How Did It Start?

"Şehir Dedektifi" (City Detective) began its journey in 2019 as an initiative focusing on children's right to live in a healthy and safe environment, conducting research, monitoring, and advocacy to protect livable cities and environmental values, while developing design tools and spatial design proposals.

Following the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, and observing the emerging needs, we decided to establish ourselves as an association.

Our team is composed of urban planners, architects, child development specialists, and researchers who have been involved in various urban rights struggles in Istanbul. Our journey started when we realized the lack of children's urban rights and their direct participation in spatial processes within the urban transformation struggle. While working in the field of participatory urban planning and design, we observed that the context of participation in urban rights struggles was mostly established by adults and that the presence of children in neighborhoods was limited to psycho-social support and educational activities. Although these activities are extremely important, the lack of rights-based mechanisms involving children's participation in the spaces they live in deeply affects access to rights at the urban level, especially regarding play, education, and health. We conduct advocacy activities and develop participation methods to ensure that children's rights are considered in spatial interventions at all scales. After our monitoring activities in the field following the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, we decided to become an association to enhance our capacity for involving children more in the various phases of disaster management and the replanning of cities, ensuring the realization of children's rights at the spatial level.