May 2006

Civil Society Roundtable at WUF3: preparing the debate
Notice of HIC General Assembly
Program of HIC activities in Vancouver, June 2006
Events of HIC structures, members & partners

To download the list of events click here

We need to argue about what can be done to ensure people’s inclusion into all processes related to their habitat and well-being, recognizing community-driven experiences and assets. The idea is to influence the shape and course of policies for action.

HIC invites everybody to participate and contribute ideas in the on-line debate during May, 2006. All inputs are welcomed through the website forum.

HIC coordinates the Civil Society Roundtable at WUF3: Assets and Struggles: 30 years after Vancouver Habitat Forum: Realizing the Right to Adequate Housing, Sustainable Habitat and Inclusive Cities.

Three basic concepts, namely gender, sustainability and rights should play a transversal role in the discussion. The debate will be structured on some assumptions and around three case studies --Aceh post-tsunami rehabilitation; Harare evictions; and Katrina Survivors--, to prompt discussion and questions that could help trigger action proposals.

A set of contentious assumptions aim to trigger the on-line debate:

1. Housing as a right versus housing as a commodity
2. Enabling people versus enabling market
3. Social inclusion versus social integration
4. Development needs women versus women in development
5. Environmental sustainability versus sustainable development
6. People-centred approaches versus centralised policies
7. Freedom of movement versus migratory control

For further information or to send documents contact us at: gs@hic-net.org

Date : Tuesday, June 20th, 2006
Place : Vancouver Convention Center, room MR08
Time : 6:30 PM to 10:00 PM

Habitat International Coalition (HIC) convokes all its members to the next General Assembly, which will take place on Tuesday, June 20th, in the evening, at WUF3, Vancouver BC, Canada.

This General Assembly is considered as an institutional hit among many other HIC activities to celebrate 30 years networking for a place to live in peace and dignity. In the light of current HIC strategic lines of action, the expected outcomes of the Assembly are inputs for HIC global networking and elements to evaluate HIC global approach.

The following proposed agenda:

1. Verification of Quorum
2. Approval of the Agenda
3. Welcome and Introduction by HIC President, Enrique Ortiz
4. Approval of the Minutes of the General Assembly of Cairo, September 2005
5. Renewal of HIC structures representatives
6. Progress and Financial Reports and Plans by President and General Secretariat
7. Themes for networking globally: 30 years and beyond, what are we networking for?

   • HIC Strategic Lines 2005-2007
   • Outcomes CSO Roundtable and preparatory debate

8. Meeting local struggles with global networking: Working together and supporting each other. Analysis of the international networking effectiveness for partners’ purposes and interests
9. Campaigns: Housing and Land Rights Day 2006
10. Other business
11. Date and place of the next General Assembly
12. Closure
    

Street Parade for the Right to Housing Now !
(Monday 19th, 11:00, from Victory Square Downtown East to Vancouver Conference Center)
While people’s movements have strengthened global standards for a Right to Housing since the 1976 UN Habitat Conference in Vancouver, governments, multinational corporations and investors have too often ignored them. Homelessness, speculation and massive forced evictions for “slum clearance” are on the rise worldwide, from Harare (Zimbabwe) to New Orleans, from Mumbai and Karachi to Vancouver’s Downtown East. Join tenants, homeless people, and housing rights activists from around the world for a Rally, March and Tribunal for a Right to Housing Now! Help make people’s voices heard at the World Urban Forum!

Assets and Struggles: 30 years beyond Habitat I
Civil Society Roundtable
(Monday 19th, from 3PM to 6PM)
The roundtable will analysis civil society’s perspective on current assets and struggles for realizing the right to adequate housing, sustainable habitat and inclusive cities. The preparatory debate on includes:

• Analytical review of the efforts towards “building community with the people” and its current meaning in the context neoliberal policies: People-driven experiences for improving the lives of slum dwellers; Social and urban impacts of neoliberalism: real-state, speculation, big-projects, beautifying cities.
• Critical review on international commitments from Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements to the MDGs Target 11.
• To illustrate people’s efforts in defending their right to live in peace and dignity HIC suggests to present three case studies: Harare evictions, Katrina survivors and post-tsunami rehabilitation in Banda Aceh.

Speaker corner: open space at the Exhibition Center
(Monday to Friday, booth)
The main objective is to facilitate the civil society organizations a space for debates, exchanges and presentations. Many of the civil society organizations, community leaders and grassroots representatives reach the WUF III and aim to:

• Present their experience and do not have an opportunity to speak in the official sessions.
• Deepen debates (many of which remain un-concluded due to limited timeframes for each activity).
• Exchange experiences with other groups.
• Propose lines of action during the WUF (i.e. organize the street parade or visits to local practices).

The Speaker Corner is wide open to everybody: from North and South; from social movements, community organizations, NGOs, human rights activists, academia, etc. For further information: gs@hic-net.org

Urban Watches/Observatories: Tools and Facilities for More Effective Actions through Better Decision-Making
(Monday 19th, from 14:00 to 16:00, MR 13)
Dialogues and debates on policy between actors (local authorities, NGO, CBO, etc.). It will be an opportunity to discuss about the relationship between actors working in the city and present monitoring experiences.

People’s Process for Inclusive Cities: Social Production of Habitat
(Tuesday 20th, from 16:30 to 18:30, MR 02)
The session will start with three or four presentations to open then the participation and debate with the public. The session aims to: * present progress and to debate around the social production of habitat (SPH) concept and its role in fighting poverty and exclusion, regarding the MDGs. * interchange and analize proposals to include SPH in public policy: legal, administrative, financial and other needed instruments and national/local housing and urban development programmes.

Monitoring the Right to Adequate Housing
(Tuesday 21st , from 16:30 to 18:30, Oceanview 7/8)
A workshop on monitoring the human right to adequate housing and land using methodological monitoring tools. To provide an opportunity for learning to use a Toolkit as a problem-solving method for use in monitoring, defending and fulfilling the human right to adequate housing and land. This multi-use Toolkit addresses forced evictions, budgets, women's rights, postdisaster reconstruction, housing and land issues in conflict, policy formulation and other habitat situations. The Toolkit (in English, Spanish, French and Arabic) is a product of the HIC Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN). The aim of this workshop is to provide training for participants on the most comprehensive and effective ways to monitor violations of the right to adequate housing, which also comprises other auxiliary rights including the right to water, food, and employment. Our goal is to primarily have participants leave with the necessary background to monitoring. But it is also intended that participants would be strategically capable of starting their own monitoring systems.

(ordered by date)
To be complemented during the next weeks.
For further information on WUF agenda see: www.wuf3-fum3.ca

Community-driven Tsunami Rehabilitation Process
Organized by: Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, ACHR
Tuesday, June 20th / 13:30 pm - 15:30 pm, MR 09

De Vancouver 1976 a Vancouver 2006: Bilan de la Pensee et de l’Action
Organized by: ENDA Tiers-Monde
Tuesday, June 20th / 13:30 pm - 15:30 pm, MR Oceanview 3/4

Gendered Land Tools Roundtable
Organized by: UN-Habitat, GLTN
Wednesday, June 21st / 15:00 pm – 18: pm, TBI

Overcoming Barriers: Housing and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa and Aboriginal Communities
Organized by: Housing People of Zimbabwe (Harare), Lu'ma Native Housing Society (Vancouver) and Rooftops Canada (Toronto)
Thursday, 22nd June, 16:30 to 18:30 in MR 03

Regional Approach to Urban Policies Inclusive of the Concept: The Right to the City”
Organized by: UNESCO
Thursday, June 22nd / 13:30 pm - 15:30 pm, Oceanview 2

Access to Urban Land by the Poor: what do we need to know about policies, land management instruments and strategies to make it work?
Organized by: IHS Institute for Housing & Urban Development Studies, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, CORDAID and COHRE
Thursday, June 22nd / 13:30 pm - 15:30 pm, MR 13

Knowledge Networks for Women’s Health and Safety
Organized by: Women in Cities International, Women and Shelter Network (LAC), the National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (Canada), and the Aboriginal Women's Health and Healing Research Group (Canada)
Thursday, June 22nd / 13:30 pm - 15:30 pm, Oceanview 1

Gender Approach: On-line Forum
Preparative for the III World Urban Forum, from 8 May to June 2 2006

Women’s organizations have a broad range of activities coordinated by Huairou Commission.
For more information see: http://www.huairou.org