Issues Home About Contact Us Issue 4 - October 2012 عربى
Editorial
Struggling against Impunity
The Annual Report of Findings from the HIC-HLRN Violation Database (VDB), issued on this World Habitat Day (World Housing and Land Rights Day) 2012, focuses on the persistence of impunity for gross violations of housing and land rights. This year’s analysis draws on the cases entered in the HLRN Violation Database over the usual four-year More

Regional Developments
The Poor in Lebanon: Victims of Destruction & Reconstruction
The poor and marginalized communities in Lebanon are the persons most affected by human rights violations, specifically their right to life and adequate standard of living. They have also been the victims of civil and Israeli wars, as well as victims of the post-war development and reconstruction policies. In the mid-1990s, the Council for Development and Reconstruction contracted private companies for More

UN-HABITAT and Cairo 2050 Plan in WUF 2012
The Egyptian Ministry of Housing, specifically, the Authority of Urban Development, usually participates in the Word Urban Forum (WUF). This year the WUF was held in Naples, Italy between 5 and 9 September 2012. The Egyptian officials who are responsible for housing policies and projects were active, as usual, in different activities within the WUF. They held a special session More

Sahrawi Refugees: Temporary Solutions for a Long-standing Issue
Morocco has occupied much of Western Sahara since 1975, causing severe implications for the people of the country, including the restrictions on the use of the country’s natural resources in contravention of international law. The continuing occupation has prolonged a refugee crisis in Algeria. On 3 September, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center) issued a More

Israel’s Unlawful Exploitation of the Natural Resources in OPT
On 3 September 2012, al-Haq: Law in the Service of Man issued a reported, titled “Pillage of the Dead Sea: Israel’s Unlawful Exploitation of Natural Resources in Occupied Palestinian Territory.” This report discusses the Israeli occupation’s exploitation of Palestinian natural resources for the benefit of Israel’s domestic economy and Israeli colonial settlers. The report analyzes these actions in breach of More

Al-Aḥwaz: A Forgotten Issue Regionally and Internationally
The southwest province of ethnically Persian-dominated Iran is home to a significant Arab minority population, in an area known as al-Aḥwaz. Since its incorporation into Iran in 1926, this community has undergone oppression and discrimination from the Persian Iranian government and authorities. The occupation of the Aḥwazi territory has resulted in the violation of human rights and what might be considered More

Arab Politics and Urban Planning
…No matter how different the reasons may be, the result is always the same; the scandalous alleys and lanes disappear to the accompaniment of lavish self-praise from the bourgeoisie on account of this tremendous success, but they appear again immediately somewhere else…The same economic necessity which produced them in the first place, produces them in the next place. Friedrich Engels, The More

The Imbalances of Urban Development in Morocco
The urbanization in Morocco has witnessed a swift development throughout the country as a result of economic, social, cultural and political transformations made during the era of colonization. During that period, the authorities had established neighborhoods outside the fences of ancient cities, in addition to the new urban center, as well as developing the coastal cities that rely on imports More

Housing in Algeria: Several Forms, One Problem
The housing crisis in Algeria is one of the biggest domestic problems that each successive government has failed to resolve, including the failure to mitigate the impacts of failing policies within the housing sector. It is one of the primary causes of social tension and the source of many of the protests that Algeria recently witnesses. The capacity of national housing, More

Egyptian Housing Day
On 6 September 2012, the Egyptian Center for Civil and Legislative Reform, in cooperation with Habitat International Coalition-Housing and Land Rights Network and other Egyptian NGOs, organized a community event for the first annual ‘Egyptian Housing Day.’ This event was organized to focus on the housing and land rights violations in Egypt, as well as to provide opportunities for communication, coordination and More

Palestine will remain the Habitat for Palestinians… Leading Dignified Lives… or Martyrs 7 Feet under
While the citizens of the world are preparing to mark the World Habitat Day, a day to reflect on the status of the human settlements and the right to adequate housing, the Israeli Occupation is strangling the Palestinians and their lands. The occupiers who owned less than 8 % of the area of historical Palestine are now offering the Palestinians More

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International Developments
UN Report on Stigmatization in the Realization of the Rights to Water and Sanitation
In September 2012, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Catarina de Albuquerque issued a report on “stigmatization in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation.”This report focuses on how the various manifestations of stigma dehumanize and even justify the unequal treatment of individuals or groups in certain countries and communities, as More

Urban Social Forum II Declaration: Defending the Common Goods for the Future of Cities and Territories
Over 250 local, national and international inhabitants’ organisations and networks for rights related to habitat, engaged in the struggle for decent living conditions in cities and territories, participated in 42 initiatives which were organized as part of the 2nd Urban Social Forum (USF) in Naples, Italy, from 3-7 September 2012. The USF is completely independent, self-managed, self-financed and presents an More

Right to Food and Nutrition Watch: Occupy the Food System!
Civil society representatives launching the fifth annual report on the right to food and nutrition state that it is impossible to combat the causes of hunger while keeping existing power relations untouched. Food and power are related. It is almost impossible to find one person among the powerful in society and politics worldwide, who does not have enough to eat, said More

FAO Forum on Food Security in Protracted Crises
The High-level Expert Forum of the FAO, Rome, 13–14 September 2012, brought together the FAO, IFAD and WFP officers, governments, major aid agencies, and civil society organizations (CSOs) to discuss the way forward in addressing “Food Insecurity in Protracted Crises.” The two-day event was preceded by a CSO consultation to coordinate positions and prepare interventions at the Forum. The Civil-society Mechanism More

 

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