Policy Paper on the Right to the City

The Policy Paper on the Right to the City has been prepared for the 6th Congress of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) to take place along the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders on 11-15 November 2019 in Durban, South Africa. The document is the result of coordinated efforts between the Platform and Habitat International Coalition with the coordination of Eva García Chueca (Scientific Coordinator, Global Cities Programme at CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs).

The policy paper on the Right to the City

The Right to the City envisions the effective fulfillment of all internationally agreed Human Rights and Sustainable Development Goals, while dealing specifically with a dimension of urban problems that classic human rights’ standards do not tackle: namely, spatial exclusion, its causes and consequences. At the same time, it provides a territorial approach that can enhance policy pertinence and coherence.

The paper indentifies five main challenges for the fulfillment of the Right to the city: Financialization of cities, gentrification and housing crisis; the Rural-Urban Divide; Territorial and social inequities; the Democratic backsliding and human rights curtailment and the migration crisis. Then it sets a series of policy recommendations with concrete actions built around the eight components of the Right to the City and its links to Global Agendas such as the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda.

You can read the Righ-to-the-City Policy Paper here.

The policy paper will be the basis for the discussion on the Right to the City Town Hall, a session of the congress organized by the Platform on the 14th of November at 9:30h which aims to engage with local and regional governments constituency to jointly define policies for advancing on the implementation of the Right to the City at the local and regional levels, with specific policies and programs built around the eight components of the Right to the City.

The Town Hall is the space for dialogue and interaction between different internationally organized civil society and the political leadership of the local and regional governments constituency to jointly define the local global policies. Local and regional leader cannot achieve these goals on their own, and thus they need to build upon, strengthen and enhance partnerships moving forward. The goal is not only to invite partners and stakeholders to join, but to collaborate in the world that we are building. The Town Hall is structured around 5 sessions with different themes: Accessible Cities; Addressing Informalities; Gender Equality; Right to the City, and Sustainable Urban Development.

More info on the UCLG Congress and the activities organized by the Global platform for the Right to the City and HIC here

We hope to see you there!