GPR2C News: Building the Platform for the Right to the City

Building the Platform for the Right to the City

The Global Platform for the Right to the City (GPR2C) is promoting the debate on the concept and implementation of the Right to the City from the perspective of each region and context. The Platform tries to do so by broadening the current understanding of the Right to the City, including different social struggles from all regions of the world with the aim of building a concept that sufficiently reflects the diversity of experiences and simultaneously allowing all experiences to be represented under this concept.
This newsletter shares news about recent events, in which the GPR2C has tried to take advantage of strategic events in which governments, local authorities and social organizations meet. This allows participants to bring their message to regional and international forums and debates, bringing together social organizations and movements, academia, human rights activists and local authorities, among others, from different regions and areas of expertise.
The discussions gathered contributions that updated the understanding of the concept of the Right to the City in the different regions and contexts. In Africa, the participants requested the incorporation of the territorial dimension and the formation of a group on this issue as well as the possibility of drafting an African Charter for the Right to the City. During COP21, the participants declared that there won’t be climate justice without social justice; they also claimed that the Right to the City should be the cornerstone of an ecological transition. Participants in the Asia meeting discussed the need to involve rural communities and indigenous peoples in the discussions, since most of the population is still rural.

Africa Regional Meeting
28 November, before Africities 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa

Right to the City in Africa
Lessons learned from this meeting included two consistent messages: (1) the apparent territorial scope of the Right to the City needs to be more inclusive to be relevant to Africa and (2) African social movements and their supporters have well-developed concepts of the Right to the City based on local experience.
Report by: Joseph Schechla, HIC-HLRNThe Inhabitants of Africas’ Contribution to the Right to the City
The right to the city must be neither a slogan nor a concept and it should include the right to land and the right of every citizen to participate in local political debate. It would be better to speak of the “right to the city and the land.” A right which should be asserted through the efforts of inhabitants across the African continent, in order to incite political action up to Quito and beyond.
Article by: Soha Ben Slama Coordinatrice, IAI Tunisia CoordinatorPhotos of the meeting

GPR2C at the COP21

3-10 December 2015,during the Conference of Parties, COP21, France

“Building Climate-resilient Societies”
Claiming and implementing the Right to the City means mobilizing inhabitant participation in the management and planning of the city and its region as “a common ecosystem” to address climate impacts, while ensuring accountability for meeting the social and human needs and aspirations of communities, in particular those often rendered invisible or voiceless in the debates that most deeply affect them.
Statement by: HICFrom the Ecological Transition to the Right to the City: Committee’s activities during the COP21
The Committee organized sessions on the Right to the city as a fundamental element to contribute to the ecological transition. Throughout these activities and meetings with local governments and social movements within the framework of the Global Platform for the Right to the City, the Committee strengthened messages and alliances for fair, democratic and sustainable territories in the upcoming World Habitat Agenda.
Report by: UCLG-CISDPGPR2C Activities during COP 21

Asia Regional Meeting

20 December, after the 3rd Social urban Forum in Surabaya, Indonesia

Urban Social Forum Report
The forum featured the Asia Regional Meeting of GPR2C with delegates from Brazil, the United States, Europe, Vietnam, Cambodia, India and Singapore. These urban activists share the same concerns about making our cities better, more socially just and sustainable places to live.
Report by: Kota-KitaRight to the City in Asia
The need for a broader understanding and adaptation of the Right to the City concept to include rural and indigenous communities and peoples. In the Asian context, this is especially important given that the majority of the population is still rural.
Article by: Shivani Chaudhry, HIC-SAPhotos of the meeting

The objectives of the Global Platform are building the movement for the Right to the City, generating and exchanging knowledge and achieving the recognition and inclusion of this right in policies at local, national and international level, in particular in the new agenda that will emerge from Habitat III. This will be achieved by expanding the network for the Right to the City, consolidating an open and inclusive platform for different actors working on these issues with a common strategy as well as developing standards and tools