The Right to the City "Urban Advantage"

The “right to the city” concept has been put to use to varying degrees of success over the past half-century, although some countries have ignored or spurned it altogether. It must not be viewed as a new legal instrument, but instead subsumes a wide range of universally recognized human rights into a single claim for enforcement in urban areas. Many cities in the developing world devise and enforce inclusive policies that abide by national and international commitments without any explicit reference to the “right to the city.” Whether they formally endorse the “right to the city” or not, many municipal authorities are institutionally ill-equipped to make this right effective, including when it comes to coordination with national and state/provincial government. It has been applied as a theoretical, political, conceptual framework that refers to such aspects as enforcement, empowerment, participation, self-realization, self-determination, and different forms of protection of existing human rights at the city level. The "right to the city” remains a powerful vehicle for social change that warrants serious consideration. The "right to the city” should be viewed as an expression of the deep yearnings of urban dwellers to see their multiple humans’ rights become more effective in urban areas. It serves as a bulwark against the exclusionary types of development, the selective benefit sharing & marginalization and discrimination that are rampant in cities today. The "right to the city" Has evolved over the past 50 years under the influence of social groups and civil society organizations in response to the need for better opportunities for all, especially the more marginalized and underprivileged. It also provides an adequate platform for action as well as framework for human rights enforcement. The right to the city is suppose to be the ultimate urban advantage but the truth is that, large numbers of people in the developing world do not fully benefit; do not participate in decision-making, and do not enjoy effective fundamental rights and liberties. Other probable reasons for the ineffectiveness of the "right to the city" are: the lack of coordination between national, provincial and local authorities, poor provision of public spaces and related services for all residents, arbitrary conversion or grabbing of public or reserved land by powerful interests, ill-informed policymaking contributes substantially to municipal failure to integrate the four dimensions of equality in any “organic” manner, and in many parts of the world these “invisible” areas are growing faster than the “visible” ones. The invisible areas are made up of people who are poor and uneducated; migrants or from ethnic minorities; and majority female. As long as municipal authorities remain unaware of these groups and the underlying causes of their exclusion, they will remain unable to find effective ways to support them, and will fail them in a systematic way. The "right to the city" is beneficial in some ways because it is a open way to deal with the issues that people who live in urban areas have to deal with, making sure that they are able to appease everyone the most correct way possible and not leave anyone out. Because cities are so vast and so large there are many people whose needs do go unnoticed. The urban areas are controlled by those who have larger organizations within the city, who have a certain amount of money in their possession to be heard and have their opinions matter. Even though there is a large amount of those people who have money and are well educated and know the things that they need to know to have a bigger influence on the urban world, there is still another large amount of people whose economic status and educational status are not that weighty in matters that will effect a large amount of people. In a more rural area these people of lower income and educational status would be very influential because majority of the people around them would be on the same exactly level as them. Until cities realize that there are people that they have forgotten about and have no taken into account then forever will these people feel their needs will never be met living in an urban area.

The article below talks about how there is a mass forum held in Rio de Janeiro which encompasses all types of people who live in urban areas from members of national government to slum dwellers to discuss issues and work together to make better cities.

www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=6490&catid=584&typeid=24&subMenuId=0