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News (164)
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Canada: Town Dies amid Environmental Changes |
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By :Chris Arsenault, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 10 December 2019 |
Closing down: aging residents, falling fish stocks spell end for Canadian town. A tiny town in Canada is closing down, with residents in the tight-knit community packing their belongings and making the final preparations to shutter their homes
TORONTO—Perched along Canada`s windswept North Atlantic coast, the town of Little Bay Islands
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UN Report on Israeli Colonies Speaks Truth |
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By :Robert Fisk |
| 14 November 2019 |
He’s a very tall man with bright eyes and a broad smile, and he holds out a great paw when he greets you. But Michael Lynk is no gentle giant.
He may teach human rights law at the Western University in London, Ontario, but as the UN’s special rapporteur on human
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Report to UNCERD on Israeli Apartheid |
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By :Middle East Monitor |
| 14 November 2019 |
Eight Palestinian, regional and international NGOs have submitted a substantial report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), ahead of the committee’s upcoming review of Israel’s next month.
According to a statement published this week, the NGOs in question were Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq,
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Kenya: Village Struggles with Industrial Giant |
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By :Lotte Hughes and Daniel Lepariyo, The Star |
| 01 November 2019 |
David v Goliath: A small village’s struggle with an industrial giant
Known as Kambi Turkana to its largely Maasai neighbours, Lorropil has 47 residents, including Turkana, Samburu, Kikuyu, Il Chamus, Kisii and Kalenjin. Akiira Geothermal Ltd claims these destitute people are ‘squatters’ who have only recently moved onto the land in
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Framing the Inquiry into Land Inequality |
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By :Arantxa Guereña and Marc Wegerif |
| 30 October 2019 |
The International Land Coalition (ILC) has launched a research project on land inequality in the world, beginning with an exercise of framing the approach the many related complexities of land inequality. The result of that initial effort is a coherent framework for research and action with suggested themes and questions for
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Coastal Cities Sinking Faster than Predicted |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 29 October 2019 |
Facing a flooded future, the world’s vulnerable coastal cities will undergo sea-level rise worse than previously understood, according to a new corrective report by Climate Central.
As a result of heat-trapping pollution from human activities, rising sea levels could within three decades will push chronic floods higher than land currently home
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PHROC Rebukes Donor States over UNRWA Cuts |
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By :Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) |
| 04 August 2019 |
Palestinian Refugees must not suffer the consequences of alleged misconduct. Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) criticizes funding cuts to UNRWA over ethics evaluation.
PHROC: Support UNRWA and Ensure Refugee Rights under International Law
A ten-page report was issued by the ethics office of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
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Most South Africa Municipalities Don’t Deliver |
| 02 July 2019 |
Most South African municipalities not delivering for citizens
If the South African public were ever in doubt at the reasons for service delivery protests in townships and municipalities, a closer look should be taken at the municipal audit report released by Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu who expressed concern at the financial mismanagement
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HRBA at UN Habitat Assembly |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 29 May 2019 |
“Human Rights-based Approaches to Meeting Sustainable Development
Goals and New Urban Agenda Targets for Women, Youth and Children”
UN Habitat Assembly, 29 May 2019, 13:15–14:45, United Nations at Nairobi, Classroom 6
Featuring presentations by panelists from University of East London, UN Habitat, Habitat International Coalition’s Housing and Land Rights Network, Huairou Commission,
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EU Partners with Israeli War-crime Financier |
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By :Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada |
| 21 May 2019 |
The European Union is expanding its partnership with Bank Leumi, a major financier of Israeli settler colonies on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
The EU claims to oppose Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied territories, a war crime.
However, on Monday, Emanuele Giaufret, the EU ambassador in Tel Aviv,
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Nigeria: 11 killed, Several Homes Destroyed |
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By :Francis Okoye, Leadership.ng |
| 08 May 2019 |
No fewer than 11 persons including 4 soldiers have been killed while several houses and shops razed down when terrorists attacked a military base at Molai Community, an outskirts of Maiduguri . The incident which started at about 6:30pm on Tuesday and lasted for hours forced many residents at the
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Resident Revenge against Developers |
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By :George Hammond, Financial Times |
| 11 April 2019 |
Rising house prices and rents have sparked protests in London, Berlin and New York. Residents show how citizens are taking on city developers.
BERLIN—Last Saturday, as the sun shone on thousands of Berliners gathered in Alexanderplatz, one placard stood out in the crowd. Written on it — beneath a grotesque cartoon
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India’s Unrelenting Forced-eviction Crisis |
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By :HLRN-India |
| 09 April 2019 |
New report highlights the unrelenting crisis of forced evictions, finds over 200,000 persons evicted in India in 2018. Over 114 houses demolished every day, 23 people evicted every hour.
On the eve of India’s General Elections, Housing and Land Rights Network India (HLRN) held a press conference in New Delhi today
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Human Right to Adequate Housing v. Blackstone L.P. |
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By :HLRN |
| 26 March 2019 |
Today, UN Special Rapporteur on to Adequate Housing Leilani Farha held a press conference in Copenhagen to speak about letters that she and Surya Deva, Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises jointly released to governments and corporations
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Mozambique & Zimbabwe: Idai "Massive disaster" |
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By :BBC News |
| 20 March 2019 |
Cyclone Idai has triggered a "massive disaster" in southern Africa affecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, the UN has said.
The region has been hit by widespread flooding and devastation affecting Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Mozambique`s President Filipe Nyusi called it "a humanitarian disaster of great proportion."
He said more
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USA: Court Challenge to Israel’s Colonies |
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By :Mairav Zonszein, The Nation |
| 18 March 2019 |
In a First, Palestinians Challenge Israel’s Settlement Enterprise—in a US Court
The challenge comes in response to a case filed by Israeli settlers against Airbnb.
Randa Wahbe is a United States citizen with West Bank residency who is studying for a PhD in anthropology at Harvard University. Over the years, the 31-year-old
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Australia: Ngaliwurru & Nungali Native Title Ruling |
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By :RT |
| 15 March 2019 |
Australian Aboriginals to get billions in compensation for land & spiritual loss in landmark case
Aboriginals in Australia have won a ground-breaking case that paves the way for billions of dollars in compensation claims for colonial land loss, as well as loss of spiritual connection.
The High Court of Australia ruled
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United Nations` Land and Conflict Guidance |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 15 March 2019 |
Competition and control over land are among the common root causes and subjects of conflict, as well as the underlying factors hindering recovery and durable peace. Meanwhile, land has not been adequately treated in conflict management and resolution. At the same, the land and conflict nexus is only becoming more
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Crimea: Destroying Built Heritage, Erasing the Past |
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By :Halya Coynash, Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group |
| 13 March 2019 |
“Closed for Destruction”: Russia is digging up 16th Century Crimean Tatar Khan’s Palace
Video footage has shown new details of Russia’s wanton destruction of the Khan’s Palace in Bakhchysarai, with ordinary workers carrying out ‘excavation’ work, without any attempt to record and preserve artefacts found.
Edem Dudakov, the former head of the
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Sahel: Displacement Crisis |
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By :UN News |
| 05 March 2019 |
Drastic deterioration in security across Burkina Faso as 70,000 flee their homes in past two months, UN warns
The landlocked West African country of Burkina Faso is facing “unprecedented” displacement, triggered by armed groups and intercommunal clashes, and exacerbated by long-term food insecurity, UN aid officials said on Tuesday.
According to the
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USA: Court Rules IFC Not Immune |
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By :Diane Desierto, European Journal of International Law blog |
| 28 February 2019 |
SCOTUS decision in Jam et al v. International Finance Corporation (IFC) denies absolute immunity to IFC…with caveats
When it rains, it somehow pours.
February 2019 ended up being such a landmark month for international law adjudication. A day after the International Court of Justice released its landmark Chagos Advisory Opinion (finely discussed by
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Indian Court Orders Eviction of 1 Million Tribals |
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By :Rahul Bedi, The Telegraph |
| 22 February 2019 |
Indian Supreme Court orders eviction of 1 million tribal forest dwellers
NEW DELHI—India’s Supreme Court has ordered the eviction of over 1.1 million tribal and other traditional forest dwellers, after it recently rejected their ancient ownership claims on jungle land.
Experts estimate that the 20 February legal fiat could result in
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Fighting Displaces 100K in Burkina Faso |
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By :Reuters |
| 19 February 2019 |
UN: Fighting, Instability Have Displaced 100,000 in Burkina Faso
GENEVA—More than 100,000 people have been displaced by factional fighting and lawlessness in Burkina Faso, most within the past two months, according to a U.N. report published Tuesday.
"Burkina Faso is, for the first time in its history, facing massive internal displacement,"
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Palestine/Israel: Fake Justices |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 13 February 2019 |
In early September 2018, after years of legal proceedings, the justices of Israel’s High Court determined there was no legal obstacle to demolishing the structures in the community of al-Khan al-Ahmar, located about two kilometers south of the Jerusalem-choking Kfar Adumim settler colony. The Court delivered that conclusion as the
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Zim: CSOs Pose Resolving Govt Displacements |
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By :Tatenda Chitagu, newsday |
| 13 February 2019 |
The Zimbabwe People’s Land Rights Movement (ZPLRM), a member of the Habitat International Coalition (HIC), has slammed government over planned displacements of thousands of villagers across the country and urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to walk his talk over the irreversibility of the land reform programme.
HIC is an independent international coalition
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AU Summit on Displacement Crisis |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 09 February 2019 |
Already 55 years ago, the Organization of African States was born with the purpose of peace and unity in what is now the African Union (AU), the largest regional organization on earth. This year, the 32nd regular annual AU summit at Addis Ababa (10–11 February 2019) focuses on another distinguishing
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USA: Most Citizens in 3rd World Conditions |
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By :Yossarian Johnson, The Intellectualist |
| 30 January 2019 |
A study by an MIT economist shows that the United States of America has regressed materially to a third-world nation for most of its citizens.
America divided: This concept increasingly graces political discourse in the U.S., pitting left against right, conservative thought against the liberal agenda. But for decades, [U.S.] Americans
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India: Refugees Get Land Titles |
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By :Rina Chandran,Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 29 January 2019 |
Refugees in India`s West Bengal get land titles amid citizenship row.
India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee rights and state responsibilities to protect them.
BANGKOK—Authorities in India`s West Bengal state have given land titles to about 30,000 refugees who have lived in settlement
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Brazil: Another Mining Dam Disaster |
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By :Associated Press |
| 28 January 2019 |
Search for Brazil dam survivors renews as death toll hits 58
BRUMADINHO, Brazil—Brazilian rescue crews returned to mud-covered flats Sunday to resume the search for hundreds of people missing in the wake of a dam collapse after the operation was suspended for several hours over fears that a second dam was
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Vietnam: Church & Gov`t. Clash over Demolitions |
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By :Rina Chandran, TiVi Tuần-san |
| 17 January 2019 |
Land conflicts have risen in Vietnam since the Communist Party launched economic reforms in the 1980s
BANGKOK—The demolition of about 100 homes near Ho Chi Minh City, including one owned by the Catholic Church, has pitted the church against authorities in the latest such dispute over land in the Communist Party-ruled
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We`re Celebrating 70th Human Rights Day |
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By :HLRN |
| 10 December 2018 |
Declaration on Human Rights Day and the Right to the City
We, social movements, civil society and local governments’ organizations are committed to social justice through the promotion, defense and fulfillment of all human rights related to habitat, including the Human Right to Adequate Housing, Land and the Right to the
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UN Peasants’ Rights Declaration Adopted in GA |
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By :HLRN |
| 20 November 2018 |
NEW YORK—The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) passed a draft that would have the Assembly adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. This vote assures that the Declaration will enter the next edition of Human Rights:
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CAR: 10K Displaced in Batangafo |
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By :Medecins sans frontier |
| 02 November 2018 |
NEW YORK—Following clashes on Wednesday between armed groups in Central African Republic (CAR), more than 10,000 people fled their homes and are seeking refuge in the compound of a hospital in Batangafo supported by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
Violent clashes between armed groups in
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Statement of the ICC on Palestine |
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By :ICC |
| 17 October 2018 |
Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, regarding the Situation in Palestine
I have been following with concern the planned eviction of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, in the West Bank. Evacuation by force now appears imminent, and with it the prospects for further escalation and
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UNHRC Adopts Peasant Rights Declaration |
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By :La Via Campesina |
| 30 September 2018 |
UN Human Rights Council passes a resolution adopting the peasant rights declaration in Geneva
GENEVA—Seventeen years of long and arduous negotiations later, peasants and other people working in rural areas are only a step away from having a UN Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local
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Canada: Mass Eviction in Ottawa! |
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By :Jillian Kestler-D`Amours, AlJazeera |
| 21 September 2018 |
Heron Gate mass eviction: `We never expected this in Canada`
About 150 homes in one of Ottawa`s most diverse and affordable communities are expected to be torn down in coming months
OTTAWA—Binto Mohamed hasn`t had a good night`s sleep since May. That`s when she received a letter telling her that her family
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USA: Laws Criminalizing Homelessness Over-ruled |
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By :Mihir Zaveri, The New York Times |
| 05 September 2018 |
Prosecuting homeless people for sleeping on the streets when there is no shelter available is a form of cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Constitution, a federal appeals court said this week.
The case stems from two ordinances in Boise, Idaho, that make it a crime to sleep or camp
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USA: In Search of Eviction Data |
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By :Daniela Aiello, Lisa Bates, Terra Graziani, Christopher Herring, Manissa Maharawal, Erin McElroy, Pamela Phan, and Gretchen Purser, Shelterforce. |
| 22 August 2018 |
Eviction Lab Misses the Mark: By not working with existing housing justice organizations, the high profile organization undercounts evictions and misses a chance to understand differences between localities and wider policy analyses.
There is perhaps no more influential and popular book on poverty and housing at the moment than Matthew Desmond’s
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Tanzania: Losing the Serengeti |
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By :The Oakland Institute |
| 02 August 2018 |
OAKLAND CA—Today, the Oakland Institute releases Kuipoteza Serengeti, Ardhi Ya Wamasai Iliyopaswa Kudumu Milele, a Kiswahili translation of the report Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever.
Based on field research, never publicly-seen-before documents, and an in-depth investigation into Tanzania’s land laws, the report reveals how Tanzania’s
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Kenya: Inhabitants Seek Protection from Evictions |
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By :Jillo Kadida, The Star |
| 01 August 2018 |
Residents of more than six Nairobi estates yesterday sought to stop their eviction by the government.
Houses are to be demolished today in Kaloleni, Makongeni, Mbotela, Mutindwa, Dandora and Kenyatta University villages, Lang’ata and Wilson-South C link road reserve.
Moses Nyakiongora served residents with the notice on July 19. He is the
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Laos: “Substandard construction” Causes Dam Collapse |
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By :Kocha Olarn, Sandi Sidhu and Ben Westcott, CNN |
| 27 July 2018 |
Minister says “substandard construction” caused Laos dam to collapse. 25,000 people evacuated.
The collapse of Laos dam that triggered massive flooding and devastation was due to "substandard construction," the country`s Minister of Energy and Mines said Thursday.
According to the state-run Laos News Agency, Minister Khammany Inthirath told reporters at a news
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Kenya: Kibera Demolitions Begin |
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By :Julius Otieno, Star; Josphat Thiong`o, Standard Digital |
| 24 July 2018 |
Anguish as houses demolished to pave way for Kibera link road
23 July 2018
Julius Otieno, Star
Human rights activists have accused Kenya Urban Roads Authority of violating the agreement that would have seen victim of Kibera evicted in a humane way.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has in this regard called
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World Bank Evaluation: Things Fall Apart |
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By :Sophie Edwards, Devex |
| 18 June 2018 |
World Bank failing to follow watchdog advice, says IEG report
WASHINGTON — World Bank managers are failing to properly implement, and in some cases ignoring, the recommendations of its own independent watchdog, according to evaluators.
In a report presented Thursday, the Independent Evaluation Group, the body tasked with evaluating the performance of all parts of the World
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World Bank Evaluation: Things Fall Apart |
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By :Sophie Edwards, Devex |
| 18 June 2018 |
World Bank failing to follow watchdog advice, says IEG report
WASHINGTON — World Bank managers are failing to properly implement, and in some cases ignoring, the recommendations of its own independent watchdog, according to evaluators.
In a report presented Thursday, the Independent Evaluation Group, the body tasked with evaluating the performance of all parts of the World
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Tibet: New Report “Access Denied” |
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By :International Campaign for Tibet |
| 26 May 2018 |
ICT has published its latest report, "Access Denied." It’s a troubling yet necessary account of the full extent of China`s efforts to prevent news of human rights abuses in Tibet from getting out.
China’s government doesn’t want anyone to know that international journalists are being detained by police, as two New
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USA: 30K Older, Infirm Louisianans Face Eviction |
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By :Tina Burnside and Darran Simon, CNN |
| 10 May 2018 |
Tens of thousands of Louisiana residents could face eviction from nursing and group homes
More than 30,000 Medicaid recipients in Louisiana, many in nursing or group homes, could lose their benefits due to proposed state cuts -- a situation that could force thousands to move.
Louisiana Department of Health Deputy Secretary
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HICtionary Newly Updated |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 06 May 2018 |
HIC-HLRN has just updated the HICtionary: Key Habitat Terms from A to Z. This reference work is the result of deliberation and debate across multiple specializations, regions and cultures within the membership of Habitat International Coalition (HIC). The purpose of that debate—and this reference work—have been to consolidate and harmonize
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CA: World’s 5th Economy, Homeless No. 1 USA |
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By :Sal Rodriguez, Orange County Register |
| 04 May 2018 |
California has the 5th largest economy in the world yet leads the USA in poverty and homelessness.
California’s gross domestic product surpassed $2.7 trillion in 2017, reports the Associated Press, an output with places California’s economy ahead of the United Kingdom’s.
California now has the distinction of having the world’s fifth largest economy,
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Unearthing Truths: Israel, Nakba and JNF |
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By :The Editors of Moving Forward |
| 01 May 2018 |
The monthly Moving Forward is published with support from Jews Say No! That organization engages in community education, street theatre, and organizing to make their members’ voices heard in Jewish communities and as partners in the broader movement for justice in Palestine/Israel. The following article is the editorial to Moving
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USA: Forgotten Hurricane Harvey Devastation |
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By :Daniel J. McGraw, Next City |
| 30 April 2018 |
Houston got the press (and most of the funds), but the Category 4 storm made first, devastating landfall in coastal Port Aransas and Rockport. How rebuilding has forced these beach towns to confront a housing crisis.
The smallish, three-bedroom, blue-green house in the middle of Port Aransas is rather ordinary. Built
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India: Land Rights for 1947 Partition Displaced |
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By :Rina Chandran, place |
| 27 April 2018 |
The Indian State of Maharashtra grants land ownership rights to refugees who fled Pakistan 70 years ago. Refugees in Maharashtra were housed in about 30 government-owned "camps" or colonies across the state, with limited rights to sell or redevelop their homes
BANGKOK - Refugees in India`s western state of Maharashtra
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Right to the City in Greater Beirut |
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By :HIC-HLRN and Amel Association |
| 14 April 2018 |
HLRN has just released its new publication Right to the City in Greater Beirut: Context Assessment in Light of the Refugee and Displacement Crisis. This assessment offers critical insight into municipal governance in Greater Beirut, a city largely formed and characterized by human migration through its history, while more recently
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Myanmar: Rohingyas’ 13 Demands for Return |
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By :The Star (Petaling Jaya)/AP |
| 13 April 2018 |
Rohingya give Myanmar official list of demands for repatriation
DHAKA—A Myanmar Cabinet minister visited a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims, who described the violence that forced them to flee Myanmar and presented a list of demands for their repatriation.
Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye on Wednesday met
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USA: Time for Change - Race & Homelessness |
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By :Jeffrey Olivet and Marc Dones, SPARC and National Alliance to End Homelessness |
| 11 April 2018 |
In recent years, an increasingly urgent dialogue has emerged around race and equity in [the United States of] America. But that dialogue has generally overlooked one of the most visible manifestations of racial inequity: homelessness.
Homelessness is not colorblind. People of color are dramatically more likely than their White counterparts to
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Land Day: 17 Fallen in 2018, as the 6 in 1976 |
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By :Al-Arabiya net |
| 30 March 2018 |
In Palestine, "the Return March" is emerging, and Israel is killing the demonstrators. Three thousand occupation soldiers deployed in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip with orders to fire live bullets. Thousands of Palestinians marched Friday near the border between Gaza and Israel in a protest march called
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Land Haunts Germany`s Namibia Genocides |
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By :Joe Brock, Reuters |
| 07 March 2018 |
Land haunts Germany`s effort to atone for Africa genocide
OKAHANDJA, Namibia—Namibia’s Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give.
“What we want is our land,” said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose
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DR Congo: Terror in Ituri |
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By :Thijs Van Laer, Congo Research Group |
| 05 March 2018 |
Over sixty people killed, thousands of houses burned down and more than 100,000 displaced people, including 42,000 refugees in neighbouring Uganda. Those are the consequences so far of the violence in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since December 2017.
The violence marks a counterpoint to
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1st Arab Conference on Land Governance |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 28 February 2018 |
Dubai Land Department announces the conclusion of the first Arab land governance conference
The conference, organized in partnership with the World Bank, the Global Land Tool Network, UN-HABITAT, the League of Arab States and the Arab Surveying Association, was attended by more than 300 participants, representing several regional and international bodies.
Dubai
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DRC Violence Displaces Thousands of Children |
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By :VoA |
| 24 February 2018 |
Thousands of Children Displaced by Ethnic Violence in DRC’s Ituri Province. GENEVA—The U.N. children’s fund reports at least 90,000 children have been forced to flee their homes in the face of escalating inter-communal violence in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri Province. Ituri’s Djugu territory in northeastern D.R.C. has been the
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Peru: Shipibo-Konibo Forced from Forest to Slum |
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By :Jack Guy, Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 20 February 2018 |
Forced from rainforest, Peruvian tribe faces new woes in Lima slum
LIMA—Wedged between the rubbish-choked Rimac River and lanes of traffic belching fumes, the Cantagallo slum in downtown Lima is a far cry from the Amazon rainforest land that the Shipibo-Konibo people were forced to flee two decades ago.
Hundreds of
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Not Just a Condition, but Cause of Poverty |
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By :A U.S. Catholic interview |
| 13 February 2018 |
Being evicted isn’t just a condition of poverty, it’s a cause, says Matthew Desmond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" (Crown Books).
While much research and conversation has been devoted to other poverty-related topics such as nutrition, education, and violence, the Princeton sociologist
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France: Equality Law Fails, Roma Evictions Increased |
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By :ERRC |
| 08 February 2018 |
Paris, Budapest 6 February 2018: In the last year 11,309 Romani people were evicted from their homes in France, the majority of which (8,161) were forcefully evicted by authorities. A further 2,055 left their homes before the arrival of authorities, under pressure of an imminent eviction.
Last year saw a 12% increase
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Pakistan: Lahore City Evicts Slum Dwellers |
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By :Zeena T. Hashmi, The Nation (Karachi) |
| 07 February 2018 |
LDA’s forced eviction of Model Town slum dwellers is shocking, but not surprising. No one with a shred of shame can imagine such a thing happening in any democracy; but this is how the Lahore Development Authority works.
For the dwellers at Sector M, Model Town Extension, there have been many
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China’s OBOR Project Dispossesses, Displaces Tibetans |
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By :David Brewster, Inside Policy |
| 24 January 2018 |
China’s Belt and Road Initiative will result in important strategic consequence for the countries of South Asia, writes David Brewster. But its impact on China itself should not be ignored.
In geopolitical terms, South Asia has long functioned like an island, nominally attached to Eurasia but not really part of it.
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Belgium Supports UNRWA as USA Defunds |
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By :Haaretz |
| 17 January 2018 |
Belgium has stepped in to help out the UN Agency assisting Palestinian refugees with an immediate disbursement of $23 million Wednesday a day after the Trump administration suspended $65 million in aid for the international organization.
Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Wednesday that "for a lot of
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Somalia: > 5K IDP Homes Evicted, Destroyed |
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By :Xinhua and Somalia NGO Consortium |
| 11 January 2018 |
3,000 School Children Affected by Forced Evictions in Mogadishu
Somalia NGO Consortium Statement below
MOGADISHU—The UN Children`s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children said on Thursday that recent unannounced forced evictions of families and destruction of several informal settlements on the outskirts of Somali capital Mogadishu have impacted over 3,000 school
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Extreme Poverty Growing in USA |
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By :Premilla Nadasen, The Washington Post Perspective |
| 21 December 2017 |
The U.N. finds growing numbers of Americans are living in the most impoverished circumstances. How did we get here?
“Finish all your food,” my mother used to tell me. “There’s a child in Africa who would love to have that food on your plate.” It was an effective disciplinary approach, especially
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South Africa: Three Murders in Sisonke Village |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA |
| 21 November 2017 |
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Three people were murdered in Sisonke Village, in Lamontville, on Sunday, including our chairperson in the area Sibonela Mpeku.
Our members gave Sisonke Village its new name on 13 July 2014 and our branch was launched there on 9 November 2014. During that year we issued statements noting
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Myanmar: At Least 800K Rohingya Flee |
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By :Reuters |
| 17 November 2017 |
The following article series follows the Rohingya flight as it has grown since August 2017. According to UN OCHA, As of 4 October 2017, Bangladesh hosts more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees, and this number continues to increase daily. Before this crisis began, the country was already hosting a verified population
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Nigeria: 30K Evicted, Defying Court |
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By :Amnesty International |
| 14 November 2017 |
Deadly mass forced evictions make life misery for waterfront communities
Over 30,000 forcibly evicted from settlements in Lagos state in defiance of court orders
11 people unlawfully killed and at least 17 missing after violent evictions by security forces and unidentified armed men
300,000 others are under threat of further forced evictions
Evicted residents
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Germany: Merkel`s Housing Crisis |
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By :Rebecca Pinnington, Express (London) |
| 14 November 2017 |
Germany is facing a shocking housing crisis with 1.2 million people expected to be living in homeless shelters by 2018.
The Federal Homeless Association estimates the current number of homeless people in the country totals around 860,000.
That figure is expected to rise another 40 per cent to 1.2 million by the
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Out of Africa: Human Rights Habitat Struggles |
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By :Marie Huchzermeyer, CUBES/Wits Univ. and Joseph Schechla, HLRN |
| 07 November 2017 |
From Africa to the World: Struggling for Human Rights to Housing, Land and the City
Mid-October 2017, Nairobi was host to an intense engagement on housing rights, social justice and the right to the city. This was amid political turmoil in Kenyan towns and cities, and unrelated to this but largely
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Kenya: AG Enjoined in Samburu Eviction Case |
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By :Joseph Wangui, The Nation |
| 01 November 2017 |
Githu Muigai enjoined in Samburu eviction case
Attorney-General Githu Muigai has been enjoined in a case in which retired President Daniel Moi was sued by the Samburu community for transferring 17,105 acres (69,217,493.44 square meters) of their land in Laikipia North to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
The Environment and Land Court
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EU States Demand Israel Pay Demolition Costs |
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By :Barak Ravid, Haaretz |
| 19 October 2017 |
Eight European Union countries wrote an official protest letter to Israel, demanding over €30,000 ($35,400) in compensation for confiscating and demolishing structures and infrastructure which the countries had built in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control.
A senior European diplomat told Haaretz that the letter,
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South Africa: Repression in Durban |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA |
| 04 October 2017 |
Cato Manor residents say eThekwini Municipality carried out brutal and illegal evictions
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA. Press Statement
The Movement of Abahlali baseMjondolo continues to face serious and unlawful repression by the ANC led municipality in Durban. Right now, the community in Cato Manor right now are trying to collect all the
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The Cost of Land Grabbing in Mozambique |
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By :Burag Gurden, Pambazuka News |
| 31 August 2017 |
The cost of land grabbing in Mozambique`s Tete Province
Tete Province is very rich in coal. An estimated 23 billion tons of mostly untapped coal lies beneath Tete. It is expected to become the region’s energy powerhouse built on coal and hydroelectricity. However, local farmer communities have been on the losing
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Tanzania: Forced Evictions of Loliondo Maasai |
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By :Chris Lang, Conservation Watch |
| 30 August 2017 |
“Forced evictions of Maasai people in Loliondo, Tanzania”: Urgent Alert from the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
The International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) last week put out a short report about the violent evictions of Maasai pastoralists in Loliondo, Tanzania.
According to reliable information received by IWGIA, forced and
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UN Reports on Rakhine Living Conditions |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 23 August 2017 |
After one year of consultations held across Rakhine State (Myanmar) and in other parts of the country and the region, the UN’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State submitted its final report to national authorities on 23 August.
The Commission, chaired by Kofi Annan, has put forward recommendations to surmount the
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No SDGs without Major Progress on Land |
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By :Luca Chinotti, International Land Coalition |
| 28 July 2017 |
Land and the SDGs: Key takeaways from the 2017 HLPF and what we need to do next
This was the clear and strong message that was brought by the land community into the major global forum on the SDGs, the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), which is the central platform for
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City of Johannesburg Defies Court, Evicts 257 |
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By :Socio-economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) |
| 19 July 2017 |
City of Johannesburg leaves 257 men, women and children out in the cold, despite court orders
The High Court has ordered the City of Johannesburg to accommodate 257 men, women and children who were yesterday evicted from Fattis Mansions at 66 Harrison Street, Johannesburg.
The residents of the property initially
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Nigeria: Forced Evictions in Badia-East (Lagos) |
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By :Spaces for Youth Development and Social Change |
| 15 June 2017 |
Spaces for Change NGO Staff Arrested, Released
LAGOS—A Task Force squad comprising demolition agents of the Lagos State Government and scores of heavily-armed security operatives invaded Badia-East this morning, Thursday, June 15, 2017. With the aid of bulldozers, sledge hammers, iron bars, and earth-moving equipment, they levelled all the structures in
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USA: Carson Calls Slaves “Immigrants” |
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By :USA Today |
| 07 March 2017 |
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson referred to slaves as "immigrants" while speaking Monday to HUD employees.
"That`s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity," Carson said. "There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for
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Land Haunts Germany`s Namibia Genocides |
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By :Joe Brock, Reuters |
| 02 March 2017 |
Land haunts Germany`s effort to atone for Africa genocide
OKAHANDJA, Namibia—Namibia’s Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give.
“What we want is our land,” said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose
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Cambodia: Land Grabs, Defender Jailed |
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By :Prak Chan Thul and Alisa Tang, The Japan Times |
| 25 February 2017 |
Amid land grabs and evictions, Cambodia jails leading activist
PHNOM PENH—Even before a Cambodian judge sentenced land rights activist Tep Vanny to prison, her fellow campaigners said her fate had already been sealed.
Vanny, who fought the evictions of thousands of residents from lakeside land in Phnom Penh to make way for
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Report: Forced Evictions Fuel Land Disputes |
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By :Kieran Guilbert, Rights Resources |
| 09 February 2017 |
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Forced evictions of local communities from their lands by foreign companies fuel around two-thirds of land ownership disputes across Africa, often sparking strikes or violence which can prove costly to investors, activists said on Thursday.
Pushing people off their land drives more conflict over land rights
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Report: Land Rights in a Turbulent World |
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By :Rights and Resources Initiative |
| 09 February 2017 |
Acknowledgment that insecure land rights among the world’s Indigenous Peoples and local communities contribute to conflict, discourage investment, and impede progress on global goals of sustainable development, poverty reduction, and climate change mitigation is growing. In 2016, this consensus found a powerful new ally: major institutional investors are beginning to
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Nigeria: 100 Structures Demolished in Ladipo |
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By :Monsuru Olowoopejo, Vanguard |
| 03 February 2017 |
About 100 shops and other structures within Jakande Estate, Amuwo-Odofin, have been razed and hundreds of traders displaced when a demolition squad from the Lagos State Government stormed the estate, to restore sanity alleged sanity to the complex. The demolition came three months after the State Government, which the Secretary
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EU’s Biggest Pension Funds Invest Big in Colonies |
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By :Mikkel Bahl, Hanan Chemlali & Kristoffer Marslev, Danwatch |
| 31 January 2017 |
Europe’s largest pension funds heavily invested in illegal Israeli settler colonies.
Europe’s five largest pension funds have €7.5 billion invested in companies with business activities in and around illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is at odds with United Nations guidelines, clear warnings from 18 European countries, and undermines
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Why Pope Francis Keeps Reaching out to Mayors |
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By :Simone d`Antonio, Citiscope |
| 27 January 2017 |
VATICAN CITY—When the Pope calls you to Rome, you go.
Dozens of mayors from around the world heeded the call in 2015, when Pope Francis invited them to the Vatican to discuss actions their cities could take against climate change and human trafficking. And it happened again last month, when Francis
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World Bank’s Agriculture Initiative Criticized |
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By :Brettonwoods Project |
| 18 January 2017 |
Civil society has called on the World Bank to terminate its Enabling the Business of Agriculture initiative.
In mid-January, 157 organisations and individuals sent a letter to World Bank president Jim Yong Kim calling for the termination of the Bank’s Enabling the Business of Agriculture initiative (EBA, see Bulletin May 2014,
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UNSC Votes to End Israeli Settler Colonies |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 24 December 2016 |
It was the first time in eight years that the UN Security Council had passed a resolution condemning Israel’s illegal construction of settler colonies in occupied Palestine. The vote came on Friday, following an unprecedented intervention of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that had U.S. President-elect Donald Trump "advising" Egyptian
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India: Over 33K Homes Demolished in 2015–16 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 22 December 2016 |
Over 33,000 homes demolished in urban India between 2015 and 2016
New Delhi—Data collected by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) reveals that public authorities in India, in both the central and state spheres of government, forcibly have evicted at least 33,257 families across urban centers between January 2015 and December
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Myanmar: AI Reports “crimes against humanity” |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 19 December 2016 |
A new report by Amnesty International (AI) documents a campaign of violence by the Myanmar security forces against Rohingya since 9 October 2016. Soldiers and police have randomly fired on and killed civilians, raped women and girls, torched whole villages and arbitrarily arrested Rohingya men without any information about their
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European Tenants vs. Wall Street Landlords |
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By :Liz Alderman, The New York Times |
| 18 December 2016 |
Wall Street is Europe’s landlord, and tenants are fighting back.
DUBLIN—The Tobun family never missed a rental payment on their modest brick rowhouse in eight years. But in February, the couple, who have two young children, received a letter warning that they would have to leave their home when the lease
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World Bank: Gaza Water Crisis, Irreversible Damage |
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By :Amira Haas, Haaretz |
| 18 December 2016 |
The World Bank acknowledges there is a water crisis in the Gaza Strip, but it blames overpumping—not the Israeli occupation. For information of Israel’s preemptive pumping of Gaza’s aquifer, see Sustainable Management of the West Bank and Gaza Strip Aquifers (SUSMAQ) report المياه العابرة للحدود (2004) and map Land Times/أحوال
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Land Rights Defender Killings Tripled in 2016 |
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By :PANAP |
| 10 December 2016 |
2015 had been the worst year on record for killings of land and environmental defenders who are struggling to protect land, forests and rivers from privately interested takers. But, in 2016, roughly 16 land rights advocates have been killed each month from January through November.
PENANG, Malaysia—Advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific
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Nigerian King Sues Shell in London |
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By :Alice Ritchie, Phys.org |
| 22 November 2016 |
Nigerian tribal king Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi has flown to London for a High Court hearing in which lawyers for more than 40,000 Nigerians are demanding action from Shell to clean up oil spills
King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi holds up a plastic bottle containing contaminated water from his community
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Nigeria: UNSR Addresses “Brutal” Eviction of 30K |
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By :OHCHR |
| 17 November 2016 |
GENEVA—A United Nations human rights expert has asked the Government of Nigeria for an urgent explanation of the forced eviction of 30,000 people in Lagos State in the last week. Four people are reported to have died in the latest operation to clear irregular developments along the State’s
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USA: Oakland`s “Mega-evictor” |
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By :Sam Levin, The Guardian |
| 11 November 2016 |
The landlord who filed over 3,000 eviction notices. Pro-tenant group says a landlord who has a seat on Oakland’s housing cabinet is also the top evictor in the city, where a housing crunch has reached crisis levels
Leketha Williams was out of options. When the Oakland, California, mother was evicted and
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Italy: Romani Emergency Shelter Closed |
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By :Jonathan Lee, Elena Risi, ERRC |
| 28 October 2016 |
A majority Roma shelter located at Via Amarilli in Rome will be officially closed by 31 October 2016. This comes after officials from Rome Municipality announced the closure and the subsequent eviction of the majority Roma shelter on the 5 October. Associazione 21 Luglio and the ERRC see this as
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Implementing the Right to the City |
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By :Emilio Godoy, Citiscope |
| 20 October 2016 |
So how do we implement the ‘right to the city’, anyway? Many were surprised last month when negotiations on the New Urban Agenda kept the term in the final document. Now, efforts have been made at this week’s Habitat III conference to try to explain what this means on the
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Alternative Forums outside of Habitat III |
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By :Gregory Scruggs, Citiscope |
| 14 October 2016 |
Even as governments adopt the New Urban Agenda next week, multiple groups plan protests and contrary discussions.
A large crowd gathers at the Urban Social Forum in Rio de Janeiro, which took place as an alternative to the World Urban Forum in March 2010. More such events are expected at next
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UN: E. Aleppo `Totally Destroyed` by 2017 |
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By :Julia Zorthian, Time |
| 06 October 2016 |
Staffan de Mistura said Thursday that the thousands of civilians trapped could die
The United Nations envoy to Syria warned Thursday that rebel-held eastern Aleppo could undergo “total” destruction by the end of the year.
Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, told reporters that thousands of lives could be lost,
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Nigeria: When They Bulldozed, She Fought Back |
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By :Betty Abah and Elaine Zuckerman, Ms. magazine |
| 03 October 2016 |
Bimbo, 57 and a mother of four, grew up in Makoko, Lagos Nigeria’s largest slum, married, and established a thriving soft drink business in boisterous Badia East, another Lagos slum. Her life was upturned when the World Bank-financed Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project bulldozed Badia East in 2013 without notice.
The “urban
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England: Record Evictions by Private Landlords |
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By :Patrick Butler, The Guardian |
| 28 September 2016 |
End of an assured shorthold tenancy cited by nearly a third of newly homeless households, figures show
Record numbers of families are becoming homeless after being evicted by private landlords and finding themselves unable to afford a suitable alternative place to live, government figures show.
The end of an assured shorthold tenancy
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UN Report on DPs and Refugees in Africa |
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By :Relifeweb |
| 26 September 2016 |
Summary
The present report is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 70/134 on assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa. It updates information contained in the report of the Secretary-General submitted to the Assembly at its seventieth session (A/70/337) and covers the period from 1 July 2015 to 30
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Murder and Eviction: New Era of Global Land Rush |
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By :Oxfam international |
| 26 September 2016 |
Millions of people face being displaced from their homes as new data shows land sales covering an area the size of Germany are now under contract, warns Oxfam.
Seventy-five percent of the more than 1500 land deals sought over the last sixteen years now have contracts and their intended projects are getting
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UNHCR Condemns Attacks on S. Sudan Refugees |
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By :Sudan Tribun |
| 22 September 2016 |
JUBA--The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has strongly denounced what it described as the spreading violence in South Sudan’s Greater Equatoria region in past weeks, including recent attacks at Lasu settlement.
The Equatoria region witnessed recently fierce fighting in different locations between the south Sudanese government army and SPLM-IO fighters loyal
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South African Court Halts Eviction |
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By :Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA) Bulletin |
| 14 September 2016 |
South African Constitutional Court orders “meaningful engagement” in urgent forced eviction
The South African Constitutional Court has extended the Olivia Road case to urgent forced evictions, requiring meaningful engagement between the local authority and tenants—or occupiers in this case—before eviction can be deemed constitutional under the right to housing.
The applicants, amounting
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Thailand: Karens to Appeal Eviction Verdict |
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By :Forest Peoples Programme |
| 13 September 2016 |
Karens to appeal court verdict legalizing their forced evictions; indigenous organizations call for effective redress
Karen representatives today vowed to appeal against the recent Thai court verdict that ruled the authorities did not break the law in burning their properties to forcefully evict them from Kaeng Krachan National Park. Indigenous rights
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Kenya: Courts Stops Kibera Nubian Eviction |
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By :KBC Reporters |
| 31 August 2016 |
The High Court has temporarily barred Kenya Urban Roads Authority from evicting members of the Nubian community from their homes in Kibra constituency in Nairobi in order to pave way for construction of the Southern Bypass.
The community who are complainants in the case say the respondents did not follow
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Uganda: Amongi Reacts to Land Grabbing Claims |
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By :Jonathan Kamoga, Allafrica.com |
| 08 August 2016 |
Former FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye last week launched a scathing attack on recently-announced government plans for compulsory land acquisitions, telling journalists this was a ploy to steal people`s land. But as Jonathan Kamoga reports, the responsible government minister says Besigye got it all wrong.
Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister Betty
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Hunger a Weapon of War in Syria, Yemen, Nigeria |
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By :Isabel Malsang, AFP, reliefweb.int |
| 07 August 2016 |
While grain silos in many Western countries may overflow this winter, tens of millions of people risk going without food as hunger is being used more than ever as a weapon of war.
More than 50 million people living in 17 conflict-ridden countries are in "severe food insecurity", two UN agencies
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World Bank Policies Imperil Land Defenders |
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By :Cyril Mychalejko, teleSUR |
| 04 August 2016 |
Just 5 months since the murder of Honduran environmental defender Berta Caceres, the Bank is passing new safeguards that do more harm than good.
The World Bank is expected to approve Thursday its new “Environmental and Social Framework” which civil society groups say weakens human rights protections and will likely endanger the very communities the safeguards are intended to protect.
At issue
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A Forgotten Population |
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By :Nirma D. Bustamante, MD, P. Gregg Greenough, MD, MPH and Christian Arbelaez, EM resident |
| 04 August 2016 |
As the recipient of the 2015 EMRA Global Health Initiative Award and as the senior teaching assistant of Post-conflict Colombia and Public Health: A Project of the Open Hands Initiative and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in Collaboration with the Universidad de Antioquia, I had the pleasure of working directly with the
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HIC Addresses Habitat III PrepCom3 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 27 July 2016 |
The “New Urban Agenda,” from its inception, is inconsistent with historic agreements, today’s global priorities and the “world we need.” Particular interests have narrowed the Habitat Agenda to urban priorities, subordinated rural areas and ignored issues of forced migration, presuming that urbanization is “inevitable” and beyond human will or policy
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Obstacles to Development: Data on fragility, Conflict and Violence |
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By :Edie Purdie, World Bank Blog |
| 13 July 2016 |
Latin America and the Caribbean have high homicide rates.
Over half a million people were killed by intentional homicide in 2012, while in 2014 there were more than one hundred thousand battle-related deaths. Episodes of such violence and unrest can reverse development efforts and rapidly dismantle achievements built over a long
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How Eviction Feeds Poverty |
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By :Nailah Morgan |
| 11 July 2016 |
Sociologist and Harvard Professor Matthew Desmond spent a year living in Milwaukee’s inner-city neighborhoods studying the implications of poverty. Staying in rooming houses and trailer parks, he spent his days with tenants being evicted and the landlords leading the evictions. He conducted surveys and analyzed thousands of eviction records. The conclusion? Eviction
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China: Profiting from Confiscated Tibetan Lands |
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By :Radio Free Asia |
| 11 July 2016 |
In the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China is confiscating lands at a low price and then reselling at a profit to Chinese developers. Newly built apartments in these lands are then sold back at high prices to the Tibetans from whom the land was first taken. The
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UN Experts Insist on HR-based Habitat III |
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By :OHCHR |
| 29 June 2016 |
UN experts issue statement on Habitat III: new agenda must be based in human rights
NEW YORK/GENEVA—As independent human rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council, we call for a New Urban Agenda that embraces the transformative potential of human rights as a necessary framework for inclusive, vibrant and sustainable cities.
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HIC Responds to Habitat III’s Revised Zero Draft |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 28 June 2016 |
The following are Habitat International Coalition`s comments on the revised zero draft of the Habitat III outcome documents, submitted to the Habitat III Secretariat on 28 June 2016:
Habitat International Coalition was born out of, and—for two generations now—has faithfully upheld the Habitat Agenda as a cornerstone of its global platform.
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India: 2 Cops, 5 Protesters Killed in Land Eviction |
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By :See and say.in |
| 25 June 2016 |
Mathura: Five protesters and two policemen, including an SP, were killed and over 40 people injured in clashes during a drive to evict illegal occupants of a land in Mathura district, a top official said.
The clashes broke out when the police were trying to evict illegal occupants of a land
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Demise of World Bank Accountability |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 22 June 2016 |
A forthcoming article in the American University International Law Review(AUILR) addressed “The Demise of Accountability at the World Bank?” The article by Natalie Bugalski, of Inclusive Development, examines recent trends in the accountability system at the World Bank, including the proposed Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) and developments at the
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Israel: Water as a Tool to Dominate Palestinians |
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By :Camilla Corradin, Al Jazeera |
| 20 June 2016 |
Israel deliberately denies Palestinians control over their water sources and sets the ground for water domination.
Occupied West Bank—As temperatures rise and summer months approach, yet again this year, thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are being deprived of their most basic need - access to water - as
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Tibet: Farm Women Protest Loss of Their Land |
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By :RFA’s Tibetan Service |
| 17 June 2016 |
Holding the Chinese national flag and carrying photos of Chinese national leaders, Tibetan farm women marched this week outside Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa to protest the confiscation by authorities of their farmland, sources in the region and in exile said.
Over 100 women from Gachoe village in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s
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Standing up to TNC Land Grab in Sierra Leone |
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By :HLRN |
| 16 June 2016 |
HLRN has joined over 40 civil society organizations to express deep concern over the impact of a monoculture agricultural project that involves the dispossession of the people living in Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun District in Sierra Leone.
The project is the subject of an investment by SOCFIN Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd.
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Brazil: Fundão Dam Devastation |
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By :Ingrid Fadnes, Al Jazeera |
| 14 June 2016 |
MARIANA, Brazil—On November 5, 2015, the Fundao dam burst in the inland municipality of Mariana in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The Brazilian mining company Samarco, owned by two of the world`s biggest mining corporations, Vale SA and BHP Billiton, operated the dam.
Tcharly do Barmo Batista, a 23-year-old father,
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Nigeria: Herdsmen, Land Use and Human Rights |
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By :Spaces 4 Change |
| 01 June 2016 |
Fulani herdsmen, herdsmen, hoodlums, intruders from Chad and neighbouring countries, or whatever appellation ascribed to their murderous activities, these names emit fumes of terror, anguish and fear. The fear they evoke is well founded. What started out as recurrent violent clashes between nomadic herdsmen and their host farming communities in
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Myanmar: Human Rights Should Be "Top Priority" |
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By :Karen News |
| 09 May 2016 |
Prominent human rights advocacy organization, Human Rights Watch calls for new civilian government to push for human rights reforms.
In a statement released today, Human Rights Watch has called on the new National League for Democracy government to make human rights a “top priority.”
Mr. Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights
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Kenya: Bldgs. Demolished, 100s Homeless |
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By :AP |
| 06 May 2016 |
Nairobi—As emergency workers retrieved four bodies from a building that collapsed a week ago, bringing the death toll to 41, hundreds of Nairobi residents were evicted on Friday from nearby buildings that are being torn down to prevent other deadly disasters.
The demolitions began even as the rescuers continued digging the
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Indonesia: Military Conducts Forced Evictions |
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By :Jakarta Globe |
| 03 May 2016 |
Jakarta. Public lawyers have issued Indonesian military chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo with a written reprimand for what they deem unlawful involvement of soldiers in the forced eviction of Jakarta`s urban poor.
As many as 113 forced evictions took place in the capital last year, with the Indonesian Military (TNI) assisting in
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Counting Costs in Congo |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 01 May 2016 |
This week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thirty community leaders and field researchers from the villages of the Inga Valley met to consider their fate in view of the planned Inga3 project that proposes to inundate their communities. Organized locally by Association Droit et Developpement (ADEV) the communities’
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UN Housing Expert Urges India to Apply Rights |
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By :OHCHR |
| 22 April 2016 |
UN expert on adequate housing says: "Right to housing vision needed to achieve equality for the poor in India."
NEW DELHI/GENEVA—The contrast between the vast numbers of pavement-dwellers and the rapid development of luxury real estate was brought into stark focus by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to
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"Right to the City" Movement Goes Global |
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By :Francesca Perry, The Guardian |
| 19 April 2016 |
Right to the city: can this growing social movement win over city officials?
From the Taksim Square and Nuit Debout protests to bank takeovers in Barcelona and women’s workshops in Delhi, the pressure for more inclusive cities is mounting. As the UN gears up for Habitat III, will governments listen?
On
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4 Tibetan Land Defenders Get Suspended Sentence |
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By :Tibetan Center for Rights and Democracy |
| 14 April 2016 |
Four Tibetan men have been given suspended jail sentences for petitioning against government confiscation of their land in Ka Bharma nomadic camp in Thangkor (Ch: Tangke) Township in Dzoege (Ch: Ruoergai) County, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The four Tibetans are identified as Phurkho, Rinchen
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World Bank Accountability @ Spring Meetings |
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By :Oakland Institute |
| 12 April 2016 |
World Bank Accountability on Forced Resettlements Must be a Priority at Its Spring Meetings
Oakland, CA—World Bank accountability on forced resettlements resulting from its programs must be front and center at its spring meetings, taking place this week in Washington DC.
Between 2004 and 2013, nearly 3.4 million people were physically or economically
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Israeli Plunder of Palestinian Homes “Concerns” U.S. |
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By :David Alexander, Reuters |
| 02 April 2016 |
Crackdown on what Israel claims is illegal construction has already pitied Jerusalem against the EU, who funds some of the structures.
JERUSALEM—The United States is "concerned" about Israel`s demolition of Arab buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a State Department spokeswoman said on Friday, adding that it raised questions
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Iranians Buying up Land in War-torn Syria |
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By :Sirwan Kajjo and Mario Ritter, Voice of America |
| 27 March 2016 |
Iran’s government wants its builders to buy up property in Shi-ite majority neighborhoods of Syria’s capital, Damascus.
It is also asking construction workers to go to Syria.
This information comes from construction industry officials in Tehran and Iranian experts.
Iranian analyst Fariborz Saremi said owning real estate gives Iran more control over Syria
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Post-trauma: From Syria to Nepal |
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By :Kai Weise, The Himalayan Times |
| 12 March 2016 |
Rehabilitation after a natural disaster consists of motivating the community to overcome destruction and reestablish their cultural environment and activities.
A colloquium was recently held at the ICOMOS Secretariat in Paris on post trauma reconstruction. The focus was on dealing with the heritage that is being destroyed due to armed conflicts
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USA: The Eviction Economy |
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By :Matthew Desmond, The New York Times |
| 05 March 2016 |
I first met Larraine when we both lived in a trailer park on the far South Side of Milwaukee. Fifty-four, with silvering brown hair, Larraine loved mystery novels, “So You Think You Can Dance” and doting on her grandson. Even though she lived in a mobile home park with so
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African New Habitat Agenda Priorities |
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By :Ahmed Mansour Ismail and Dr. Daniel W. Ambaye |
| 23 February 2016 |
HABITAT III Africa Regional Meeting
“African Priorities for the New Urban Agenda”
Land and African Sustainable Urbanization, side event organized by GLTN
Abuja, Nigeria, 23 February 2016
Summary prepared by Ahmed Mansour Ismail (HIC-HLRN) and Dr. Daniel W. Ambaye (Institute of Land Administration)
Mr Ernest Aubee, ECOWAS (as moderator) introduced the panelists and further emphasized
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A Last Chance for the World`s Forests? |
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By :Bill Laurance, CounterPunch |
| 13 February 2016 |
An alarming new study has shown that the world’s forests are not only disappearing rapidly, but that areas of “core forest”—remote interior areas critical for disturbance-sensitive wildlife and ecological processes—are vanishing even faster.
Core forests are disappearing because a tsunami of new roads, dams, power lines, pipelines and other infrastructure is
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Migration Meets Hamburg: Right to the City |
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By :Plenums des Hamburger Recht auf Stadt-Netzwerks |
| 09 February 2016 |
As in many others cities of Europe, refugees meet both welcome and opposition. One such opposition militates against providing humane and decent housing for refugees in Hamburg. Local reports tell how the anti-refugee trend is voiced louder and louder every week, even in the middle class. A new alliance of
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HLRN-India Launches Habitat III Status Report |
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By :HLRN-India |
| 05 February 2016 |
New Delhi—On Friday, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) launched its first Habitat III country report titled, Housing and Land Rights in India: Status Report for Habitat III. The United Nations (UN) Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III)—the third bidecennial international conference on habitat issues—will be held
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HIC-critics on Habitat III Policy Papers |
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By :HIC |
| 05 February 2016 |
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,
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Habitat III Sins of Omission |
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By :Habitat for People - Not for Profit! |
| 01 February 2016 |
Today, a movement of concerned partners engaged in the Habitat III preparations issued a public challenge to the organizers of the global process, calling on them to rethink the omissions and design flaws that narrow the Habitat III public debate and presuppose its outcomes. From the beginning of the deliberative and reporting
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DRC: Why Rush Inga3 Dam? |
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By :Ange Asanzi, International Rivers |
| 26 January 2016 |
The proposed Inga 3 Dam project has been at the epicenter of all energy discussions pertaining to Africa in the past three years. Speculation and rumors abound, and secrecy has surrounded the project’s status. Then, late last year, the government of the DRC announced that the Inga 3 project is
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Ethiopia`s Development Crackdown on Dissent |
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By :Charles Stratford, Al Jazeera |
| 10 January 2016 |
Rights groups say 140 people killed in recent weeks as government moves forward with controversial development plans.
Wolonkomi, Ethiopia—Security forces have killed at least 140 people during a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Ethiopia in recent weeks, activists and rights groups say.
The protests by members of the country`s largest ethnic group,
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Total Withdraws from Western Sahara |
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By :WSRW |
| 21 December 2015 |
The French multinational oil company has announced that it is no longer pursuing oil search offshore Western. "More good news for the Saharawi people. We urge the remaining oil companies to follow suit," Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) has stated.
"Total has informed the Moroccan authorities that it would not request
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COP21: Land & Water Convergence Speaks |
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By :Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles |
| 08 December 2015 |
Parallel to the climate conference in Paris, social movements and allies within the “Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles” stand up for climate justice and real solutions to the climate crisis. This alliance of struggles has delivered its message to the COP21 currently meeting at Paris. Their statement follows.
The
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Nigeria: UNSR Urges Halt to Eviction Trend |
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By :OHCHR |
| 23 November 2015 |
GENEVA—The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, today urged the Nigerian Government to put an immediate end to the ongoing trend of evictions in the country. The human rights expert raised concerns with the government about the large-scale demolitions and evictions carried out
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Philippines: 2 Yrs. after Haiyan, Still Waiting |
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By :Astrid Zweynert, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 08 November 2015 |
Nearly 2 Years After Typhoon Haiyan, Many Still Waiting for Rehousing in Safer Areas. Experts are calling for a closer monitoring system of how aid funds are being spent.
TACLOBAN, Philippines—Arsenjo Francisco has lived near the sea all his life, but the retired Filipino fisherman lost his love of the ocean
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Habitat III National Reporting Tool |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 21 September 2015 |
Habitat III National Reporting Guidelines (merged with State obligations)
This Excel file attempts to merge the national Habitat III report outline proffered by UN-Habitat with the already-standing commitments of states and UN bodies at Habitat II (1996). For those following UN-Habitat`s advice, the left column leads with the agency’s reduced six
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New Extractionism in Occupied Western Sahara |
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By :WSRW |
| 31 August 2015 |
Amid Saharawi protests, San Leon Energy has begun to drill an on-shore well in occupied Western Sahara on 21 August.
The El Aaiun-4 conventional well is located on the so-called Tarfaya licence, near Foum el Oued, just above Western Sahara`s capital city El Aaiun. The drilling rig, a Cabot 750
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Sami People’s Land Rights at Stake |
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By :OHCHR |
| 28 August 2015 |
Land and resource rights are key to Sami people’s self-determination, United Nations rights expert says HEMAVAN / GENEVA—The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, today expressed concern at the land rights situation of the Sami people in Finland, Norway and Sweden, given the increased drive
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Food Firms Back Plan to Stop Land Grabbing |
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By :Chris Arsenault, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 17 August 2015 |
TORONTO--Global food giants and international NGOs have drafted a framework to prevent land grabs just as hedge funds, companies and plantation owners race to acquire new territory.
Drafted by senior figures from Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola and other large firms, along with researchers from Oxfam, Global Witness and the other international organizations,
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German CSO Forum Addresses Habitat III |
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By :Forum on Environment & Development |
| 31 July 2015 |
The German Forum on Environment & Development was founded in 1992 after the UN conference in Rio on environment and development. Its purpose is to coordinate German NGOs in international political processes on sustainable development. It was strongly involved in the preparation and the civil society processes of the Habitat
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HIC Reviews Habitat III Issue Papers |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 31 July 2015 |
Habitat International Coalition has just issued its compilation of inputs from Members and officers following their review of the Habitat III Issue Papers. The 22 thematic contributions from technical experts selected by the UN-Habitat/Habitat III Secretariat have been drafted as a framework for the debate leading up to the Third
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Myanmar: New Land Confiscation Report |
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By :Karen Human Rights Group |
| 30 June 2015 |
Villagers in Karen areas of southeast Myanmar continue to face widespread land confiscation at the hands of a multiplicity of actors. Much of this can be attributed to the rapid expansion of domestic and international commercial interest and investment in southeast Myanmar since the January 2012 preliminary ceasefire between the
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World Bank Group’s Compliance & Land |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 30 June 2015 |
Private sector investment affecting land in developing countries often leads to disputes between companies and local communities over land rights and land use. Since 1999, the private-sector arms of the World Bank Group (WBG)—the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)—have had an accountability mechanism to
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Cambodia: CSOs Charge Boeung Kak Abuses |
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By :ESCR-Net |
| 01 June 2015 |
New York—The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) sent a letter to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia to express serious concern over the conditions faced by thousands of families who live, or lived prior to their eviction, near Boeung Kak Lake.
“The forcible evictions that
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CFS Develops Protracted-crisis Policy |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 01 May 2015 |
In October of this year, the Committee on Global Food Security is expected to adopt the new Framework of Action [to ensure] Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises. That global policy promises to usher in a new approach that formally operationalizes humanitarian, development and human rights principles combined to
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The Right to the City: Jerusalem |
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By :Joseph Schechla |
| 26 October 2014 |
HIC-HLRN has produced a new report from an ongoing study on the prospects of realizing the principles of the “right to the city” for specific cities in several regions.
This report finds that applying the "right to the city" in Jerusalem challenges the current governance grounded in discrimination against, and dispossession of
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Twiga Farm: Story of a Kenyan Land Grab |
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By :Leila van Rinsum, Pambazuka News |
| 08 October 2014 |
Landless citizens of a location just outside Nairobi have been fighting for their rights to land since Kenya’s independence 50 years ago. Successive governments – including those of two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and his son Uhuru, who come from the area – have failed to give these people justice.
On Tuesday,
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