Vision
Democratic, diverse, solidary and sustainable cities, villages and human settlements that are respected as common good and that all inhabitants – present and future, permanent and temporary – have the right to inhabit, use, occupy, produce, govern and enjoy in peace and with dignity. We envision communities that:
- fight against colonization, patriarchy, racism, homophobia and discrimination;
- facilitate and support people to freely live their dignity and to express their culture, political values/principles, spirituality, love, in peace and respect;
- can participate freely in a political life based on people’s participation and democratic decision-making processes, promoting active citizenship and different forms of political organization and action;
- emphasize the right to self-managed processes, while co-managing and cocreating the public realm and the commons;
- conceive and realize an economy for people and for the community – a caring, social, diverse and solidary economy;
- recognize the urgent need to protect and care for the planet, understanding that ecological and environmental processes are both facilitated and disproportionately threatened by urban territories; situating human beings and the relations among them and with nature at the center of their thinking and actions;
- protect their collective and emancipatory sociocultural practices and memories;
- remember, reinterpret and rewrite their history, in order to look at their future learning from their past.
Mission
We are an open, flexible, diverse network of civil society and local governments organizations committed to political action and social change through the promotion, defense and fulfillment of the Right to the City at the global, regional and local levels, giving a particular voice to those people and communities affected by exclusion and marginalization. The Platform aims to contribute to the emergence of new emancipatory utopias and social bonds in our societies for a better future in all human settlements. Together, we aim to give visibility and build dialogue with those already existing worldviews to create new possible collective imaginaries. To make these changes for communities across the world, the work of the GPR2C encompasses the political, social and cultural levels, with a strong focus on:
- Building a Right to the City community of practices and knowledge. To this end, we seek to be a space for sharing knowledge, ideas, and methods for researching, mobilising towards, and implementing in policy the Right to the City agenda. Collaboration is especially important; we must make sure knowledge and strategies are adaptable and flexible to local needs, identifying, translating, and above all respecting the diverse forms of understanding that surround the Right to the City.
- Strengthening local and national social actions/struggles and international mobilizations within the framework of the Right to the City, promoting their visibility at international forums and expressing solidarity with their campaigns and other initiatives.
- Advocating for changes at the international level (global agendas and international actors) that can represent/carry out/promote a positive impact at the local, regional and national levels, identifying relevant spaces, establishing key messages for the various actors and short, medium and long-term advocacy goals.
- Ensuring the implementation of the Right to the City by introducing it in local, national, regional and international actions, initiatives, commitments, policies, projects and legislation; monitoring its enforcement and denouncing its violations and setbacks, including the social and environmental responsibility of private and public sectors.
