The idea to develop a World Charter of the Right to the City was first conceived at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in 2000.

Under the Charter, the right to the city is defined as the equitable use of cities so that the values of sustainability, democracy and social justice are upheld and safeguarded. It acknowledges the collective right of the inhabitants of cities - especially the most vulnerable and marginalized groups - to act and organize to achieve appropriate living standards.

The World Charter of the Right to the City is congruent with all inter-national human rights standards and recognizes the right to land, means of subsistence, work, health, education, culture, adequate housing, social protection, safety, a healthy environment, sanitation, public transportation, entertainment and information.

It recognizes the right to meet and organize and upholds the rights of minorities and immigrants.

The Charter also recognizes the right to the preservation of cultural heritage and ethnic, sexual and cultural plurality in cities.

The Charter identifies the interdependent relationships between urban populations, resources, the environment, economic relationships and quality of life for present and future generations. It calls for profound structural changes in production and consumption standards and current forms of territorial and natural resource appropriation.

It also advocates developing solutions for the negative effects of globalisation, privatization of natural resources, world poverty and environmental fragility.

However, one fundamental question arises: if many of the rights included in the Charter already exist in international human rights standards, is there a need to draw up a new declaration on the Right to the City? Several NGOs including COHRE are of the view that the Charter has the potential to introduce several new and important elements to international human rights protection mechanisms.

These include the right to participatory and transparent management by local government, good governance, participatory budgeting, increasing regulation that calls for clarity regarding housing and environmental rights in cities, promotion of the social function of property, access to public services, and other matters related to urban space such as community policing.

According to Leticia Osorio, Coordinator of COHRE's Americas Programme, the Charter provides a new opportunity to discuss, at the international level, human rights that have been disregarded in the past or were insufficiently assured through General Comments or Observations issued by international human rights treaty bodies.

Osorio added, "The Charter has the potential to enhance the right to participation in public policy making and the inclusion of all affected persons in decision-making processes that determine urban development, social policies and public expenditure." Several NGOs and social movements, mostly from South America, met in Quito, Ecuador last month during the Social Forum of the Americas to improve the contents of the Charter and thereby its effectiveness. The groups also discussed strategies that would support the implementation and adoption of the Char ter by local authorities, countries and civil society.

According to Osorio, the Charter will be most effective if it clearly defines the obligatory subjects of the rights referred to in the charter, such as municipalities, other local government bodies involved in managing cities and the private sector, and also defines their respective levels of responsibility.

Osorio added that the Charter should clearly indicate the subjects of rights, taking into account the implications of various terms such as per-son, inhabitant or citizen. According to Osorio, "The term 'person' is the most appropriate, since it carries no exclusion and recognizes the universality of the beneficiaries of the rights.

The term 'inhabitant' is more restrictive as the person must live and be domiciled in a city to be fully entitled to the rights that are provided by the Charter. This could place temporary residents, especially migrant workers, at a disadvantage. Likewise, the notion of citizenship, although a valuable tool for understanding the acquisition of rights through belonging to a community, becomes an exclusionary concept when considered in legal terms at local or national level."

COHRE is currently collaborating with the POLIS Institute, the Brazilian National Forum for Urban Reform, the Habitat International Coalition, the Latin American Association of Promotion, Action Aid America, the Observatory of Metropolises and the International Observatory of City Rights to improve the contents of the Charter and thereby its effectiveness as a tool in the international human rights system.