September 14, 2012
From 27th to 29th September 2012, The Geneva Habitat Forum has the pleasure to welcome civil society and academic actors, political figures and Inhabitants from here and elsewhere to reimagine a town as a place by and for its inhabitants.
At the beginning of the 20th century, urban population accounted for only 13% of the planet’s inhabitants; today it accounts for more than half, and will probably rise to more than two thirds by 2050. We no longer talk about towns, but “polycentric urban systems” or “extended metropolitan areas”, to the point where rural and urban borders become fuzzy and towns even join up.
With the amount of land available for construction in constant decline, access to decent housing is more often a privilege than a right. How many people in the world live in dignified sanitary conditions? These days, how many people can claim that they really have a choice about where they live? How many people can afford to own their own house? Or feel satisfied with the amount of rent they pay, or worse, run the risk of being evicted from their home when they have fallen on hard times after 40 years of faithfully paying their rent?
The Forum will open on Thursday 27th September with a public conference on “A town by and for its inhabitants at UniMail and will continue on 28th with the Tribunal of Evictions and the Civil Society Prize at the Maison des Associations. The Forum will close at the Place des Nations after reading the Tribunal of Evictions recommendations and awarding the prizes at the Inhabitants’ March.
Gordon Aeschiman (Tribunal des Baux), Humberto Antúnez (Federation of Housing Coops in Uruguay), Benedito Barbosa and Marli Carrara (CMP/National Union for Low-Income Housing, Brazil), Yves Cabannes (University College London), Oumar Cisse (Institut Africain de Gestion Urbaine), Georges Deikun (UN-Habitat), Jackson Doliscar and Géralda Sainville (FRAKKA and GARR, Haïti), Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava (URBZ, India), Ramiro Gárcia (DESCO, Peru), Marcus George (Concerned citizens, Port Harcourt, Nigeria), Christophe Golay (ADH, Geneva), Mukesh Mehta (MM Project Consultants, India), Isabelle Milbert (IHEID), Father Pedro Opeka (Akamasoa, Madagascar), Cesare Ottolini (International Alliance of Inhabitants), Luca Pattaroni (EPFL), – Anthony K. Prashanth (PROUD, Mumbai, India), Luon Sovath (Cambodia), Malavika Vartak (Amnesty International), the Group of 500 of Geneva, and many others will participate in the second edition of the Habitat Form, a participatory event open to all.
To see the complete programme of the event, click here.
Press contact:
Julien Beauvallet, urbaMonde Vice-President: julien.beauvallet@urbamonde.org
Olivier Grobet, Member of the organisating committee: olivier.grobet@urbamonde.org
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