HIC at the 3rd World Urban Forum
Civil Society Roundtable
Highlighted Events
HIC’s 30th anniversary and annual events
Preparing Housing and Land Rights Day 2006
 

In Vancouver, the main activities related with WUF III were:

HIC's President Speech at the Opening Ceremony and Plenary: Enrique Ortíz was one of the six speakers at the Opening Plenary. Besides a critical outline of general developments after 30 years of Habitat I, he highlighted the worsening conditions of human habitat and how the lack of political commitment joint with market policies have undermined the realization of the Habitat Agenda. In addition, he called for the inclusion of people's assets and perspectives.

Rally at the front of the Convention Centre: At the same time of the Opening Ceremony, HIC convoked a Rally to support the demands of local and regional groups of homeless and tenants. The manifestation last two hours of live music and speeches, where the right to adequate housing and the call for stop evictions were highlighted.

HIC's Stand at the Exhibition Centre: HIC assembled a booth that was opened everyday to diverse expressions, and included a “Speaker Corner” used as a meeting point which facilitated a space for representatives of social movements and civil society organizations. The result was a melting spot presenting posters, videos and providing information, books and messages about HIC members, experiences and activities.

Held on Monday, this roundtable, titled “Assets and Struggles: 30 Years After Vancouver Habitat Forum,” focused on producing recommendations to UNHABITAT around several themes. On forced eviction, participants noted the importance of NGO work in supporting community based initiatives to strengthen monitoring and increase security of land tenure, solidarity and local action.

On privatization, participants pointed out that market forces were currently part of the problem and not the solution. It was also noted that WUF discussions had yet to adequately address the protection of the rights of displaced people, and that civil society should demand good governance with respect to this. On involving local people in all aspects of post-disaster reconstruction, participants urged government accountability in the financing of disaster relief. One participant lamented that government has lost control of housing to private developers and land cartels, and advocated a human rights based approach, and holding governments accountable through civil society networks. Read the report

Three Networking events organized by HIC: 1) Network Observatories: Tools and facilities for more effective actions through better decision-making on Monday 19th; 2) People Processes for inclusive cities – Social production and management of Habitat on Tuesday 20th, and 3) Monitoring the right to adequate housing held on Wednesday the 21st.

• The first networking event was organised by HSEN and HIC and was meant to strengthen the dialogue between civil society and local and governmental authorities and to gain better knowledge and understanding of the public’s opinions on how their environment is managed, paying particular attention to the most vulnerable groups; to encourage the public to participate at their own level, to the common local development effort; to identify and highlight new potentialities; to promote the sharing of experiences.
  
• The second event organised by HIC was a session aimed to present progress and to debate around the concept of SPH and its role regarding the MDGs.
  
• Finally, the third event which was organised by HLRN-HIC consisted in a workshop focused on monitoring the human right to adequate housing and land using monitoring tools. A toolkit from HLRN was presented as a method for use in monitoring, defending and fulfilling these rights. The multiuse Toolkit addressed forced evictions, budgets, women’s rights, post-disaster reconstruction, policy formulation and other habitat situations.

At the “Gendering Land Tools” Roundtable, called by the GLTN - UN Habitat, HIC Board Representative Shivani Bhardwaj and HIC members from India, Egypt, Tunisia and Guatemala drew attention to faith-based land tools, in particular property inheritance and human rights instruments.

Other events with HIC presence:

• HIC General Secretary was invited as speaker to networking events of ENDA Tiers Monde, International Housing Coalition (Habitat for Humanity) and Slum/Shack Dwellers International.
  
• HIC also participated through the Women and Shelter Network and in coordination with the Huairou Commission in other networking events related with gender issues.
  
• Working Group on Globalization and Privatization met to go on with the working plan and to support regional/local struggles,
  
• HIC promoted a field visit in coordination with Vancouver grassroots movements, which permitted to observe the living conditions of the poorest city’s population, in particular Vancouver’s social housing situation. After changes on housing and social policies the poor are poorer than one decade ago. Preparative works toward the Olympic games are generating huge speculative investments and therefore, city’s inhabitants claim is "build houses, not Olympics". After a dialogue established with one of inhabitants associations of Gastown, HIC made a donation to the Carnagie Centre. HIC attracted the awareness of the media to the neighbourhood and a documentary was made for TV.

To download the list of HIC events click here

HIC celebrated its 30th anniversary and utilised this gathering together for its Annual Board Meeting and General Assembly. In this frame HIC also distributed a CD Rom that compiles documents to retrieve its memories (message, initiatives and perspectives).

• Board Meeting: there were two board operative meetings held in Vancouver. The first took place on Sunday 18th at the YWCA Hotel, and served to agree the last arrangements toward the following Conference days, review of electoral processes and membership applications. The second meeting was held on the 23rd and focused on current challenges for global networking as: come back to stress forced evictions now worth than ever; HIC involvement in the debate of the Charter for the Right to the City; strategic relations with other networks and organizations; and briefing the contents of HIC evaluation.
  
• General Assembly: The debate depend the issues already analysed at the civil society roundtable. Members proposed concrete actions to address challenges as current forced evictions, displacements, rehabilitation processes and enhancement of civil society engagement in housing policies. The assembly also addressed issues related to evaluating HIC networking activity (HIC / Misereor). It was held at the Conference Centre on June 20th and counted with the participation of 73 attendants, 27 of them with plenty rights to vote. (read a draft version of the minutes)
  
• Membership: The meeting in Vancouver served to renew information, rekindle people and update membership dues. We welcome the new members: London Tenants Federation, Habitat Platform, Jóvenes Constructores de la Comunidad, Programa Venezolano de Educación, Development Initiatives Network, Sathi All for Partnership, TRAC and National Housing and Homelessness Network and HIC friends Peter Slits and Nick Volk.
  
  

Preparing Housing and Land Rights Day 2006

After the debates in Vacouver, Habitat International Coalition calls to action in cities, regions and countries to "Enforce the Right to Land and Housing Now”. Coinciding with World Habitat Day (October 2, 2006), social organizations and movements, NGO’s and academic institutions are called to organize public actions with two main messages:

Stop forced evictions and displacements!
Stop speculation with housing, land and public services!

Worldwide, help make people's voices heard! Contact HIC regional and thematic coordination! Let us know your campaigns!

For further info www.hic-net.org        Main contact: gs@hic-net.org