Habitat II opens with warning of urban crises

By T. Sima Gunawan

ISTANBUL, Turkey (JP): United Nations Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali opened the UN Conference on Human Settlements II here yesterday with a warning about the global crises of urban development.

"The crises of urban development are crises of all states, rich and poor. These challenges, however, are most severe in developing countries," he said.

The conference, also called the City Summit or Habitat II, is the continuation of earlier UN conferences including the First Conference on Human Settlement in Vancouver (1976), the Earth Summit in Rio de Janerio (1992), the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna (1993), the World Conference on Population in Cairo (1994), the World Conference on Social Development in Copenhagen (1995) and the Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing (1995).

Boutros-Ghali said these conferences had been criticized for their cost and lack of achievement, but he defended the meetings, saying that they are "crucial for the determination of the future of life on this planet."

He said that the world has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, but the problems have not disappeared. "Poverty, hunger, disease, population imbalance and the lack of equity are still with us."

Boutros-Ghali stressed that human settlements are becoming a key factor in the complex equation of growth and development, environmental sustainability, human rights and the eradication of poverty.

Urban dwellers

By 2000, almost half of the world's population will live in urban areas. By 2025, urban dwellers will total some five billion people, 80 percent of them in developing countries, he said.

"Problems of jobs, housing, infrastructure and environmental safety will increasingly acquire an urban face," he said.

The urban problems, however, should not make governments neglect rural areas, he said.

Habitat II's Secretary General Wally N'Dow said in his speech that partnership and enablement are the keys to forming a strategy for sustainable human settlement.

He underlined the need for partnership between governments and the private sector, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the community, and local authorities for the achievement of sustainable human settlement.

The Istanbul Conference is aiming to making the world's cities and communities safe, healthy and more sustainable and equitable. It will foster a Global Plan of Action, a Habitat Agenda that will become a guideline for the world's leaders in the drafting of policies which will improve the living conditions of the people.

Among the most contentious issues on the agenda are housing rights and international cooperation. Most NGOs feel that housing is a basic human right and that people should not have to suffer forced eviction.

Some governments have argued against recognizing it as a human right. They have since softened their position to acknowledge the need for protection from discrimination and eviction, while providing security of tenure and expanding the supply of affordable housing.

All governments acknowledge the need for international cooperation. But the developing countries emphasize that there should be a flow of financial resources from the developed countries.

On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, Fabio Giraldo, Columbia's Deputy Minister of Economic Development, said there should be an expansion of financial resources to developing countries for the implementation of national and global settlement plans and the achievement of Habitat II objectives.

"We reiterate, therefore, our call to the international community and international institutions to complement our initiatives and action through the provision of new and additional resources, as well as the technical assistance required for the implementation of the developing countries' policies and programs," he said. (sim)

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