Social movement news

400 families forcibly evicted in Kenya

Some 400 Kenyan families were forcibly evicted on 10 May from an informal settlement in the capital, Nairobi. They are homeless and in urgent need of food, water and shelter. Police, who were providing security for the eviction, used live ammunition and teargas.

Global Land Forum forges international agreement on territorial development

As the global population continues to grow and the demand for food and the land to produce it on increase in lock step, the International Land Coalition brought together 273 people from 47 countries in Antigua, Guatemala from April 23-27 to discuss territorial governance and food security in the context of rapid urbanisation and shifting patterns of land use throughout the developing world.

Seniors face eviction in Detroit gentrification plan

Retired workers living in a rent-subsidized senior housing building are facing eviction in downtown Detroit. New owners who recently took over their apartment building have given the elderly residents on fixed income a year to clear out so they can raise rents to “market rates.”

Housing Without Developers

(Português) Na semana passada o Studio X Mumbai realizou um workshop de um dia intitulado provocativamente “Habitação sem Construtoras”. Como elaborado em seu site, o workshop tentou desafiar a aparente inevitabilidade de soluções baseadas no mercado, para os problemas que eles mesmos associaram a privatização do mercado de habitação. Os participantes do workshop discutiram como o desenvolvimento das favelas na Índia e as habitações públicas no ocidente desafiaram as normas aceitas de soluções baseadas no mercado.

Forced evictions worsen the already dire lot of earthquake homeless in Haiti

Forced evictions in Haiti are worsening the already desperate situation of thousands of people still living in displacement camps more than three years after the devastating earthquake of January 2010, Amnesty International said as it launched the report ‘Nowhere to go’: Forced evictions in Haiti’s camps for displaced people.

‘We’ll throw you all out’ – Forced eviction threat for Haiti earthquake victims

Purported landowners use threats and intimidation to force people onto the street. Usually they have not initiated a judicial process to seek a legal eviction, and often they can’t even prove they have the legal title to the land they claim to own. In many cases, local police, judicial and municipal authorities are also involved in forced evictions or are present when threats are made. One thing they all have in common is the incapacity of central government authorities to protect displaced people from illegal eviction. Impunity of perpetrators remain blatant.

Criminalization of homelessness – local impact, global issue

As the economic crisis continues at the bottom end of the income spectrum, the past week has brought two victories worth noting, from the most humble of tent encampments to the marble halls of the U.N.’s Palais Wilson in Geneva.

Defining communities in Colombia: the Afro-descendant communities of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó and communal land rights

Once seen as antipathetic to the individual rights focus of international human rights law, “third generation” and collective rights have – despite lingering controversy – been widely accepted as a fundamental element of the indivisible human rights framework. Driven in particular by the demands of indigenous peoples, national and international law has recognised and protected rights to communal land titles, rights to language, religious practices, specialised education and protection of cultural heritage, and many other rights which are associated with the existence of distinct socio-cultural groups within the boundaries of the wider state.

The repression increases against people affected by dams in the Amazon

The contradictions caused by the construction of large dam in the Amazon region have been sharpening recently. The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) and indigenous and riverside organisations are denouncing the human rights violations caused by these works. And the response from private companies and the government is increasing repression.

Federal Court Victory for Homeless Advocates in the US

In a ruling issued earlier today in Washington, D.C., a federal court denied the Obama Administration’s motion to set aside a 1993 court order against the federal government requiring compliance with Title V of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a law that gives homeless services providers access to unused federal properties for free.