Forced Evictions in Nagoya

At 8:00 am on 24 January 2005, FORCED EVICTION started at Shirakawa
park in the central part of the City of Nagoya where some 3,000
homeless people live in parks and riverside. Six hundred guards,
policemen and city officials came and surrounded homeless people and
support groups to dismantle eight tent houses.

I attach my own photos:

The last person carried out from his tent by the eviction squad,

A young evictee with only kitchen utensils after his tent
dismantled and belongings packed in a truck.

The city authority claims that the tent people disturb "proper use" of
the city park and a planned renovation work. But it is obvious, as the
media so reports, the primary reason for this eviction in the coldest
season of the year is to clear and beautify the city before the Aichi
Expo begins in March in the City's east.

The city authority also claims that they prepared a "shelter" before
the eviction. But it is meant to temporarily accommodate those
evicted, and far from a step toward fundamental solutions to the
homelessness; hence very few have voluntarily moved in to the shelter
so far.

For last several months, the city authority was in discussion terms,
though not so willingly, with support groups to look for alternative
options, while increasing the eviction pressure. It, however,
interrupted the negotiation, officially stating that, though the
international human rights standard claims an opportunity for genuine
consultation, it is interpreted to declare political commitment to the
realization of the rights to adequate housing and not refer to
specific entitlement to individuals. Such distortion in the
interpretation also makes the city violate the sprit of the Law of
support measures for self-reliance of homeless people enacted in 2002
that was accompanied by an additional parliamentary resolution of "due
consideration of the sprit of international human rights commitments".

Hosaka Japan ACHR

Your note of protest could be sent to:

Mr. Takehisa MATSUBARA
Mayor, City of Nagoya
3-1-1 Sannomaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya 460-0001, Japan
FAX: 81-52-972-3164
email: shimin-no-koe@shiminkeizai.city.nagoya.lg.jp
also (human rights promotion office):
a2580@shiminkeizai.city.nagoya.lg.jp

Kindly send a copy to me. I will liaise with those affected.

Mitsuhiko HOSAKA
e-mail:hosaka@n-fukushi.ac.jp

A note could be something like:

Sir,

We are surprised to learn that homeless people in Shirakawa Park were
forcibly evicted by the city authority on 24 January. Judging from
information obtained from our colleagues in Nagoya and reliable media
sources, "an opportunity for genuine consultation with those affected"
(General Comment No.7 of the Committee on ESCR in 1997) was abruptly
discontinued, and 600 eviction squads were mobilized to involuntarily
remove tent houses, resulting in their "increasing levels of
homelessness" (UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1993) in the
freezing weather. This is, by definition, a forced eviction violating
the international human rights covenants.

We are concerned that this eviction took place particularly when such
an international event as Aichi Expo is approaching soon, and request
the City to uphold human rights standards and revive consultation with
those people who are most severely deprived of the housing rights in
the City.