During Habitat III’s Third Preparatory Committee meeting, PrepCom3,(Surabaya,Indonesia,25 – 27 July), the “Zero Draft Agenda Revision”
(dated on 18 July 2016) will be formally discussed by governments.
Since the very early stages
of the Habitat III preparations, Habitat International Coalition (HIC) has
called for the integrity of the Habitat II (1996) commitments and modalities;
this demand has three related aspects:
·Processes must
uphold the Habitat II-established principle to be as inclusive as possible;
·Maintain the Habitat
Agenda, not pose a narrower and more-divisive “urban agenda”;
·The human rights and
good-governance approaches must continue to anchor and guide global human
settlement policy and corresponding commitments.
Habitat International Coalition (HIC) has upheld the Habitat Agenda faithfully
since 1976 and, over the last 20 years, has cautioned about the erosion and
abandonment of the core human rights commitments and recognized obligations
enshrined in Habitat II. As in all serial UN policy conferences, this erosion
is leading Habitat III’s standard to be inferior to the one before, something
that could be avoided by critically reviewing the Habitat II commitments,
considering most of them the foundation of the eventual Habitat III’s pillars.
HIC had hoped that a New Habitat Agenda would reflect more coherence
with current global policy processes and standing commitments, not least the
habitat approach and commitment to balanced rural and urban development within
a framework of human rights and related international norms. As contributor to
this new global policy, HIC intends to put the New Agenda back on a principled human-rights-habitat
track, while also addressing some of the shortcomings of the previous Agendas,
with greater knowledge and experience over their 40 years, and with greater
relevance to current and emerging challenges during the next 20.
This message has been
delivered to the Habitat III Secretariat, States and other Stakeholders in
different occasions. Regretfully, we observe how these fundamental principles
are omitted in the successive New “Urban” Agenda drafts.
Document:
HIC Statement at Habitat III PrepCom3
Events
Global
Platform for Right to the City hosts the second Asia Regional Meeting.
Fulfilling Habitat
Commitments: Assessing the Past – Constructing a Platform for Action.
Land and Housing at the Core of the New Habitat
Agenda: Recommendations and Key Messages.