Human Rights Day: Strengthening urban-rural linkages to advance the Right to the City

On the occasion of Human Rights Day, the Global Platform for the Right to the City launches a call for the strengthening of urban-rural linkages to advance the Right to the City, and launches its latest Thematic Paper: Beyond urban-rural linkages: the defense of territories and cities for life.

Industrialization, globalization of markets and economic liberalization increased volumes of production and consumption, generating economic growth in an inequitable and unsustainable way, which in turn has been reflected in green revolutions, urban sprawl and extractive activities. It is urgent to address these processes that consolidate a development model based on market needs and the intensive consumption of resources and energy. The negative impact of this model in the environment and the deepening of social inequities is evident.

The right to the city framework contributes to an understanding of territories as a collective project highlighting the social and environmental function of them above their economic function. The right to the city framework emphasizes a new way of promoting rights and constitutes an analytical and political tool for rethinking and transforming current development processes towards other forms of territorial planning and management. The right to the city is articulated to others rights such as the rights of Nature which add to human rights a relational and indivisible dimension with natural and cultural territorial contexts.

We envision sustainable cities/human settlements with inclusive rural-urban linkages that benefit poor people, both in rural and urban areas, and ensures food sovereignty; a city/human settlement that protects biodiversity, natural habitats, and surrounding ecosystems.

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