NGOs call for protection from forced eviction

By T. Sima Gunawan

ISTANBUL (JP): Over 400 non-governmental organizations worldwide are calling on members of the United Nations to uphold people's rights to adequate housing and stop evictions.

"We are calling on the United Nations to confirm that the right to housing is internationally recognized; that also means protection from forced eviction and freedom from discrimination," Tara Krause, director of the New York-based Human Rights Caucus, said ahead of the UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) II.

"We strongly feel that forced evictions are human rights violations," she said.

Housing rights and evictions are among the issues raised at the NGO Global Forum, which opened Thursday and will go on until June 14. The forum is one of several events running parallel to the June 3-14 UN conference, which will involve 25,000 people from 184 countries.

The Human Rights Caucus is a coalition of 40 NGOs concentrating on human rights. But some 400 others have signed on through the internet to join forces in the push for international recognition of the right to housing, Krause explained.

"I don't know if anyone from Indonesia has signed, but I would welcome them to join us," she said.

Indonesia has also had its share of violent incidents in which people were forcibly evicted by the authorities from their land. Insufficient compensation has usually been behind such incidents.

Yet forced evictions happen in both rich and poor countries, Krause said in an interview with The Jakarta Post Thursday.

In China and India, over one million people have been forced to leave their homes to make way for the construction of gigantic dams, she said.

If evictions are inevitable, people should be given enough warning, she said. "People should have the right to legal representation and the right to a public tribunal where their views can be heard; they should be adequately compensated for any losses, and relocated."

"The Common Good" has been cited as the reason for many government-sponsored evictions, Krause said.

In Atlanta, Georgia, many people living in poverty and the homeless were evicted from public housing to make way for the construction of an athletes village for this upcoming summer Olympics, she noted.

Even though the homeless people may not have land titles, this does not mean that the government can just kick them off their land. The government has the obligation to respect and promote the right to adequate housing. This applies to any country in the world, she added.

"This is the beauty of human rights. It goes beyond a slogan. It is a body of legal framework, and is then active in domestic legislation,".

Krause is also the program director of the Organizing Committee of the People's Decade of Human Rights Education in support of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education, 1995-2005.

Another parallel event to the UN Habitat Conference is the two-day World Assembly of Cities and Local Authorities, which ended yesterday.

UNICEF senior urban advisor, Ximena De La Barra, said in his address to the assembly that the well-being of children is the ultimate indicator of a healthy society and good governance.

"The future of the world is unavoidably urban, and the well- being of children will continue to be inextricably tied to that of the cities in which they live. The well-being of the children in your city will therefore become the clearest indicator of the success of your actions," he said.

He called for special attention to be given to the millions of child laborers, prostitutes and street children. There is a growing number of HIV-positive children and AIDS orphans, he added.

Most urban children in both developing and industrial countries live in unhealthy environments and many of them are subject to violence within their families or communities, he said.

Some problems are caused by wars and police brutality, but most stem from structural violence -- the insidious violence of poverty and social exclusion.

Indonesia was represented by Endi Rukma from the Inter-city Coordinating Board. Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirja, who was supposed to attend, was not present.

Due to tight accreditation, around 30 local officials from the various parts of Indonesia were not allowed access to the assembly. Their names were not on the list because they were apparently replaced by other officials who were then unable to make it.