A city by and for its inhabitants!
To the United Nations, governments and the whole of civil society,
We, the social movements, organisations, networks and NGOs that
participated in the Habitat Forum Geneva 2012, denounce violations of
the rights to housing and to habitat that affect more than a billion
inhabitants of our communities throughout the world, of which between 60
and 70 million are threatened with eviction. This situation is made
worse by the global economic crisis and the agendas of neoliberal
policies.
In particular, we denounce evictions and acts of
violence perpetrated against the communities of Boeung Kak Lake (Phnom
Penh, Cambodia), Pipeline Community Dharavi (Mumbai, India), Waterfront
communities Port Harcourt (Nigeria), Place Jérémie (Port-au-Prince,
Haiti), Community of Jardim Sao Francisco (S. Paulo, Brazil). These
cases were heard at the second session of the International Evictions
Tribunal in Geneva.
We express our mutual solidarity with the
struggles of affected communities and mobilised organisations, and we
appeal to the international community to support them.
We express our complete support for the recommendations formulated by the International Evictions Tribunal.
We
make an urgent appeal to governments of all countries, the United
Nations and the whole of civil society to act quickly to put a stop to
the unacceptable situations presented to the Tribunal.
We demand
that governments take responsibility for respecting housing and habitat
rights for all, in particular by putting into place strong public
financing policies for the production of affordable housing, especially
housing cooperatives.
We undertake to pursue the favourable
results already obtained in favour of housing and habitat rights.
Therefore, we support the efforts of social organisations given awards
at the Habitat Forum Geneva: association Humanitaire AKAMASOA
(Madagascar), association LPE (French), DESCO (Peru), cooperatives
FUCVAM (Uruguay) and the Uniao por Moradia Popular (Brazil).
Finally,
we undertake to pursue the convergence of inhabitants’ organisations
and networks committed to defending housing rights, through exchange and
sharing experiences and building global solidarity with local struggles
at the next stages: World zero evictions days – For the right to
habitat (throughout the month of October), World Assembly of Inhabitants
(WSF Tunis, 23-28 March 2013), Habitat Forum Geneva 2013 (September).
A city by and for its inhabitants!
UrbaMonde (Switzerland), International Alliance of
Inhabitants, PALC (Switzerland), Habitat International Coalition,
Central Movimentos Populares (Brazil), DESCO (Peru), FRAKKA (Haiti),
GARR (Haiti), FUCVAM (Uruguay), PROUD (India), União por Moradia Popular
Bahia (Brazil), União dos Movimentos por Moradia de São Paulo (Brazil),
Akamasoa (Madagascar), Concerned citizens (Nigeria), Ponceau Écodurable
(French), E-Changer, Aitec, Réseau Humanitaire.ws.
Geneva, September 29th
2012
