HIC-HLRN regional and coordination offices have been initiating strategic and capacity-building events at the regional and world social forums consistently since 2001, meeting the interests and needs of HIC members, other civil-society institutions and social movements present. Over 2003–04, HIC-HLRN has organized regional consultations in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with Miloon Kothari (India), the Special Rapporteur on [the Right to] Adequate Housing on “women’s rights to housing land.” HIC-HLRN has supported the process actively by mobilizing its social capital of members and partners, as well as applying its housing and land rights monitoring methodology as a training of these consultations. Many individual and grassroots-organized women have contributed their often-personal testimonies and experience as to the situation in their countries, culminating a global process of mutual recognition and illuminating the commonality of the struggle for women’s economic and social rights around the globe. Thanks to the training sessions and their exchanges of experience, the participants also generally arose from the consultations empowered and willing to join forces and individually apply the lessons learned at home. This session seeks to share that experience with the World Social Forum and contribute some of the energy of this global process to the most important global marketplace of popular thought and problem-solving: the World Social Forum.
Description of event: Presentation on the experiences of Cameroon and a discussion on similar initiatives in Africa. The session will be facilitated so as to respond to the objectives of:1. informing participants in the WSF about violations and strategies for restoring women’s rights to housing and land;2. identifying the outstanding issues by region and comparing them;3. listing from these experience and others the mechanisms available for women to defend themselves; and4. defining what can be done to inform, advocate and defend further after the WSF.
Event Structure: The event will be an integral part of it, and registered under the “terrain” Assuring and defending Earth and people’s common goods – as alternative to commodification and transnational control. It is planned as a 3-hour workshop consisting mainly of testimonies from inter-regional women who participated in the consultations with the SR in their respective region, and inviting commentary from women and women’s rights defenders in the audience.
Aim of Activity: Using the Cameroon experience as a starting point for extending and expanding the rich experiences of the regional consultations, from MENA and Africa, with the aim of making the information and debate on women’s right to housing and land, and its violations all over the world, available to engaged civil society, and to mobilize those actors to collaborate in new ways through greater awareness and global solidarity. As a global event, the WSF VI (title of event) Women’s Access to Housing and Land Rights (???) will give the opportunity to the participants and public to see the common points among the situations of women in the different regions, and possibly learn from each other’s modes of struggle.
Expected Outcomes Project Outcomes: This proposal is, at once, both institutionally rooted and experimental. While building on the experiences of a UN Special Rapporteur’s global women’s housing and land rights consultations, it brings together for the first time testimonies from the various regions together. In doing so, the project seeks to ensure:q The voices of women struggling for their housing and land rights will be heard by a sympathetic, active audience;q Women’s struggles from diverse regions will demonstrate the global commonalities and specificities;q Normally isolated regions will be represented (MENA and Pacific region);q New networks formed for strategy and solidarity exchange;q Presenters and participants will be included in future communication for crossregional collaboration.The organizers will publish and disseminate a report after the event. In the longer-term, the session should allow sponsoring and participating organizations to continue the efforts of producing and diffusing arguments on the issue, and posing solutions, in the human rights framework.
Partners: Réseau Femme et Habitat, HIC/WAS Coalition des ONG et OCB, CONGEH: Coopérative Féminine Protection de l’Environnement, COPEFE: Collectif Interafricain des Habitants, CIAH: Human Aid Actionq ENDA TM/ RUP, Coalition pour l’Habitat, HLRN
For more information see: www.wsf2006.org or contact HLRN: hlrn@hlrn.org