Event

LECTURE - Lorena Zárate

Tuesday, October 6, 2015 17:30to18:45
rm. 212, Macdonald-Harrington Building, CA, QC, Montreal, 815 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, CA

The Right to the City: Habitat III and the New Urban Agenda

Lorena Zárate, President of Habitat International Coalition (HIC)

Lorena Zárate studied History at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and worked as a member of the editing and publishing team for the Centre for Environmental Studies and Projects (Fundación CEPA-Centro de Estudios y Proyectación del Ambiente), the Latin American Forum for Environmental Studies (Foro Latinoamericano de Ciencias Ambientales-Cátedra UNESCO para el Desarrollo Sustentable) and the journal, Environment.

Since 2000, she became part of the Habitat International Coalition (HIC) team in Mexico City to help in organizing the first World Assembly of Inhabitants. Between 2003 and 2011, Lorena worked as the Coordinator of the HIC-Latin American Regional Office and she is currently HIC President at global level.

She has been involved in the elaboration and dissemination of the World Charter on the Right to the City, the consultation process to define the Mexico City Human Rights Program, and the Promoting Committee for the elaboration of the Mexico City Charter for the Right to the City.

At international level, during the past decade she has been in close collaboration with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing as well as with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for the elaboration of thematic reports and recommendations for national and local governments on how to improve security of tenure, land and housing rights and the right to the city worldwide.

She has co-edited and published books and articles in Latin America, North America and Europe on issues related to housing rights, social production and management of habitat and the right to the city. She has participated as a speaker in numerous workshops, seminars and conferences in more than 20 countries, in particular within the framework of the World Urban Forum and the World Social Forum.

She has given presentations and public lectures at universities in Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA. In 2013, she was awarded the John Bousfield Distinguished Visitorship from the Geography and Urban Planning Program at the University of Toronto.

 

Habitat International Coalition (HIC) is a global, independent and nonprofit network for the defense, promotion and realization of the right to a safe place to live in peace and with dignity, both in urban and rural areas. Established in 1976 in Vancouver, Canada (within the framework of UN conference on human settlements, Habitat I), it consist today of more than 350 NGOs, CBOs, scholars, research and education institutions, as well as human rights activists working in more than 120 countries. Through solidarity, networking and support for social movements and organizations, and influencing the public policies and the international agenda, HIC works to achieve social justice with focus on four central objectives: advance towards gender equality and equity; defend and promote the right to a healthy environment; support the social production and management of habitat; address violations of the human right to an adequate standard of life (including land, housing, water and food). HIC has a longstanding consultative status at the UN-ECOSOC.

 

Back to top