2021 has been a year of challenges, advances and strong mobilization for the Right to the City around the world, acutely marked by the prolongation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the progressive rollout of vaccination campaigns and the gradual suspension of social protection measures, with a consequent deepening of pre-existing inequalities.
2021 was strongly defined by popular mobilization regarding emergency response and advocating for a rights-based definition on how a “post-covid-19 world” looks like, in alliance with local and global struggles to advance climate justice. In this sense, the Right to the City movement has a lot to add, not only because most of its components are at the core of the debates (housing, public services, diverse and inclusive economies, social function of the city, public spaces and others); but also through it focus on the territorial dimension of human rights and the strengthening of local democracy.
