HIC @ WUF 7

The Habitat International Coalition (HIC) – the global network for the right to habitat and social justice – has had a strong presence in Medellin, Colombia, and at the United Nation’s World Urban Forum (WUF) from April 7 to 11. HIC has also celebrated its Board Meeting (5-6 April) and the HIC General Assembly (7 April) with over 70 people attending from 34 organizations with the right to vote. It was an intense Assembly with a very active participation of HIC´s members.

HIC activists and experts from more than 20 nations in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and North America were available for comment in a variety of venues that week.

HIC kicked off its Medellin actions with a Sunday visit to Commune 13 and Commune Nororiental , where local leaders told powerful stories of community-initiated revitalization that gained city support, as well as ongoing struggles to identify the graves of loved ones lost to military repression.

On Monday HIC participated in the Debates under the light of the night” at the Teatro Pablo Tobón, event organized along with the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Tuesday began with HIC President Lorena Zárate and Board member Benedito Barbosa’s presentations on a Civil Society Roundtable panel that drew several hundred WUF delegates at the main convention hall. Zárate and Barbosa challenged the underlying central theme of WUF VII, which equates economic growth with increased equity. They applauded popular movements worldwide who oppose the capitalist development paradigm that has led to mass displacement, forced evictions and human misery, and who have forged a new vision of habitat that: (1) is a rights-based approach including the Right to the City and the Social Production of Habitat; (2) does not separate urban from rural struggles; and (3) attacks the root causes of inequality through participatory democracy, redistributive justice and social inclusion. Many people around the world are struggling to defend their rights to land, housing and the city from destructive market forces,” says Lorena Zárate, President of HIC. The global recession of 2008 was fueled by the collapse in the US private housing market, and millions face forced evictions and homelessness as a result. At HIC, we support the struggles of people everywhere for the right to live in peace and dignity.”

In the afternoon, HIC members from eight countries on four continents marched in solidarity with more than 1,200 grass roots Colombian activists, in Medellin for an alternative Social Urban Forum sponsored by numerous Colombian social movements and the International Alliance of Inhabitants. The march through Barrio Puerto Nuevo began in a neighborhood threatened by forced evictions for a controversial highway expansion project and continued on to Medellin City Hall. The march underscored the gap between popular demands for the Right to Land, Housing and the City and the prevailing capitalist development dialogue within the official WUF Forum and in Medellin.

Meanwhile, back at the Forum, several HIC members released a new publication coordinated by HIC/AITEC activist Charlotte Mathivet (Paris), Take Back the Land: The Social Function of Land and Housing: Resistance and Alternatives”. The book presents case studies from across the globe highlighting struggles similar to the Medellin protest. HIC representatives Nelson Saule (PÓLIS, Brazil), Joseph Schechla (Egypt), Lorena Zárate (Mexico), and Pascale Thys (Belgium) were on hand for the release. Joseph Schechla also participated on a panel sponsored by the University of Cardiff exchanging solutions to improve the well being of informal workers in cities of change.”

On Wednesday, HIC participated in a Networking Event, Cities for Life and Territorial Rights: Facing the Challenge of Human Inequality. HIC also joined co-sponsors from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, CLASCO and ACIUR for the debate on struggles against dispossession by violence and gentrification. HIC participated as well in a conference on city regional food systems and sustainable urban development.

On Thursday HIC, along with Corporacion Region, Museo Casa de la Memoria, Witness, Alianza Nororiental, Mesa por el Derecho a la Ciudad, Sumapaz, Convivamos, Nuestra Gente, Federación Antioqueña and Fundación Diego Echevarría Misas participated in an international meeting on the right to the city. That same day HIC held a training event on the Violation Database, conducted by Joseph Schechla.

On Friday HIC participated in a training event organized by Instituto Polis and celebrated the Networking Event Habitat III Expectations. In this event Civil society´s expectations and needs from the Habitat III process were discussed.

The World Urban Forum 7 has been an important milestone on the road to the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development in 2016. HIC was formed at the first UN Habitat conference in 1976. The collapse of private housing markets with the global recession of 2008 has underlined the urgent need to realize a rights-based agenda for human settlements. The work of HIC in Medellin has helped ensure that the voices of people who are leading this struggle are heard, and that good practices and strategies are adapted.

At the same time, HIC members have challenged the UN and state actors to end forced evictions caused by war, occupation, civil conflict, and massive private investment and infrastructure schemes, as well as the silent displacement” caused by land speculation and economic upheaval in both rural and urban areas.

Let´s keep on fighting for the right to land, housing and the city.