Thematic Round Tables and Parallel Sessions
Recommendations of the meeting · UCLG should defend the recognition of the right to the city within the New Urban Agenda to be defined at Habitat III, engaging in dialogue with the networks and organizations of civil society. • The Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights is the channel through which a specific project on the right to the city to provide UCLG with political evidence and messages should be considered in depth.
political and financial decentralization of states. Mr Manyoni, Mayor of Mangaung (South Africa), proposed four lines of action: incorporating informal settlements in the urban fabric, increasing these communities’ access to the benefits and opportunities of cities, supporting the construction of social housing and encouraging public participation. Ms Campeão, the Deputy Mayor of São Paulo (Brazil) said that the right to the city also involves reinforcing the political participation of citizens, as well as improving access to quality public services and to urban mobility. Mr Vallier emphasized gender equality as one of the main aspects of the right to the city, and in this regard he mentioned the
European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life as a key tool for progress. Mr Allegretti, a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies in Coimbra (Portugal), stressed the importance of engaging in two lines of work: the production of programme documents like the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City and the exchange of best practices through platforms like UCLG’s Inclusive Cities Observatory. Finally, Mr Saule Júnior, the Coordinator of the Polis Institute, in São Paulo (Brazil), concluded the discussion by adding that the existence of democratic, sustainable, fair and humane cities involves ensuring an equitable and sustainable use of cities’ resources, assets and opportunities by all their inhabitants.
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