1.
HOUSING RIGHTS RESOURCE CENTRES

The main aim of the HRRC is to network with communities already evicted, and those facing evictions’ civil society organizations, academia, media, etc. to campaign and advocate the social and economic harm forced evictions cause; provide information to groups facing evictions of their human rights. In short, HRRC’s will aim to create a culture where forced evictions are considered unacceptable and housing rights respected.

Learning from the experiences of the Urban Resource Centre in Karachi and others in the region, ACHR will assist groups when requested to establish HRRC in their cities. Some of the activities the HRRC’s could engage in are:

• community based surveys;
• monitoring evictions;
• campaigns and advocacy;
• research on:
  • Impact of evictions on women, children, etc.
  • Social and economic impacts of evictions.
  • Resettlements projects.
  • Government solutions to housing the poor.
  • Role of international financial institutions.
  • Legal instruments – whether they protect the poor.
  • Alternatives to forced evictions.
  • educating people on the laws protecting people’s rights

 

 

2    
PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY ON FORCED EVICTIONS AND HOUSING RIGHTS


The main aim of this activity is focus attention on the social and economic harm and impact that forced evictions have on society. Various formats of the assembly is possible, one being a panel of prominent people listen to people’s experience of being forcibly evicted.  Another being people telling their experiences of forcibly being evicted. These experiences are heard by academics, political leaders, NGOs, media, government officials and the broader public.

ACHR will encourage groups to organize national assemblies in countries in the region. Another assembly will be held on a regional level.

 

3           
MEDIA CAMPAIGN


Media plays an important role in shaping people’s attitudes and creating culture. With the proliferation of commercial television, radio and newsprint in many countries, groups will be encouraged to make documentaries on forced evictions, radio programmes on the impacts evictions have on children, women, etc. Some local initiatives such as bringing journalists together in each country to visit evicted sites and communities to sensitize them on issues of forced evictions could be done. Bringing journalist together to share experiences on reporting forced evictions on a regional level in cooperation with other regional groups could also be organized.

4           
MEGA PROJECTS


Thousands are adversely affected by mega development projects such as rail, expressways, etc. Several cities such as Karachi, Manila, Jakarta, etc have developed good campaigns to stop these projects. In most, if not all these projects there is little or no consultations with the communities affected or even with the larger public. This activity will encourage groups to campaign and advocate “NO DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT CONSULTATION”. This activity will encourage local studies to document their various campaign experiences and bring them together in a publication or the website to share with other groups.

5           
MONITORING ADB AND WORLD BANK


Asian Development Bank and the World Bank funds a large number of development projects in the Asia Pacific Region.  Many of these projects have a direct adverse impact on human settlements, especially of the poor, violating their housing rights, even though both institutions have guidelines to ensure that people's rights are not violated. 

One of the outcomes of the July 2003 regional meeting on forced evictions in Asia was to monitor the ADB and World Bank's Projects and to lobby them to stop inappropriate projects that violate people's housing rights. In order to develop an effective lobbying strategy a good understanding of the dynamics of the ADB is needed. This includes ADB's procedures, guidelines and what groups can do to lobby the Banks to stop projects or include their concerns, and more importantly to be included in the decision making process of projects that effects their lives.

This activity will undertake a short study on this issue and publish in an easily readable form and circulate this to groups in the region. The main objectives will be to gain an understanding of the banks’ procedures of loans for infrastructure projects; their legal obligation to ensure that people’s rights are not infringed and examine strategies of lobbying the banks.

6           
LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN

ACHR has been involved in this campaign for many years and an impressive network has evolved with fact sheets on the proposed evictions and appeal for groups to send protest letters to the concerned government to stop the proposed eviction. In many instances this has had the desired impact of stopping evictions or at least alerting government’s that their action of forcibly evicting people is not going unnoticed by the international community.

Compiled by Kenneth Fernandes
from an ACHR meeting in Bangkok
11-12 March 2006  

 

ACHR's  

Newsletter  No 15

Housing By People
in Asia

48 pages of news

on how Asia's poor

are finding solutions to

threats of forced

 eviction

 

Eviction    Jakarta

Demolition  Karachi

 

Evictions in Beijing,  
China for the
2008 Olympic Games

 

Pasig River
Manila, Philippines
waterfront evictions

 

Publication

ACHR's

Eviction Watch  Asia