Consider the following statements : 1. 'Right to the City' is an agreed human right and the UN-Habitat monitors the commitments made by each country in this regard. 2. 'Right to the City' gives every occupant of the city the right to reclaim public spaces and public participation in the city. 3. 'Right to the City' means that the State cannot deny any public service or facility to the unauthorized colonies in the city. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Explanation
Statements 2 and 3 are correct. The 'Right to the City', an idea of the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre (1968), is not an agreed human right that UN-Habitat monitors country by country: the New Urban Agenda adopted at Habitat III in 2016 only notes that some governments have enshrined its vision of 'cities for all', which they call the right to the city, in their laws and charters. So statement 1 is wrong. As the idea is promoted, every inhabitant of a city, including those living in informal or unauthorised settlements, has an equal claim on it: to use and reclaim its public spaces, to take part in decisions about it, and to its public services. That makes statement 2 correct, and statement 3 as well: in this view the state cannot deny public services or facilities to unauthorised colonies.