Election of HIC President

In this edition:

• 1. Election of HIC President
• 2. HIC at World Social Forum 2007
• 3. International Committee of World Social Forum – IC Meeting
• 4. Update your Membership

2007 Presidential Elections process will start in March and conclude at the end of June. The components of this process are (in order):

• A blog has been created to promote a transparent and open debate of the electoral process. HIC members will be informed of how to access the blog through personalized emails (please contact us if you do not receive this email by March 15th).  All HIC members and friends are invited to participate actively in the blog which will display all details about the electoral steps and deadlines.
• Electoral Committee (EC) is now being organized. Their names and contacts will be informed within the week in the blog.
• Call to nominations: Members that have paid their 2006 and/or 2007 dues have the right to nominate a candidate. In order for a nomination to be validated by the EC, he/she must be supported by at least 5 HIC members.  
• Voting: once candidates are nominated and validated by EC, a Call to Vote will be sent to HIC members who have the right to vote (This means that they have paid their 2007 dues). Voting will proceed through email to the EC members.
• Results: EC will announce the outcome of the elections and it will be published through HIC Bulletin, Blog and mailing list.

Join the Global Campaign to Stop Forced Evictions and the Neoliberal Destruction of Peoples’ Land and Housing
In response to the sharp increase of massive forced evictions caused by mega-development schemes, global investment and property speculation in urban and rural areas across the planet, the General Assembly of Habitat International Coalition (Nairobi, January 23, 2007) proposes that all peoples of housing and land movements, tenants and housing rights organizations, and their allies join in a Global Campaign to Stop Forced Evictions and Neoliberal Destruction of Peoples'Land and Housing.  Possible slogans include: 

• Stop Forced Evictions
• Stop Speculation in Housing, Land and Water
• Enforce the Right to Housing Now

 Click here to read the document


Housing Conference
For the first time in a World Social Forum, Housing was considered for a Conference theme. This is an important step to understand housing and land questions in the context of the larger political struggle against neoliberal globalization and democracy. There must be an effective social movement to combat the growing depravation of housing and land due to neoliberal economic globalization, corporatization, privatization of social housing and the aggressive market and its real estate agenda coupled with exclusive urbanization. Enrique Ortiz, Miloon Kothari, Davinder Lamba, Knut Unger, Veruska Frenklin de CONAM from Brasil and Anantha Krishnan among others, exposed in the event. Lars Reutersward represented the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka.


The Right to the City

The activity was formulated as an open debate on the local, regional and worldwide struggles for inclusive cities, where every inhabitant is a citizen. In this sense, the different organization’s joint efforts are focused reach a Global Charter of the Rights to the City. An outcome of the activity is the participation of HIC in the project Towards a Charter-Agenda of Human Rights in the City of the Diputación de Barcelona to begin wording a Global Charter.

The basis of this project may be found in the Forum of Local Authorities for Social Inclusion (FAL) of Porto Alegre, a forum of mayors that has been held since 2001 simultaneously with the World Social Forum. Among its aims, there is an initiative to build and develop, together with civil society, alternatives of public management in the process of globalisation.

Nowadays, there exist a large number of organisations, institutions, and all kinds of networks that make an effort to defend and guarantee human rights within the city. Among them there are a few projects in sync with the Charter-Agenda project that need to be highlighted and analysed to know what is being done, and how it is being done.

 Please, click here to read the complete documents

Urban Spot: Global Strategies

The WSF 2007 included one novelty: a 4th day to consolidate joint strategies and proposals.  It was an opportunity to present and share with everyone proposals for action issues from the experience of the activities realized in the three previous days. The aim was to connect the different organizations, campaigns, struggles and alternatives.

In the Urban Spot Meeting realized on the 4th Day, AITEC, FAL, FNRU, HIC and IAI joined their efforts to reflect on World Action Days for the right to housing 2007/08; The Right to the City and the alternatives to the privatization of habitat; and Women and Shelter. Despite some logistical limitations of WSF, the Urban Spot was a success: somewhere between 200-300 people participated in the activity. The meeting was prepared by Ana Sugranyes from HIC-General Secretary and Cesare Ottolini from IAI. Sidiki Abdoul Daff of IAI, Marcelo Nowersztern of FAL and Ana Sugranyes of HIC were in charge of the meeting.

There is a first draft report about the proposals and consensus of this meeting. FAL is in charge of the final report and we will continue to inform about how these proposals could be executed.

 Please, click here to read the complete preliminary report

Human Dignity and Human Rights Caucus 

HIC-HLRN, with Mazingira Institute, BEACON, Entishar Charitable Society and other HIC members, joined the group of local and global civil society organizations, including APRODEV partners and international human rights networks, to revitalize the “Human Rights Caucus” within the World Social Forum (WSF) to ensure the space for human rights issues, values and methods within WSF with the greatest possible engagement, visibility, effectiveness and pedagogical effect. The cooperating organizations proposed to achieve this strategically through both deliberative and skill-building activities within the Forum. To ensure success within the context of the first global WSF in Africa, the group formed the core of the “Human Dignity and Human Rights” Caucus (HDHRC) to incorporate lessons of past Forums, not least the positive and negative experiences of the recent polycentric experiment, as well as the Mumbai and Porto Alegre WSF achievements in advancing the human rights agenda.

 Please, click here to read the summary report

As reported by World Social Forum Technical Office, the past seven years of the World Social Forum process has been a rich experience of lessons learned and lessons "un-learned". The purpose of assessing the World Social Forum process is to strengthen our work, to improve and deepen our practice, and to increase our political and social impacts.  

Assessment is not merely a technical exercise: it is a political act. Therefore, our assessment of the process should be framed according to the values contained in the WSF Charter of Principles: that the WSF process is open, inclusive, plural, diverse, non-violent, non-racist, non-hierarchical, non-patriarchal, anti neo-liberal, ecological, non-confessional, non-governmental, non-party, and functions on the basis of solidarity, democracy and transparency.

  Brief report of the World Social Forum IC meeting

In order to strengthen the Coalition and enhance its membership participation, HIC-GS is working to, among many initiatives, polish the application process, better inform members of HIC benefits and clarify the different means to pay HIC annual fees. You may find further details by clicking here. The GS is implementing better online communicational means so that you can participate and be informed about HIC events and procedures and for you to communicate to other HIC members of your news and events.