The open space of Vancouver: reviewing 1976, challenging 2006. (*)
Comments on Katja Baltzer’s paper of 29 March 2006:
By John FC Turner
Thirty Years and Beyond
by Han van Putten, May 2006
Sixth World Parlamentarian Forum
Parliamentarians representing the five continents, presents the following declaration at the end of the sessions of 26 and 27 January 2006 in Caracas, Venezuela. The declaration includes references to land issues.
Mexican Organisations for the Right to Water
The below signing organizations have decided to work on a shared basis in the context imposed by the IV World Water Forum to be held on March 2006, an event that articulates the interests of huge multinational enterprises and multilateral banks. On such occasion, we want to put on the water policy debate a social, cultural and spiritual perspective, in order to take into account the human right to water and its democratic, sustainable and fair management as a vital element, a view that inspires the following statement:
Human Rights groups demand urgent adoption of measures to address homelessness in Delhi
As we find ourselves in the midst of a particularly severe winter – January 8, 2006 witnessed the lowest temperature recorded in Delhi since 1935 – the need for decisive action to ease the suffering of Delhi’s homeless has never been more acute. This sense of urgency, tragically, has remained conspicuously absent from the response of the city’s relevant municipal authorities.
Istanbul: ‘Self-service’ production of built environment: End of the model ?
Orhan Esen deals with recent processes which replace the specific Istanbul model of informal “SELF SERVICE URBANIZATION” by neo-liberal, globalized and formalized investments. For better understanding Orhan gives a brief sketch on main periods and elements of the urbanization processes since 1945.
USA Tenants Fight to Save Social Housing
In the USA, unregulated markets and government policies to undermine social housing are aggravating a chronic problem of homelessness.
Effectees stages sit-in outside City Council Hall
KARACHI: A large number of communities displaced from their houses because of the construction of Lyari Expressway, staged a sit-in in front of the City Council Hall (KMC old building) on Thursday 19 January 2006.
Aceh reconstruction is mainly physical, civil rights stiil oppressed
200 banners belong to Udeep Beusaree Network and UPLINK were discarded by Military Officers.
Today, 26 Desember 2005, all of those involved in Aceh and Nias reconstruction projects should have felt relieved with the progress they have been doing for almost a year. And in fact, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono comes to Aceh to witness all the progress government claimed as its achievement for Acehnese. But, on the same day, with our
own eyes, we are witnessing that all those achievements are superficial. Instead of allowing Acehnese to reclaim their civil rights which was wiped out for years during the military operations, Indonesian government shows its willingness to put an end to civil freedom by discarding our 200 banners spread out in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar.
Relief and rehabilitation efforts remain problematic one year after Asian Tsunami, say UN experts
One year after the Indian Ocean tsunami wreaked havoc on the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people across several countries, relief and rehabilitation efforts, regrettably, continue to prove inadequate. Large numbers of survivors remain forced to live in sub-standard conditions that fail to meet criteria for adequate housing and living conditions dictated by international human rights standards. The lack of attention given to the high number of internally displaced persons in affected countries is also a cause of concern. A majority of individuals are still living in temporary shelters, while many remain mired in unacceptably rudimentary conditions akin to the emergency relief camps that were set up in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Still others are forced to reside in damaged homes due to the lack of available or suitable alternatives. Living conditions in most areas are poor, and many people still do not have access to basic services like water, sanitation and healthcare.
NGO Background Paper for the 2006 CSD review session
There is no MDG explicitly on energy, yet energy is essential for achieving all the goals set by the world’s leaders. Most notably, the importance of energy in meeting the goal of halving poverty by 2015 was reflected in a key decision at the Ninth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development: “To implement the goal accepted by the international community to halve the proportion of people living on less than one dollar per day by 2015, access to affordable energy services is a prerequisite.” This underscores the need to expand greatly the availability of energy services for the poor.
WEHAB Paper, Johannesburg WSSD 2002.
HIC Working Group on Globalization and Privatization of Habitat set a new emailing list
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