Marius Pieterse

I am currently participating in a virtual Expert Group Meeting on Inclusive Cities co-organised by UN Habitat, the Geneva Human Rights Platform of the Geneva Academy and the Geneva Cities Hub, in coordination with the office of the UN High-Commissioner for Human Rights. The meeting includes focused discussions on human rights mainstreaming within the domains … More UN Habitat, Geneva Human Rights Platform & Geneva Cities Hub Expert Group Meeting on Inclusive Cities (5-6 May 2020)

As member of the South African National Department on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation’s Policy and Legislative Review Team (POLERT) it is both an honour and a challenge to be tasked with thinking through the legal implications of, and possibilities for, the national human settlements response to the COVID19 pandemic, specifically in overcrowded urban informal … More Legal dimensions of COVID19 response in urban informal settlements

I participated today in the webinar for the launch of the South African Cities Network’s Urban Governance Paper Series. I presented the paper that I contributed to volume 1 of the series, entitled “Components of Rights-based Urban Service Delivery”. You can access the entire volume 1 here.

As part of a team assembled by the NRF SARChI Chair in Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability (CLES) at NWU Potchefstroom, I have spent a number of months producing commissioned research for the South African Cities Network and the Gauteng Provincial Government, on the legal landscape pertaining to the regulation of township economies in South … More Webinar & Research Project: Law Reform for Unlocking Urban Township Economies

Today, I engaged with the national research team at the South African Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg about setting a research agenda on spatial equity and human rights in South African cities.

I am attending the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi where, in my capacity as joint global coordinator of IRGLUS, I organised a networking event entitled “Achieving Spatial Equity through Human Rights and Rule of Law”, in partnership with the UN Habitat Urban Legislation Unit. The event took the form of a panel discussion followed … More World Urban Forum (Abu Dhabi, 8-13 February 2020): Achieving Spatial Equity through Human Rights and Rule of Law

This paper, part of the first volume of the South African Cities Network’s Urban Governance Paper Series (edited by Danga Mughogho and published in 2019) is now available online. The paper overviews constitutional standards and supporting legislative and policy frameworks, as well as high-level case law on urban service delivery in South African cities, in … More Publication: “Components of Rights-based Urban Service Delivery”