The New Agenda in Light of Human Rights and Habitat II Commitments: Advances and Setbacks
Side Events Venue: R3- Habitat International Coalition (HIC).
- Documentación Y Asesoría Poblacional (CIDAP); Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation Pour Le Progrès De L’Homme (FPH); Foro Permanente De La Vivienda (FOPEVI); Global Platform For The Right To The City (GPR2C); Habitat En Mouvement; Instituto Polis; Observatori DESC (ODESC); Red Nacional De Asentamientos Humanos (RENASEH); Rooftops Canada; Somos Ecuador; SUR Corporación De Estudios Sociales Y Educación; Soluciones Prácticas (Practical Action); United Cities And Local Governments – Committee On Social Inclusion,
- Participatory Democracy And Human Rights (UCLG-CISDP); N’UNDO,
- The Bartlett Development Planning Unit,
- University College London (DPU UCL); Centro De Estudios Y Promoción Del Desarrollo (DESCO); Centro De Investigación.
Cross-sector dialogue of CSOs, international networks, local government networks, donor agencies, UN’s officials and government representatives to discuss human
rights and the legacy of Habitat II as an essential component of the Habitat III process and the new agenda. Habitat International Coalition (HIC) and its civil society Members and allies have expressed deep concerns and high expectations in this Habitat Conference. HIC have always called for the integrity of the Habitat II (1996) commitments and modalities during the process toward Habitat III. These demand preserving three basic principles:
-Processes must uphold the Habitat II
-established principle to be as inclusive as possible;
-Maintain the Habitat Agenda, not pose a narrower and more
-divisive "urban agenda”;
-The human rights and good governance approaches must continue to anchor and guide global human settlement policy and corresponding commitments.
Habitat III is designed to convene global actors to discuss and chart new pathways to ensure equity, resilience, sustainability, social justice and respect for the environment in human settlements. However, and as in all serial UN policy conferences, we now face the real hazard that the standard will be inferior to the one before. To avoid this, the Habitat II commitments should be critically reviewed and most of them form the foundation of the eventual Habitat III's pillars. On the other hand, it is essential to tackle the negative aspects of the urbanization process which have grown dramatically in the last 40 years: private interests regulating the price and the access to land; increasing commodification of housing and land; people forced to move to cities; and unsolvable homelessness and housing problems both in rural and urban areas, exacerbated by climate change and combined with thousands of evictions and displacements in the name of risk reduction measures, among other challenges.