Context
In October
2016 in Quito, Ecuador, the United Nations will hold its third Conference on
Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) to discuss and plan a
new Agenda for human settlements for the coming decades. It is essential that this
process includes the participation of social movements and civil society
organizations in order to address the diversity of Habitat issues, not
narrowing its scope to merely urban aspects, as planned by UN-Habitat with the
approval of states and some partners, but including the urban-rural continuum
and symbiosis. Popular Committees (CPCs) aims at coordinating
national/regional strategies emerging from individuals, organizations and
communities whose participation in these global agendas is frequently denied by
state authorities and international agencies. PCs’ members will work together
to enforce Habitat rights and achieve more just, democratic and sustainable
cities in which Human Rights are fulfilled.
All together we can build another possible city and another possible
world.
Objectives
Each PC shall
define its operation and local agenda aiming to (1) voice the inhabitants’
concerns on different topics related to urban and rural Habitat, (2) strengthen
national and regional coordination and, if possible, (3) advocate on the
Habitat III preparatory documents and events. This can be done by means of:
1. The
promotion and dissemination of specific topics such as the Social Production of
Habitat (SPH), the Right to the City (R2C) and the Human Right to Adequate
Housing and Land, among others.
2. The celebration of local events, with allies, aiming
to share experiences and gain more visibility.
3. The construction of a common popular position with other partners that addresses
the New Urban Agenda.
4. The organization of collective and simultaneous activities in different
countries during October 2016, including activities in Quito during the
Alternative Popular Forum which will be held in parallel to Habitat III.
PCs background
in Latin America
In September
2015, 11 organizations -from Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Chile, El
Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela- participated in a
meeting of the Social Production of Habitat Working Group, coordinated by
Habitat International Coalition (HIC). They called for the conformation of
Popular Committees towards Habitat III to actively engage in this process and
to denounce and influence the governments’ plans of action towards this
Conference.
Going beyond
urban issues, this group claimed that the access to land and territory -as core
part of the SPH concept toward a more just, human and supportive Habitat- is
one of the essential contributions of the PCs to the official Habitat III
conference.
They also
denounced how the SPH has been left aside of the official discussion and
documents, ignoring the efforts of many wishing to exercise their Human Right
to Habitat and to Adequate Housing.
As of today,
the following Popular Committees has been established in Latin America:
-Bolivia (3 PCs
in La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz)
-El Salvador
-Guatemala
-Nicaragua
-Costa Rica
-Honduras
-Uruguay
-Peru (coming
soon)
-Argentina
(preliminary meetings)
-Mexico (named
Platform for the Right to the City and in
Defence of the Territory)
Don’t hesitate! Call for a Popular Committee together with your allies
and invite others to join it!
HIC General Secretariat / 11
January 2016 / gs@hic-net.org
* Click here to download this call.