How people face evictions
The UCL Institute for Human Rights invites you to :
Forced Evictions and Human Rights:
Launch of a Report - and discussion of how land and housing evictions violate economic and social rights
London 5 May 2011
Registration from 5:00pm
Event starts at 5:30pm
The UCL Institute for Human Rights is delighted to host the launch of a new report written by UCL academics in collaboration with others working on the question of forced evictions
Participants :
Professor Yves Cabannes - UCL Development and Planning Unit, co-author of report
Sylvia Guimaraes - Building & Social Housing Federation, co-author
Cassidy Johnson - UCL Development and Planning Unit, co-author
Malavika Vartak
Cesare Ottolini - International Alliance of Inhabitants and Zero Eviction Campaign
Saladin Meckled-Garcia - UCL Institute for Human Rights
George Letsas - UCL Institute for Human Rights
Facilitated by Gautam Bhan
About the Event:
A new report examining how people and communities around the world face forced eviction has been published by a prominent group of researchers, led by UCL academics. This event has been set up by the Institute for Human Rights to discuss the relationships of forced evictions to economic and social rights, and their status as violations.
The Report:
Forced and market-driven evictions are increasing dramatically worldwide, with devastating effects on millions of children, women and men across the globe. Despite this negative trend, however, many people-led initiatives have been successful in addressing this issue and reducing the number of evictions, developing new policies and proving that alternatives to forced eviction can be found. This report documents, reflects upon and shares people-based initiatives and experiences of struggles against evictions, including how groups are securing rights to adequate housing, legal security of tenure and freedom from arbitrary destruction and dispossession, giving voice to people who are active on the ground and providing an opportunity for exchange and mutual learning.
The report incorporates narratives by local groups who have faced or are currently facing forced evictions the cities of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Porto Alegre (Brazil), Durban (South Africa), Hangzhou (China), Istanbul (Turkey), Karachi (Pakistan) and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), as well as in the rural villages of Mirshaq and Sarandu in Egypt.The central focus of the report is on the practical strategies and experiences of communities who have directly struggled against forced evictions. Many of these experiences offer valuable lessons for other groups facing similar issues and it is envisaged that the groups involved, as well as the many other groups around the world confronting similar issues, will benefit from the documentation of these diverse experiences and solutions and identify cross-cutting themes.
Edited by: Yves Cabannes, UCL (coord.); Silvia Guimarães Yafai, BSHF; Cassidy Johnson, UCL.
Partners: International Alliance of Inhabitants; Habitat International Coalition, Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN); Housing Rights Coordination, Turkey; Dominican Coordination of Urban People's Movements; Brazilian Movement for Housing Struggle (MNLM); Utopia e Luta Autonomous Community, Brazil; FEDEVI, Argentina; Solidarity Committee with Agrarian Reform Farmers, Egypt; Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR); DAP-NED and Urban Resource Centre, Pakistan; AbahlalibaseMjondolo, South Africa.