News

Side-event on the right to housing in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories

Published in Thursday March 7th, 2013 In News on the Rapporteurs

On March 4th, the Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik participated in an expert roundtable with human rights defenders entitled “The Violation of Housing, Land, and Planning Rights in Israel and the OPT: Expert Testimonies from the Field”. The side-event was organized by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, during the 22nd session of the UN Human Rights Council.

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Statement Against the Continued Persecution and Criminalisation of Homeless People in Hungary

Published in Tuesday March 5th, 2013 In Social movement news

FEANTSA calls on the Hungarian government to withdraw its proposed amendment to the Hungarian Constitution that will make it possible to fine, arrest and imprison people who are sleeping rough because they have no other options in a vote on 4 March 2013.

Constitutional Revenge

Published in Tuesday March 5th, 2013 In Opinion

The Hungarian government is now seeking revenge for the various defeats it has suffered by introducing into the Parliament a 15-page constitutional amendment that reverses its losses. The mega-amendment is a toxic waste dump of bad constitutional ideas, many of which were introduced before and nullified by the Constitutional Court or changed at the insistence of European bodies. The new constitutional amendment (again) kills off the independence of the judiciary, brings universities under (even more) governmental control, opens the door to political prosecutions, criminalizes homelessness, makes the recognition of religious groups dependent on their cooperation with the government and weakens human rights guarantees across the board. Moreover, the constitution will now buffer the government from further financial sanctions by permitting it to take all fines for noncompliance with the constitution or with European law and pass them on to the Hungarian population as special taxes, not payable by the normal state budget.

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Local Leaders Hold Consultation On Land Rights Policy in Liberia

Published in Monday March 4th, 2013 In In the media

The three-days regional consultation on Land Rights Policy which began at the Zwedru Multilateral High School which was climaxed at the Zwedru City Hall brought together Superintendents of Sinoe and Grand Gedeh Counties. The consultation was also attended by elders, chiefs, youth, and women from various districts and chiefdoms.

Watch the presentation of the report on security of tenure at the Human Rights Council

Published in Monday March 4th, 2013 In News

The Special Rapporteur presented her thematic report on security of tenure at the UN Human Rights Council. Her statement is available on video and text here in our website.

Unity State Returnees Given Land After Two Year Wait in Sudan

Published in Monday March 4th, 2013 In In the media

Nearly 900 returnees have been allocated land in Bentiu town for the first time after two years of being stranded in the state upon arrival from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, ahead of South Sudan’s independence in July 2011. On Friday officials from the oil-rich state officially handed over four blocks of land to the returnees. For the past two years returnees have been stranded at Bentiu Port and Transit camp just eight kilometres from Bentiu town. The transit camp housed 400-500 people.

MAB holds first meeting in Paraná state, Brazil

Published in Friday March 1st, 2013 In Mobilisation and agenda

The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) will organise, between March 13th and 15th, the first State Meeting of Populations Affected by Dams in the state of Paraná. The event will take place in the Parish Hall of St. Francis of Assisi and provides the participation of 350 militants and partners.

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Homes in foreclosure process decline in January

Published in Friday March 1st, 2013 In In the media

The number of homes mired in the foreclosure process fell again last month, according to a new report, the 15th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Irvine-based CoreLogic said Thursday that roughly 1.2 million homes nationwide, or 2.9% of all homes with a mortgage, were in some stage of foreclosure in January. That’s a 3.3% drop from December and a 21% decline from January 2012.

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Tackling poor housing is the first step towards reducing health inequalities

Published in Wednesday February 27th, 2013 In Social movement news

On January 22, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing (CECODHAS Housing Europe) held a joint conference with the European Parliament’s Urban Intergroup. The event focused on the connection between health inequalities and affordable housing and emphasised that investment in good quality housing can bring returns in health and environmental outcomes. The European Commission (DG Employment) has proposed to set up a European Aid Fund to help the Most Deprived Persons in the EU.

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Rebuilding on Their Own

Published in Wednesday February 27th, 2013 In Opinion

Since 2007, Gratz has owned a home in New Orleans, and she was giving me what amounted to a tutorial on her next book subject: the rebuilding of the city post-Katrina. “Look at this,” she said, gesturing to storefronts. “This is one of the longest shopping streets in the country. There are residential and commercial buildings, and local stores and chain stores. Very little was done for streets like this because the big money went to the tourism districts,” she said. “This grew back organically.” Which, she believes, is the way it always happens.

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