Issues Home About Contact Us Issue 7 - August 2013 عربى
Editorial
Contesting Development
The people throughout the Middle East/North Africa have been compelled to take to the streets and squares of many towns and cities to contest the public space and those who claim authority over it. These ripples from the neighborhoods have accumulated to reach the palaces of power in great waves, variously questioning and reclaiming the public More

Regional Developments
First Palestinian Conference on Population Transfer
Ramallah—The BADIL Resource Center on Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (Bethlehem) hosted the first Palestinian conference on forced population transfer at the Red Crescent Society, Ramallah, on 4 June 2013. The conference entitled “Forced Population Transfer-Elements and Responsibilities” was the first of its kind publicly addressing the issue of the forced population transfer of the indigenous Palestinian population as a More

Reconstruction Programs in Syria: The Next Conflict
The war machine rages on in Syria after more than two years, claiming the lives of civilians and destroying many of the towns and districts in the country. Notably, the City of Homs has seen two-thirds of its neighborhoods destroyed. The death toll, now reported at about 100 thousand persons, has averaged 5,000 per month. The war has displaced more than More

Istanbul: Local Gezi Park Goes Global
What began as a protest to reclaim public space in Istanbul’s city center, rippled into massive protests across the country in response to the onward private development of public space. On 27 May, approximately 70 Right to the City protesters gathered in Taksim Square, as an effort to halt the destruction of adjacent Gezi Park, one of the few remaining More

Feudal Remnants Resume Armed Conflict against al-Buhaira Farmers
The heirs of the Nawwār family could not find a more-opportune moment than the currently unstable phase of Egypt’s revolution to resume their attempts to recover plots taken from them by law in the agrarian reform of the last century. Lands held by feudal landlords then were distributed to the peasants. Previous attempts had failed, as notably in the events More

Ethiopia Dams and Destroying Peoples for “Development”
In April of 2011, the Ethiopian government announced its plan for the construction of the Renaissance Dam (a.k.a. Millennium Dam), to generate hydroelectrical power (5,250 MW) along the Blue Nile, in Juba State, in western Ethiopia, at a cost of $4.8 billion. The project follows the construction of three Gibe Dams on the Omo River, which empties into Turkana Lake, More

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International Developments
Study on Security of Tenure for the Urban Poor
In the final two years of her mandate, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing Raquel Rolnik is engaged in a global study on security of tenure, in order to provide states with guidelines on land administration toward full realization of the human right to adequate housing. In 2012, the Special Rapporteur “mapped” legal guidance, policies and practices with respect More

Vienna+20: Reclaiming Human Rights Primacy
Vienna—The Vienna+20 Civil Society (CSO) Conference, 25–26 June 2013, adopted a joint Declaration in its final session, calling for a World Conference on Human Rights in 2018, 25 years after the Second World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna, in 1993. The proposal called for the Third World Conference on Human Rights to include full participation of civil society More

Extraterritorial Obligations (ETO) Consortium Meets Again
The 6th conference of the Extraterritorial (ETO) Consortium took place as a special event of the Vienna+20 Action Week on Human Rights in Vienna, on 25 and 26 June 2013. This parallel event was made possible by the presence of a large portion of ETO Consortium members actively participating in the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 1993 Vienna More

Human Rights and Local Government
The Advisory Committee (AC) of the UN Human Rights Council has proposed to undertake a study of local government and human rights in light of recent developments in the movement of cities and civil society to promote the “right to the city” and “the human rights city” as concepts of local governance. Following this initiative of civil society, the AC More

Hunger between Production and Political Will
The causes of hunger around the world recently witnessed a boost of interest from different parties, though it is not enough to the sharpness of the crisis but anyway it worth noting and support. The UN agencies, particularly Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and special conferences on the sustained development have played a significant role during the last three years More

 

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