World must ensure women’s advances in decision-making are sustained and irreversible
Today, important decisions that shape and determine the lives of individual women and men are made in many places: in families and communities, in businesses and civil society organisations, and in political structures at the international, national and local level. While, on a global scale, this process is still dominated by men, women are continuing their struggle for equal access to the channels of formal and informal decision-making worldwide.
IFI loans and the failure of urban development
Between 1976 and 2003, the government of Pakistan has taken loans from International Financial Institutions (IFIs) for urban development
projects. These loans amount to US$ 1,472.44 million (Rs 88.346 billion)
and most of them have been for water and sanitation projects. They have multiplied over the years due to the devolution of the rupee and interest. These loans were identified through technical assistance for which an additional US$ 16.95 million (Rs 1.017 billion) was provided. Technical assistance includes development of human resources and the capacity building of relevant government institutions.
Home demolition in Naqab/Negev, Israel
Israeli police and Interior Ministry officials demolished five homes in Um Mitnan village on 27 February 2006. The demolition force entered the homes and forced out the women and their children, who were crying and scared. The authorities demolished these homes were two days after the Solidarity Day organized last Saturday, 25 February, protecting such demolitions and population transfer. This action seems to be a direct challenge to the Arab public and organizations that showed solidarity with the people in the unrecognized villages.
A escobazo limpio
Las fuerzas oscuras del mundo parecen obsesionadas estos días con la limpieza urbana. El "embellecimiento urbano", obvio es decirlo, ha sido siempre un eufemismo orwelliano. En el tercer mundo urbano las personas pobres temen siempre los acontecimientos internacionales de alto nivel -conferencias, visitas de dignatarios, competiciones deportivas, concursos de belleza y festivales internacionales- que empujan a las autoridades a lanzar cruzadas de limpieza de la ciudad. Los habitantes de los barrios miserables saben que son lo "sucio", el "tizón" que sus gobiernos prefieren ocultar al mundo.
Nigeria: Forced evictions in Lagos make thousands homeless
Hundreds of Nigerians are still sleeping out in the open nearly nine months after bulldozers and armed police arrived in the Makoko community of Lagos, demolishing homes, churches, a mosque and a medical clinic. After three days of destruction, the community was obliterated, leaving about 3,000 residents -- many already destitute -- homeless.
HIC participation at CHR 62
We will be represented at the 62nd session of the Commission on Human Rights and the first session of the new Human Rights Council
UN official on tsunami assessment mission in Indonesia and India
More than a year after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, a senior United Nations official is travelling in Indonesia and India this week to assess the recovery effort and look at what's being done to provide shelter for the victims displaced by the disaster.
German Parliament stops Housing Support for Young Unemployed
Germany.- Federal Parliament reduces welfare incomes for young unemployed adults and decides not to give subsidies for rental housing if they leave parents' housholds without agreement of the local labor welfare offices. By this change of the “Hartz IV” legislation many young unemployed adults will have no legal chance to found their own household.
Trade, a Means toward Human Well-being (Not an End in Itself)
Statement of Civil Society Organizations in the Arab States on the Occasion of the “Cairo WTO at 10 Conference”
Social movements’ declaration on water at the WSF Caracas 2006
Building on the work of meetings of previous years, social movements involved in the struggles for the rights to water and against its commoditisation from across the world met at the World Social Forum in Caracas. They succeeded in pooling the work of various workshops and built a common platform which examined regional issues within a global understanding of water.
Thirty Years and Beyond
by Han van Putten, May 2006
The open space of Vancouver: reviewing 1976, challenging 2006. (*)
Comments on Katja Baltzer’s paper of 29 March 2006:
By John FC Turner