Global Platform Right to the City Statement for Habitat III

GPR2C Statement On Core Messages For Habitat III
in the Habitat III Europe Regional Meeting Prague March 18 2016

In the context of
the preparatory process towards the 3rd UN Conference on Housing and
Sustainable Human Settlements (Habitat III, Quito, October 2016) and inspired
by the occasion of
Habitat III Europe Regional Meeting Prague, we
launch a strong call for the inclusion of the Right to the City as the
cornerstone of the New Urban Agenda
and of the responsibility of all the
actors for its implementation. In order to do that, it is essential to ensure the participation of civil society organizations and local governments – on equal basis with
respect to the other actors – as key partners in the definition and
implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

It is essential
that the whole process and methods include the participation of civil society
organizations and local governments to be able to address the diversity of
interests and practices. Therefore, we call for that this international effort
recognizes innovations by these actors in order to achieve more just,
democratic and sustainable cities in which human rights are fulfilled as well
as their responsibility towards the future generations. The Global Platform is
advocating for a Habitat III outcome to embrace the Right to the City Principles across the next core domains:

The City
as a common good contains the following components:

·
A city
free of discrimination
based on gender, age, health status,
income, nationality, ethnicity, migratory condition, or political, religious or
sexual orientation.

·
A city
of inclusive
citizenship in which all inhabitants, whether permanent or
transitional, are considered as citizens and granted equal rights; e.g. women,
those living in poverty or situations of environmental risk, informal economy
workers, ethnic and religious groups, LGBT persons,
the
differently abled, children, youth, the elderly, migrants, refugees, street
dwellers, victims of violence and indigenous peoples.

·
A city
with enhanced political participation
in the definition,
implementation, monitoring, and budgeting of urban policies and spatial
planning in order to strengthen the transparency, effectiveness and inclusion of
the diversity of inhabitants and their organizations.

·
A city fulfilling its social functions, that is, ensuring
equitable access for all to shelter, goods, services and urban opportunities,
particularly for women and other marginalized groups; a city that prioritizes
the collectively defined public interest, ensuring a socially just and
environmentally balanced use of urban and rural spaces.

·
A city with quality public spaces that enhances social interactions and political
participation, promotes socio-cultural
expressions, embraces diversity, and fosters social cohesion; a city where
public spaces contribute to building safer cities and to meeting the needs of inhabitants.

·
A city of gender equality which adopts all necessary measures to combat
discrimination in all its forms against women, men, and LGBT people in
political, social, economic and cultural terms; a city which takes all
appropriate measures to ensure the full development of women, to guarantee them
equality in the exercise and fulfillment of fundamental human rights, and a
life free of violence.

·
A city with cultural diversity, which respects, protects, and promotes the diverse
livelihoods, customs, memory, identities,
expressions, and socio-cultural forms of its inhabitants.

·
A city with inclusive economies that ensures access to secure livelihoods and
decent work for all inhabitants, that gives room to other economies, such as
solidarity economy, sharing economy, circular economy, and that acknowledges the role of women in the care economy.

·
A city as a system within the settlement and common
ecosystem
that respects rural-urban linkages, and protects
biodiversity, natural habitats, and surrounding ecosystems, and supports
city-regions, city-town cooperation, and connectivity.

Measures to implement
the Right to the City

Protect, promote
and implement the Right to the City in all Habitat III documents;

Enshrine new
paradigms for integrated planning and management in the New Urban Agenda;

Ensure inclusive,
democratic, secure and sustainable cities;

Fulfill the
social function of property by strengthening collective social, cultural and
environmental interests over individual and economic interests;


Incorporate the
priorities, needs and experiences of citizens and communities, especially for
women, the poor, the minorities and vulnerable groups, and the organizations
supporting them.


Produce an outcome
document with specific and measurable results and commitments


Ensure access to basic and social services, mobility, public and green
spaces and the enjoyment of natural and built heritage.

Produce an
outcome document with specific and measurable commitments and results on the
implementation of the various components of the Right to the city as well as of
the new Sustainable Development Goals.

Role of local
governments

Ensure full participation of local governments in the Habitat III
process with their role reflected in outcome documents;

Recognize local governments as crucial actors in the Habitat III
outcomes, requiring the means for effective public management and citizen
participation, to preserve cities as commons;

Recognize the central role and responsibility of local government in the
promotion, protection and guarantee of human rights and the adoption of Human Rights Charters;

Recognize the right to a city constituted as a local political community
that ensures adequate living conditions and peaceful coexistence between
peoples and with government;

Implement real decentralization with the necessary competencies and
resources, to ensure that local governments can take effective decisions to
fulfill inhabitants’ rights;

Ensure that all city inhabitants have rights to participate in political
and city management processes and create conditions for citizens empowerment;

Recognize local authorities as key to a safe, secure and sustainable
urban future;

Enshrine local fiscal systems that generate people-centred outcomes:
fair local taxation and equitable sharing of national and international
resources.

Housing and
secure tenure

Protect, promote
and implement the Right to housing in all Habitat III documents;

Prioritize secure
tenure rights to land and housing as a keystone of the New Urban Agenda;

Enshrine the
right to adequate housing in all legal, policy and delivery frameworks;

Control market-led
speculation and protect people and communities from forced evictions,
displacements and land-grabbing;

Promote
inclusive, community-led approaches to the production of habitat;

Promote slum
upgrading and risk prevention,
prioritizing the security of tenure and
the respect of all human rights;

Ensure public
means and support for housing production;

Create a legal
framework to ensure public land value capture operations for the inclusion of
the poor and marginalized people.

Promote explicit
subsidies for female headed households under poverty line and with children
under their sole responsibility.

Jobs and
livelihoods

Enshrine the
right to secure and decent livelihoods in all Habitat III documents;

Ensure legal
protection of workers, including the right to decent work, to organize, and
freedom from discrimination;

Promote inclusive
economic growth and solidarity- based and collaborative economy, that reduces vulnerability, strengthen
livelihoods, narrows gender equity gaps, and prioritizes health and safety;

Encourage the
creation of solidarity- based income for the more vulnerable and act towards
universal basic income

Recognize
informal economy workers as legitimate economic agents;

Include workers
in the decision-making and planning of cities.

Recognize the
private and public work assumed by women in general which implies a double and
triple burden under their responsibilities, particularly when alone responsible
of their households.

The Global
Platform for the Right to the City
is an international network supported
by over 100 civil society organizations, social movements, academic
institutions, local governments, public sector agencies, foundations and
international organizations, which seeks to create an international movement
to campaign for the recognition and implementation of the Right to the City
at local, national and global level.

The GPR2C support the concept and definition of Right to the City in the Policy Unit 1 –
Habitat III
is thus defined as the right of
all inhabitants present and future, to occupy, use and produce just,
inclusive and sustainable cities, defined as a common good essential to the
quality of life. The Right to the City further implies responsibilities on
governments and people to claim, defend, and promote this right. The Right to the City as a diffuse
right can be exercised in every metropolis, city, village, or town that
is institutionally organized as local administrative unit with district,
municipal or metropolitan character. It includes the urban space as well as the
rural or semi-rural surroundings that form part of its territory.

PLATFORM PARTNERS
include …
ActionAid,
Brazilian National Urban Reform Forum
(Brazil), Cities Alliance,
Fundación Avina,
Global Fund for the Development of Cities (FMDV), Habitat
International Coalition (HIC), Habitat for Humanity, International Alliance of
Inhabitants (IAI), Polis Institute, Shack/Slu
m Dwellers International
(SDI)
, StreetNet
International,
UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory
Democracy and Human Rights
, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing
and Organizing (WIEGO),
Women and Habitat LAC Network, RIPESS, TECHO,
Huairou Commission.