A/74/255 gender-based approaches to new urban planning projects have been developed in 27 cities participating in the “Safe cities and safe public spaces” initiative of UNWomen. 39 42. Women’s roles in and their contributions to public spaces should be recognized and encouraged. 40 For example, in the United Republic of Tanzania, women market vendors came together to form associations and unions to make markets safer for women vendors. 41 In rural areas, women may use access to farmlands to promote cultural rights, such as efforts in Guatemala to develop health and nutrition projects that preserve cultural identity through the Mayan-Achi food system. 42 Through participation in policy development, public art, planning and design, or event programming, women can feel they too actually “own” the public spaces and claim their rights to be in and use them. Persons with disabilities 43. Accessibility is a precondition for the enjoyment of human rights and a means for economic, social, cultural and political empowerment, participation and inclusion. For persons with disabilities, lack of accessibility in built environments, from roads and housing, to public buildings and spaces, directly affect s their capacity to live independently and to fully participate in all aspects of life, including cultural life. 44. Recent evidence reveals a widespread lack of accessibility to public spaces for persons with disabilities, 43 even in countries where a reasonable adaptation of infrastructure to meet their needs is embedded in legislation. 44 Accessibility or inclusive “universal design” principles, including tactile and audio cues for blind persons, should be used from the initial stages of designing, as well as in building and restructuring public infrastructures, facilities and services. Successful efforts have been documented 45 and studies have shown that, if integrated from the initial stages, universal design adds almost no or only 1 per cent in additional costs. 46 It is also the responsibility of States to guarantee that public spaces are not fragmented and that persons with disabilities can transit from one built environment or public service area to another without physical obstacles. 47 __________________ 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 19-13014 See UN-Women, “Safe cities and safe public spaces: global results report ”, for examples from these participant cities. Montevideo received a 2018 special mention of the jury for “cultural policies with a perspective on gender equality” (see www.agenda21culture.net/award/awardeditions/3rd-edition-2017-2018). See also Women Public Space Prague, a network of women experts in urban planning, www.wpsprague.com/about-the-project. See International Action Network for Gender Equity and Law, “Women, cultural rights and public spaces”, p. 15. UN-Women, “Case study: Tanzania – making markets safer for women traders”, 8 March 2017, available at http://untf.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2017/03/tanzania-makingmarkets-safer-for-women-traders. Groundswell International, “Women’s project preserves cultural heritage of Mayan food system in Guatemala”, 8 June 2018; see also A/67/287. See Good Practices of Accessible Urban Development: Making Urban E nvironments Inclusive and Fully Accessible to All (ST/ESA/364). See contributions by Collectif des experts et entrepreneurs culturels on Cameroon and by Escola de Gente on Brazil. See, e.g., the adaptation of children’s games in the Parque de la Amistad, Uruguay, to follow inclusive design. Information available at www.montevideo.gub.uy/areas-tematicas/personas-yciudadania/personas-con-discapacidad/accesibilidad/parque-de-la-amistad. “Accessibility and disability inclusion in urban development ”, paper prepared by the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2015), p. 2. See contribution by Janett Jimenez Santos. 13/24