Rights and the City: An Exploration of the Interaction Between Socio-economic Rights and the City

In a rapidly urbanising society and against a background of rural underdevelopment, cities are increasingly the locations for access to basic socio-economic amenities and essential services. Access to the city and everything that it offers therefore impacts profoundly on the manner and extent to which poor and marginalised persons access the objects of their constitutionally ensconced socio-economic rights. Conversely, the content of the ‘right to the city’ is impacted by legal understandings of the ambit, scope and enforceability of socio-economic rights. Either way, the South African Constitution’s entrenchment of rights to access water, housing, health care services and education, alongside its guarantee of a substantive right to equality, mean that urban design, policy making and regeneration processes have become increasingly legalized and will increasingly be tested for constitutional compliance, especially in instances where they have the effect of excluding poor and marginalised persons from the city. This article begins to unpack the interrelationship between constitutional rights and the right to the city, focusing specifically on the impact of rights-based litigation and judgements on urban policy making, design and regeneration in South Africa.