UN meeting urged to discuss right to housing
By Sima Gunawan
ISTANBUL, Turkey (JP): Hundreds of activists, including some Indonesians, staged a demonstration here yesterday, demanding the UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) II put "the right of housing" in the Habitat agenda.
They gathered at the Galata Bridge of Istanbul to protest points relating to the right to housing, which they claimed were "missing" or "too weak" in the existing agenda text. Three cyclists, members of Droit au Logement (Right to Housing) group, who arrived from Paris, joined the protest.
Some members of the Jakarta-based Jelambar group also took part in the demonstration. Earlier this week they told an NGO forum about forced evictions in Jakarta and screened a video on demolitions in Bendungan Hilir, Central Jakarta.
Yesterday, the demonstrators planned to march to the NGO Forum building but the police stopped and dispersed them.
The existing text of the Habitat agenda says "we reaffirm our commitment to the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing, as set out in numerous international instruments and we recognize the fundamental obligation of governments to enable people to obtain shelter and to protect and improve dwellings and neighborhoods".
The right to housing is one of the hottest issues in the UN Conference on Human Settlements. The Non-Aligned Movement believes that the right to housing is a basic human right. This is supported by Europe. But some countries, particularly the United States and Japan, disagree. The U.S. has said that the right to adequate housing is a component of existing human rights.
The U.S. apparently refuses to recognize the right to housing as a basic right as it is concerned about legal suit from poor people who demand free public housing.
Recognizing the right to housing as a human right will apparently pressure developed countries to provide housing loans to developing countries, activists said.
In yesterday's demonstration, NGOs demanded that the Habitat agenda clearly affirm the right to affordable and accessible quality housing as a legally enforced human right to be enacted in the Constitutions and legislations of all UN member states.
They also demanded affirmation on the obligation of national governments to commit sufficient resources to realize the right to housing by the immediate reallocation of funds away from weapons of war to build world habitats for peace.
Governments should be committed to the productive use of abandoned or unused buildings and idle lands to meet people's housing needs, especially for the poor, activists said.
The activists also demanded that governments end forced evictions.
"Unavoidable relocations must include notification, participation by affected populations, accessible rehousing, basic services and employment opportunities, and due process of law," NGOs said in a statement.
The other demands included the providing of regulations and controls to guarantee security of tenure, combat housing and land speculation, and fight housing discrimination. An international funding mechanism should be set up to guarantee support for locally-based financial institutions for poor people who need housing. The NGOs also demanded that Habitat II adopt and submit the International Convention on the Right to Housing.