Governments must end forced evictions and address global housing crisis at the root of global financial crisis

On the occasion of the World Habitat Day, 6 October 2008, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) calls upon governments to end forced evictions and other housing rights violations. COHRE further urges governments and other relevant agencies to direct the necessary resources towards addressing the acute housing crises in both rural and urban areas. COHRE is convinced that the unmet demand for adequate housing provided the primary target for the predatory lending practices that have led to the current spate of worldwide bank failures and the ensuing global financial crisis. The realization of housing rights for the world's poor majority must not now be sacrificed in the name of international economic "recovery" efforts.

World leaders can no longer continue to ignore widespread violations of the fundamental human right to adequate housing. Millions of people continue to be forcibly evicted from their homes and lands. In Beijing, 1.5 million people have been displaced to create space for Olympic venues, for city ‘beautification’ projects in advance of the Olympics, as well as in the context of other urban development projects. This massive displacement of persons and communities is ongoing today. In Abuja, Nigeria, the Federal Capital Development Authority selectively used the City’s Master Plan to forcibly evict more than 800,000 during the period 2003 to 2007. Over three years after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, in the United States, thousands of families are still being denied the right to return to their homes. In Cambodia, over 50,000 people were forcibly evicted during 2006-2007 for agro-industrial and development projects. Indeed, even Luanda, Angola, which hosts this year’s World Habitat Day celebrations, has similarly undertaken large-scale forced evictions, involving many thousands of persons, in the recent period.

Ongoing housing rights abuses have also taken other forms. In Burma, cyclone Nargis survivors have reportedly been forcibly returned to their villages by the Burmese government, despite the absence of adequate rehabilitation. In Sri Lanka, the government has threatened to forcibly close transitional shelters in Colombo, in advance of any durable solution for persons displaced by the 2004 tsunami. Indigenous communities such as the Brazilian Quilombos and the Bedouin in Israel have been arbitrarily deprived of their land, despite the adoption by the UN General Assembly in September 2007 of the Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, which sets out extensive commitments to maintain the integrity of land tenure for such groups. The Roma in Europe face extensive racial segregation in housing, enforced through forced eviction practices, matters comprehensively banned by international law. The recent period has seen dramatic intensification of such practices by the Italian and French governments in particular.

While countless people continue to be driven into homelessness, governments are abdicating their responsibility to ensure access to affordable housing and public services. In some cases, governments are even scaling down commitments made previously to meet the growing demand for affordable housing. For example, in the post-communist world, social housing systems have been dismantled in a number of countries, with few or no protections introduced to protect persons forced by these acts into extreme poverty. The widespread neglect of rural infrastructure including water, sanitation and housing coupled with increased land alienation has led to growing rural-urban migration. In addition, the fast pace of urbanisation in many developing countries has far exceeded local government capacity or willingness to provide basic amenities to city residents, including adequate housing, water, electricity and sanitation. Such urbanisation has resulted in the creation of vast slums where residents live in sub-standard housing conditions, without access to even the most basic services.

While inadequate living conditions and forced evictions affect all residents, women and girls all too often bear a disproportionately greater burden. Violence, vulnerability to abuse and exploitation, inadequate provision of services, housing insecurity, and lack of privacy are common experiences with profoundly gendered dimensions.

There are, however, inspirational alternative approaches. In one leading example, Naga City, in the Philippines, has enacted landmark legislation mandating city government agencies to establish a partnership with community organisations to work towards security of tenure and improved living conditions for its residents. Naga City has also adopted a range of adjunct policies with a view to finding long-term solutions to problems of lack of security of tenure faced by the urban poor as well as to promote slum upgrading.

A major housing rights victory was recently won when the City of Johannesburg implemented the voluntary relocation of 450 residents of two inner city slum buildings to two newly refurbished buildings. This successful relocation was possible due to an order by the Constitutional Court of South Africa that directed the City government to engage in meaningful consultation with affected persons.

COHRE urges governments to take cognisance of this and similar progressive approaches to securing the right to adequate housing for all. COHRE further urges all governments to take immediate steps, as specified by international law, to address the spiralling global housing crisis. In particular, COHRE urges that governments worldwide:

- End, without delay, the practice of forced eviction
- Respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing including the right to water and sanitation for all
- Promote development processes that minimise displacement
- Devise and implement plans to address homelessness and inadequate housing in consultation with affected persons and communities, and their representatives
- Take steps to mitigate the impacts of inadequate housing on marginalised groups, including women, racial and ethnic minorities, and children, and
- Celebrate the work of housing rights defenders, and work toward their inclusion in policy frameworks to resolve outstanding housing rights issues

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City Government of Naga honoured with Housing Rights Protector Award for its exceptional commitment to the human right to adequate housing

MEDIA RELEASE

City Government of Naga honoured with Housing Rights Protector Award for its exceptional commitment to the human right to adequate housing

5 December 2007. The City Government of Naga, Philippines, has been awarded the 2007 Housing Rights Protector Award for its Kaantabay sa Kauswagan (Partners in Development) Programme, an initiative providing security of tenure and improved living conditions for thousands of its residents.

The Housing Rights Protector Award is presented annually by the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) to a government or other institution demonstrating an exceptional commitment to the protection and fulfilment of housing rights.

“COHRE commends the City Government of Naga for assisting over 6,000 families to obtain legal title to their land, thereby safeguarding them from the threat of forced eviction, and for improving the living conditions of 27 urban poor communities by providing and upgrading infrastructure,” said Jean du Plessis, COHRE’s Deputy Director. Du Plessis added, “COHRE is honoured to present the City Government of Naga with the 2007 Housing Rights Protector Award for its Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Programme, which clearly demonstrates that the human right to adequate housing can indeed be made a reality if the political will exists.”

Naga City, with a population of around 140,000, is centrally located in Bicol, a region comprising the southernmost portion of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Naga City was grappling with serious urban housing problems in the late 1980s with 25 percent of its population living as squatters or in slums. Most of the urban poor living in slums in Naga City did not have legal title to their land. Residents of these informal settlements lacked basic services such as access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities, because previous local governments in Naga City ignored their responsibilities to provide basic infrastructure in these areas, due to their informal status.

The Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Programme’s mandate includes: providing low-cost homelots for urban poor residents; facilitating the transfer of land ownership from government and private owners to those who are currently occupying the land; providing legal assistance and support for the titling or regularisation of informal land allotments; and improving living conditions in informal land allotments through the provision of basic amenities such as clean drinking water, adequate sanitation facilities and other essential services to residents.

A total of 30 on-site and off-site development projects under the programme have assisted 6,046 households (20 percent of Naga City’s population) to obtain legal title, thereby providing them with security of tenure. Negotiations are ongoing to provide another 2,717 households (nine percent of Naga City’s population) with security of tenure in the near future. The Programme has also assisted more than 27 urban poor communities in Naga City to obtain better living conditions through the provision of basic services and infrastructure improvement.

COHRE’s Du Plessis, said, “The Naga City Government’s consultation with civil society and urban poor associations in the development and implementation of housing policies has produced effective remedies for thousands of inadequately housed people. The Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Programme’s success in implementing housing and poverty alleviation policies, anchored in the understanding that the participation of the urban poor is vital to sustainable development, is commendable.”

Du Plessis added, “COHRE praises the proactive initiatives undertaken by the City Government of Naga to effectively guarantee the protection and progressive realisation of the human right to adequate housing. Its efforts provide a powerful example that governments can implement practical policies to realise housing rights and that these are integral to fighting poverty.”

The 2007 Housing Rights Protector Award will be presented by COHRE to the Mayor of the Naga City Government, Jesse Robredo, at a ceremony in Geneva today.


COHRE 2007 Housing Rights Protector Award
Municipal Government of Naga City, Philippines

COHRE’s Housing Rights Protector Award is presented annually to a government or other institution demonstrating an exceptional commitment to the protection and fulfilment of housing rights. The Protector Award demonstrates that the human right to adequate housing can indeed be made a reality, if the political will exists.

The City Government of Naga, Philippines, has been selected as the 2007 Housing Rights Protector Award winner for its Kaantabay sa Kauswagan (Partners in Development) Programme, which is administered by its department, the Urban Poor Affairs Office (UPAO). This unique programme, which was established in 1989 under the leadership of Mayor Jesse Robriedo, aims to provide security of tenure to urban poor communities living on informal land allotments in Naga City, and to improve their living conditions through slum upgrading.

Naga City, with a population of around 140,000, is centrally located in Bicol, a region comprising the southernmost portion of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Naga City was grappling with serious urban housing problems in the late 1980s with 25 percent of its population living as squatters or in slums. Today, it has developed a reputation for being a centre for innovations in local governance. The Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Programme facilitated by the UPAO of the Naga City Government is a successful housing and poverty alleviation programme anchored in the understanding that the participation of the urban poor is vital to sustainable development.

The Programme has been successful in devising effective strategies to cushion the negative impacts of urbanisation. These strategies include various modes of land acquisition, such as direct purchase, land swapping, land sharing, community mortgage, and resettlement; creating a separate section in the lending arm of the local government to specifically cater to the needs of the urban poor; and developing a financing scheme anchored on internally-generated resources of the beneficiaries.

The Programme’s mandate includes: providing low-cost homelots for urban poor residents; facilitating transfer of land ownership from government and private owners to those who are currently occupying the land; providing legal assistance and support for the titling or regularisation of informal land allotments; and improving living conditions in informal land allotments through the provision of basic amenities such as clean drinking water, adequate sanitation facilities and other essential services to residents.

A total of 30 on-site and off-site development projects under the programme have assisted 6,046 households (20 percent of Naga City’s population) to obtain legal title, thereby providing them with security of tenure. Negotiations are ongoing to provide another 2,717 households (nine percent of of Naga City’s population) with security of tenure in the near future. The Programme has also assisted more than 27 urban poor communities in Naga City to obtain better living conditions through the provision of basic services and infrastructure improvement.

The Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Programme has been successful in institutionalising a tripartite mechanism that effectively brings together a) government agencies, b) urban poor associations and their allied NGOs, and c) private land owners to solve standing tenurial problems with finality.

The success of the Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Programme is anchored on the following strategies:

· The adoption of a “partner-beneficiary” perspective in dealing with clients - This approach sees the urban poor as both programme partner and beneficiary, compelling them to actively participate in every step of problem resolution.

· Role definition and specialisation – This is the recognition that NGOs have more expertise than governments in certain areas of community development. Thus, the Naga City Government relies on its NGO partner, the Community Organisation of the Philippines Enterprise (COPE) Foundation, to assist in community organising and the preparation of beneficiaries.

· A policy of dealing only with urban poor organisations and not individuals - This compels urban poor residents to take the initiative to organise themselves, thereby facilitating community organising.

· Strategy of focus – To maximize scarce resources, the Programme focuses exclusively on the urban poor sector in Naga City. The urban poor are identified on the basis of a single criterion; the lack of security of tenure. ###

For interviews with Jean du Plessis or additional information please contact COHRE’s Media Officer, Radhika Satkunanathan on +41-22-7341028, +61-400-899474 or media@cohre.org