Habitat treaty for Latin America: Legal implementation of the New Urban Agenda

Facing the situation of Habitat III deriving in a non-binding Declaration of Principles, and the issues rising in the field of urban affairs, the adoption of common principles and regulations for Latin America is urgent. The New Urban Agenda as a document containing principles and ideals may be a perfect document. However, the lack of mandatory continental legal frameworks could prevent its contents form being applied in a reasonable future, particularly on issues such as the limitations to rights of property, conflicts of interests between cities, common problems of metropolitan areas, the repeated violation of human rights in urban centers, the inefficiency of the law and urban development programs, the contradiction between legislation of environmental, rural, urban and cultural sectors which among others make it difficult to apply the principles of the New Urban Agenda. Latin America constitutes the ideal place for the development of the process that allows the creation of binding legal instruments or urban issues due to the similarity of the judicial and social systems; a shared history and language, urban, rural and environmental situations of the countries that make up the region. Habitat III detonates a whole regional legal process that even though will be long and complex, it will allow to: a) Establish systems to develop and materialize human rights in urban centers and metropolitan areas. b) Have legislations under common principles that allow an effective application and interpretation. c) Establish legislative systems with an integral vision, considering territory as the object of a transversal legal regulation. d) Clearly define institutional and local competencies. e) Establish effective systems for the sanction and responsibilities facing violations of urban law.