Nigeria’s Housing Rights Advocate to Bring Community‑Driven Strategies Home After Uppsala Conference

At the Common City Conference in Uppsala, Sweden, Kehinde Adegboyega, co‑founder of the Human Rights Journalists Network, presented a panel on resisting authoritarian urbanism in Lagos and Cape Town. The session highlighted how forced evictions, informal settlement demolitions, and redevelopment projects disproportionately harm low‑income residents across African cities. Adegboyega emphasized that housing is a fundamental human right, protected under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and that community knowledge must inform policy. He outlined a model where residents directly document their living conditions, using photography, mapping, and storytelling to create evidence that can be used in legal and advocacy work. Adegboyega plans to return to Nigeria with practical approaches to community‑generated documentation, stronger networks, and strategies that empower residents to shape urban development decisions.