Many of the commonly defended human rights (freedom of expression, of assembly, of information, of movement, etc.) depend on the availability of physical public space. Their absence, especially in the suburbs, routinely hinders the rights of citizens. For this reason, Gregory Smithsimon argues for a formal right to public space.
At the center of virtually every major protest movement in recent years has been a central public space. Anti-Mubarak protesters filled Tahrir Square in Egypt, just as anti-government protesters in Ukraine filled Independence Square. Indignados took over Madrid’s Puerta del Sol a few months before Occupy Wall Street took over Liberty Plaza in New York City, and each protest spread to new plazas in new cities. The importance of public spaces for social movements is not a recent phenomenon, as the 1989 protests associated with Beijing’s Tiananmen Square or the Argentinean group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo both demonstrate.
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