work facilities, Sadri said.

Taksim Square in Istanbul is another example Sadri provided in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review to illustrate the disregard of government and capital for people’s right to space. Plans in recent years to build a mosque or redesign the Atatürk Cultural Center have ended in an impasse. No one has been able to change it, but also no one is able to use the square. It is not a place of activity, as if it has been taken over by the police. While the police presence in Taksim Square is a problem related to the government and its policy of controlling potential locations for mass gatherings, capitalists have overtaken neighboring İstiklal Avenue.

‘People should be the center of change’

Architects and urban planners work for government and capital rather than for the benefit of the wider public, Sadri said. He believes contemporary architecture is focused on bettering standards instead of being concerned with providing minimal housing standards for everyone. This is partly due to the way architects are educated, he said. Unlike sociologists, who come across readings about poverty or disadvantaged groups in society, architecture students receive no such education. Only recently have some universities included, for example, courses on handicapped-accessible architecture in their curricula.

“If architects were aware of these problems, they could change many things. If they knew, they have no right to change space,” Sadri said, calling on architects to “go to people and ask them what they want to do.”

Zaha Hadid’s recent project for the Kartal-Pendik waterfront regeneration in Istanbul is an example of such arrogance, Sadri said, noting that she flew over the city in a helicopter to design solutions for this vast area. Instead, Sadri said, “people should be the center of change.”

Housing, a human right

The right to appropriation, or, simply put, the right to dwell in a space is a second category of rights related to space. Unlike property rights, which are exclusive by their very nature, the right to appropriation allows citizens to freely use a space and settle in it if necessary. The increasing privatization of public space that started in Turkey in the 1980s has led to the marginalization of large numbers of people. As education and health care are privatized, people’s rights to access these spaces have been increasingly violated.

“You have a right to use facilities [i.e. health care] if you are not rich; if you are homeless, you have a right to dwell in a place; poor men without social security have a right to adequate health or education services,” Sadri said, adding that the right to appropriate land extends, for example, to the shantytown developments known as gecekondu. “You cannot demolish people’s houses – it’s a basic human right,” he said.

The first category of rights Sadri talked about – namely, the right to participate in the production and change of spaces – is more about political rights. People should be able to decide about their lives and destinies as they have the right to participate in power and decision-making. The second category, the right to appropriation, is related to social and economic rights. Nevertheless, human rights are indivisible and therefore must be equally protected.

A Human Rights Based Design Studio

Collaboratively with Dr. Senem ZEYBEKOGLU SADRI, we organized a human rights based design studio from 8th to 13th day of November 2010. This was a part of Kayitdisi organization, an architectural winter school, in Yildiz Technical University Istanbul. The programme of the workshop contained human rights education exercises, case studies and design projects for vulnerable groups. The final presentation of the studio was produced as a short video which was uploaded below.

Birgun, a Turkish daily newspaper, published an interview with me and some of participants on 23th day of February about this workshop. The full text of this interview is available here.