Exercising rights from below: Housing, gender, migration and the right to the city from Antofagasta, Chile

Abstract

Elizabeth Andrade Huaringa is a woman, migrant, activist, and housing leader of the informal settlement of Los Arenales in Antofagasta, on the coastal edge of the Atacama Desert, Chile. In 2022, she was awarded the National Human Rights Award precisely because of her work on social rights, women’s rights, migrants’ rights, and above all, her work on the right to housing and to the city. In this Conversation with Camila and Ana, Eli reflects on her personal and collective history, on the construction of the right to housing and the city from precarious, popular or informal settlements, on the organisation of women in the context of crisis and violence, and on the progress and expansion of human rights from their everyday exercise.