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creation of the city space they live in. As for David Harvey, the right to the city doesn’t necessarily entail the right to access what is already there, but the right to change it after our heart’s desire. We need to be sure that we can live in what we create ourselves. David Harvey, 2003, the Right to the City. Source: Beshara, S & Hemdan, H. 2006. Makan Magazine: Justice to Land and Planning, Issue no.1. Legal Center for Arabic Minorities Rights in Israel.
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Source: World Charter for the Right to the City, 2005. UN Habitat.
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In Article 1 (The Right to the City) of Part 1 (General Provisions), the World Charter for the Right to the City holds that such right “also includes the right to development, to a healthy environment, to the enjoyment and preservation of natural resources, to participation in urban planning and management, and to historical and cultural heritage.” In the following Article (Article 2, Principles and Strategic Foundations of the Right to the City; Section 1: Full Exercise of Citizenship and Democratic Management of the City), the Charter defines the concept of participation which had been mentioned in Article 1 to include “direct and representative forms in the elaboration, definition, implementation, and fiscal distribution and management of public policies and municipal budgets”.
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The first argument in favor of dealing with the Maspero project as a general problem is its connection to the right to housing and the responsibility of the state in fulfilling and guaranteeing this right. Should it be possible for the state, after letting thousands of families live in a certain area and build their future and families on it, to decide to uproot these families from the place they had lived in for several generations? “There are some buildings in the Maspero Triangle the ownership of which is stable or at least not contested, such as the consulate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Broadcasting Building, the Armenian School and a group of high-end buildings on the 26th of July Road and on the Corniche. Of course, the controversy revolves around the houses of residents of the area, who do not have a legal basis or backup since they are not a hotel or a ministry. As a result, the state deals with them as public property whose destiny they can control according to their whims.” Source: Aly Mohammed Ahmed, 2013. Boulaq Abu al-‘ila: man yamtalik? Wa man ya’id? Wa man yasta’hiq? Website: CairObserver.
The results of the studies showed that more than 82% of Maspero inhabitants were born in Maspero. Moreover, Maspero inhabitants today, are considered to be the fourth generation to be born in Maspero.