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Azerbaijan: Halt Illegal House Demolitions and Forced Evictions
Men walk past a construction site in downtown Baku. Many older buildings are being demolished to make way for modern high-rises (James Hill for The New York Times, 2011)
Baku City “Beautification” Program Tramples on Rights
The Azerbaijani authorities should immediately halt illegal expropriations, forcible evictions, and home demolitions in the capital, Baku, in the name of "beautification," Human Rights Watch said today. The government should compensate people already forced out of their homes, Human Rights Watch said.
Philadelphia, Green Party Candidate for Sheriff Pledges to Halt Evictions
Cheri Honkala, homeless advocate and Green Party candidate for Sheriff of Philadelphia, Pa., if elected pledges to halt home evictions and challenge the power of banks and for the development of community-based land trusts. There are over 40,000 vacant properties in Philadelphia, and community-based ownership of these properties offers the means to house people in need.
UK, Dale Farm traveller evictions 'may breach human rights'
Travellers and Romany people from across Europe have protested against the planned evictions
Basildon Council has given the 200 people living on 51 unauthorised pitches at Dale Farm, Essex, until the end of August to leave. The UN's Raquel Rolnik has now called on the UK government to find a peaceful solution to the matter.
UK urged to find negotiated settlement to eviction stand-off with 86 Irish Traveller families – UN experts
Two UN human rights experts* in the field of housing and minority issues called on the United Kingdom Government to find a peaceful and appropriate solution, and adequate alternative housing for 86 Irish Traveller families faced with forced eviction from Dale Farm, Essex, before the end of August.
LAOS: Villagers brace for relocation as dam project moves forward
Thai Villagers Protest Against Xayaburi Dam on Mekong River Opposite Mekong River Commission Secretariat
In June, a Lao official came to Pakmon and said any families who lived below 275m - the projected height of the dam's reservoir - would be forced to relocate. According to the US environmental group International Rivers, more than 2,100 people will be forcibly resettled and 200,000 people will be affected.
La Rapporteuse de L'ONU en Algérie pour une enquête sur le logement
Invitée par le gouvernement algérien, Raquel Rolnik, la rapporteuse spéciale des Nations unies sur le logement convenable se rendra en Algérie du 9 au 19 juillet prochain pour une visite de dix jours. Côté associations, la Rapporteuse devra rencontrer le Comité SOS expulsion, créé sous l’égide de la Ligue algérienne de la défense des droits de l’homme (Laddh)
New Satellite Pictures of China's Ghost Cities
China plans to build 20 cities a year for the next 20 years. The unacknowledged problem is finding buyers for those hundreds of millions of new homes.
"It's like walking into a forest of skyscrapers, but they're all empty," he said of Chenggong.
Record number of children displaced by West Bank demolitions
- UNRWA announces record high figures relating to West Bank demolitions
- Launches new web initiative to document demolitions
Video: Españistán, de la Burbuja Inmobiliaria a la Crisis
El fenómeno de la burbuja inmobiliaria es producto de una gran cantidad de factores políticos y sociales, nacionales e internacionales, que se suceden y se entrecruzan en una maraña harto compleja. Mi ánimo fue el ejercer de puente entre la información que publican los periódicos económicos y el ciudadano medio. Lo que intenté conseguir a toda costa fue ofrecer una visión de la década 1998-2008 que dejara claro que todos los sectores sociales del país tuvieron un papel fundamental en la inercia colectiva que nos llevó directos al desastre, aun cuando se podría haber evitado.
Haiti, Vows to Destroy All Refugee Camps, Launches Violent Campaign
Throughout the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince, police and bulldozers smashed earthquake survivors' tent homes and all their possessions (May 2011, Ben Depp, www.bendepp.com)
On May 23 and 25, police in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince destroyed camps which sheltered people who were otherwise homeless since the earthquake. Police and other municipal workers beat and arrested residents, and physically threatened the lives of a human rights lawyer and an advocate who had come to investigate. The mayor of Delmas announced that this is part of a new campaign to evict internally displaced persons [IDPs] from public spaces.But the protest over illegal evictions grows.