a slogan and claim of urban social movements to guide policies to be more equitable and inclusive, as an alternative to current policies and planning practices that lead to segregation, privatization and inequitable distribution of public goods and services. Henri Lefebvre is generally attributed as having developed the notion of a “right to the city” in his book, Le droit à la ville(Paris: Anthropos, 1968). Currently, the “right to the city” argument rests on a bundle of existing human rights, in addition to specific claims of right to access land, water, sanitation, transport and public space, as well as the concept of the “social function” of land, housing and related infrastructure and public goods and services. The “right to the city” is elaborated in the draft “Charter on the Right to the City,” which developed out of the urban social movements in Latin America and spread through the World Social Forum.

See also “The Right to the City” on the Habitat International Coalitionwebsite.