A/HRC/27/59 44. The right to the city was specifically laid down in the World Charter for the Right to the City (2005);36 a wide range of organizations and networks, including UNESCO and UN-HABITAT, participated in the preparation of that important document. The Charter defines the right to the city as the equitable use of cities according to principles of sustainability, democracy, equity and social justice. It is a collective right of urban inhabitants that confers upon them the legitimate right to action and organization, based on respect of their differences, cultural expressions and practices, with the objective of exercising their right to self-determination and attaining an adequate standard of living. The right to the city is interdependent with other internationally recognized human rights, including civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights as defined in international human rights treaties. The Charter also claims as rights and corresponding obligations certain values not yet enshrined explicitly in international treaty law. Those include the social production of housing/habitat and the rights to “sustainable and equitable urban development”. The Charter also asserts a right to transport and public mobility, as well as a right to the environment. 45. The concept “the rights of the city” has emerged during the past decades as an alternative to the withdrawal of central and state governments’ responsibilities and resources in the globalized market. Many cities are increasingly subordinated to central decision-making institutions, public budgets and investment, whereas municipalities have to fend for themselves and/or compete over resources for development and services, often without the authorities to levy revenues or participate effectively in decisions affecting allocations. In such cases, local authorities face the prospect of resorting to the privatization of public goods and services — with their typically harmful economic consequences for the poor — and/or to seek fiscal support from the private financial market. The concept may refer to the administrative, political and economic rights of the local governments in relation to national/federal authorities, and to the presence and role of local authorities visà-vis the international and multilateral institutions (the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc.). 46. The concept “the human rights in the city” developed mainly in the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City 37 and Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City38 implies: the commitment to respect, protect and fulfil all internationally recognized human rights at the local level; the commitment to give priority attention to marginalized groups and population living under vulnerable conditions; and the commitment to mainstream a human rights approach to local policies (not just the implementation of human rights programmes). 36 37 38 Available from http://portal.unesco.org and www.hic-net.org. That important document is the result of the preparatory work initiated in Barcelona in 1998 in the framework of the Conference “Cities for Human Rights”, which was organized to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hundreds of mayors and political representatives participated in the event and united their voices to call for a stronger political acknowledgement as key actors in safeguarding human rights in a highly urbanized world. For more details, see www.uclg-cisdp.org/en/right-to-the-city/european-charter#sthash.E5JeKdIt.dpuf. The Charter was drafted by the United Cities and Local Governments Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights. It was discussed and approved by elected representatives, experts and representatives of civil society from all over the world in 2011. The added value of the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City is that each human right featured in the document is accompanied by an action plan that serves as reference for specific steps for local governments to take. Signatory cities are invited to set up a local agenda with deadlines and indicators in order to assess their efficiency in implementing those rights. Full text of the Charter is available from www.cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/uploads/Charter_Agenda_oct_2010_EN.pdf. 13