Protection of human dignity must remain at the core of MDGs
Adequate Housing is Right of every woman, man, youth and child, says Special Rapporteur on World Habitat Day. The selection of Jakarta, Indonesia as the centre for this year’s World Habitat Day serves to highlight the enormous devastation and homelessness resulting from the 2004 tsunami. The recent Hurricane Katrina that hit the United States also exposed the lack of disaster-preparedness and failures in state response. Both the Asian tsunami and the Katrina disaster have revealed the grossly inadequate housing and living conditions under which historically marginalized groups, such as the African-American population in the United States and certain indigenous peoples in Indonesia and India have survived for decades.
Statement for World Habitat Day 2005
Everyone's right to a secure place where to live in peace and dignity -strategic axis of the World Campaign for the Right to Housing prompted by HIC in the 90s- reaches today greater complexity and new dimensions in advance of the serious impacts of the economic globalization and the neo-liberal policies that prompt it.
Solidarity appeal to protest UN-Habitat’s honor award to housing rights violator
Governor Sutiyoso has become infamous for his brutal and massive evictions of the houses of the urban poor and the confiscation of their means of livelihood like pedicabs and the goods and stalls of sidewalk vendors.
No award for Jakarta authorities!
We cannot understand why UN Habitat gives this award to the City of Jakarta. The leading authorities are well known as example for the miss-use of the "city without slums"-approach. Cleaning the cities from the poor by evictions, excluding street vendors etc. is not what we understand by rights-based urban development.
New HRAH Violations Database
World Habitat Day, 3 October 2005, the Habitat International Coalition's Housing and Land Rights Network Has Launched a New Right to Adequate Housing Violations Database
Evictions not the answer to challenge of world slums – Annan
With more than 3 billion people – one third of humanity – facing the prospect of living in slums by 2050 if present trends continue, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today dismissed evictions and demolitions as the answer, calling instead for pro-poor urban development.
Demand UN Habitat to withdraw the award to be given tothe city of Jakarta
The award will humiliate urban poor people of Jakarta and other cities in Indonesia. Under the leadership of Governor Sutiyoso, Jakarta has been transformed into a city of eviction and confiscation against urban poor people.
Not to proceed to give Mr Sutiyoso the award
Jakarta Metropolitan City will receive the award in behalf of the city from UN-Habitat for his achievement in "slums improving and building new infrastructure to create an inclusive, cosmopolitan city". Although Governor Sutiyoso has a terrible record of violating the housing and livelihood rights of the urban poor of Jakarta.
2005 Right Livelihood Awards Honour Pioneers For Justice, Fair Trade And Cultural Renewal
The 2005 Honorary Right Livelihood Award goes to one of Mexico’s greatest living artists and community philanthropists, Franscisco Toledo.
UN Secretary General on the occasion of World Habitat Day 2005
'The build-up of slums and informal settlements occurs in large part because of policies and exclusionary practices that deny public services and basic facilities - including water, sanitation, health and education - to informal settlements that are deemed illegal. Moreover, community-based efforts to redress such problems often face political and bureaucratic obstacles. But evictions and demolitions are not the answer to the challenges of rapid urbanization. We must have pro-poor, participatory urban development in which women and men are empowered to manage their communities, and where development is carried out with respect for human rights and in accordance with international law.'
Urgent Action: La Parota Dam, Mexico
TOMÁS CRUZ ZAMORA of the community of Huamuchitos, Bienes Comunales de Cacahuatepec, was murdered on 18 September by Cirilo Cruz, after participating in an Assembly of communal farmers and rural residents opposed to the construction of the Parota Dam, held in the municipality of Acapulco, Guerrero.
Human Rights of Tsunami Survivors in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka Being Violated
Eight months after the tsunami, resettlement and rehabilitation in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka are far from satisfactory, and in many cases, show little regard for the human rights of the tsunami survivors, says a report published by the Housing and Land Rights Network.