News (55)
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Land Times No. 21 |
By :HIC-HLRN |
12 December 2020 |
What better way to commemorate World Human Rights Day than with HIC’s Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN) Land Times? Today’s 21st issue reports on the role of civil society resisting the COVID-19 crisis and supporting the subsistence of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities often targeted with violations of More...
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India: Farmers Protest, Support Political Prisoners |
By :Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta, The Wire |
11 December 2020 |
`It`s Time We Speak up For Each Other`: Farmers` Group Supports Political Prisoners
"We are confronting a prime minister who is behaving like an exploitative king. All these activists and intellectuals have been arrested on false charges merely because they highlighted the plight of the poor," said the head of BKU More...
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India: Farmers March against Agriculture Laws |
By :Hannah Ellis-Petersen The Guardian South Asia correspondent |
30 November 2020 |
Indian farmers march on Delhi in protest against agriculture laws
More than 300,000 farmers head to capital for ‘decisive battle’ with government
Hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers have marched upon Delhi and set up vast camps blocking entry to the city in protest at agriculture laws they say will destroy livelihoods.
More More...
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Zimbabwe: Land, Food and Shelter Now (ZPLRM) |
By :ZPLRM |
27 October 2020 |
Zimbabwe People`s Land Rights Movement (ZPLRM): Land, Food, and Shelter Now
Statement from HIC member, the Zimbabwe People`s Land Rights Movement (ZPLRM), on defending land rights in Zimbabwe’s rural resettlement communities.
Hunger and conflict are the face of the African continent. But it was not always so.
It was the formation of the More...
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UN: Battle over Water Privatization Report |
By :Rebecca Root, devex |
26 October 2020 |
ALICANTE, Spain—Last week, U.N. Special Rapporteur On The Human Rights To Safe Drinking Water And Sanitation Léo Heller presented a report on privatization in the water and sanitation sector to the United Nations.
Little was mentioned, however, of the behind-the-scenes controversy leading up to it, including a vicious clash between pro- and anti-private sector advocates, accusations More...
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UN: Battle over Water Privatization Report |
By :Rebecca Root, devex |
26 October 2020 |
ALICANTE, Spain—Last week, U.N. Special Rapporteur On The Human Rights To Safe Drinking Water And Sanitation Léo Heller presented a report on privatization in the water and sanitation sector to the United Nations.
Little was mentioned, however, of the behind-the-scenes controversy leading up to it, including a vicious clash between pro- and anti-private sector advocates, accusations More...
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COVID Could Add 150mil Extreme Poor by 2021 |
By :World Bank |
07 October 2020 |
COVID-19 to Add as Many as 150 Million Extreme Poor by 2021
Decades of progress have gone into reverse; ‘the worst setback that we’ve witnessed in a generation’. Eight out of 10 ‘new poor’ will be in middle-income countries
WASHINGTON— Global extreme poverty is expected to rise in 2020 for the first More...
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USA: CSOs Urge Senate Reject SCotUS Pick |
By :Over 150 organizations |
06 October 2020 |
Following the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court, over 150 justice organizations and movements, including advocates for the homeless and defenders of the human right to adequate housing, issued a letter urging the Senate to oppose her confirmation. While the nomination raises a broad More...
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New from HIC-HLRN: “A Pandemic of Violations” |
By :HIC-HLRN |
05 October 2020 |
On the occasion of World Habitat Day (5 October 2020) and “Urban October,” HIC-HLRN has produced its annual report from the HLRN Violation Database.
This year’s review of patterns and trends in housing and land rights violation around the world is dedicated to the theme: A Pandemic of Violations: Forced Evictions More...
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New from HIC-HLRN: "A Pandemic of Violations" |
By :HIC-HLRN |
05 October 2020 |
On the occasion of World Habitat Day (5 October 2020) and “Urban October,” HIC-HLRN has produced its annual report from the HLRN Violation Database.
This year’s review of patterns and trends in housing and land rights violation around the world is dedicated to the theme: A Pandemic of Violations: Forced Evictions More...
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500K Rural Tibetans Sent to Labor Camps in 2020 |
By :Helen Davidson, The Guardian and agencies |
23 September 2020 |
In 2019 and 2020, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) introduced new policies to promote the systematic, centralized, and large-scale training and transfer of “rural surplus laborers” to other parts of the TAR, as well as to other provinces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In the first 7 months More...
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Zimbabwe: Evicted Villagers’ Living Hell |
By :Tatenda Chitagu, The Standard |
22 September 2020 |
Evicted Lowveld villagers endure two months of hell
By the roadside in the scorching Lowveld heat, a group of women and children sit under a tree, their few belongings scattered all over the place.
Two women have just finished preparing a very small meal of sadza and cow peas, hardly enough to More...
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CSOs Urge UNGA to End Apartheid in Palestine |
22 September 2020 |
Global Response to Israeli Apartheid: A Call to the UNGA
Apartheid is a crime against humanity, giving rise to individual criminal responsibility and State responsibility to bring the illegal situation to an end. In May 2020, a large number of Palestinian civil society organisations called on all States to adopt “effective countermeasures, More...
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Innovations in Land Administration |
By :Zoe Tabary, Thomas Reuter Foundation |
18 September 2020 |
From Indonesia to Puerto Rico, communities are using open source tools to help contain the coronavirus by mapping handwashing stations and those at risk.
The pandemic has underlined the importance of maps, that remain inaccurate and incomplete in many parts of the world, leaving more than one billion people “invisible,” activists More...
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Greece: Moria Camp Blaze, 13K Homeless |
By :Jean Mackenzie, BBC News |
10 September 2020 |
Moria migrants: Fire destroys Greek camp leaving 13,000 without shelter
The BBC`s Jean Mackenzie spent time speaking to people at the camp just six months ago and reflects on her experiences there
Fires have destroyed Greece`s largest migrant camp, an overcrowded facility on the island of Lesbos, leaving nearly 13,000 people without More...
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Guatemala: Denouncing Land Defender Murders |
By :HIC-HLRN |
09 September 2020 |
So far in 2020, four farmer leaders have been murdered, and another one is missing. The organization also denounced the extrajudicial eviction of indigenous communities.
Guatemala`s government withdrew several institutions that enforced and veiled over land rights, such as the Secretariat for Agrarian Affairs (SAA), the Presidential Commission for the Coordination More...
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Indonesia: Mapping Policy Losses |
By :A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil, Jakarta Post |
04 September 2020 |
Concerns of transparency, inclusivity raised as One Map nears completion
Jakarta—Indonesia`s highly anticipated One Map Policy is inching toward completion with most datasets successfully compiled by the government, but observers are wary of the project`s lack of transparency and inclusiveness and whether the rights of indigenous communities are honored.
Initiated in More...
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Court to Cape Town: “redress apartheid legacy” |
By :Murray Williams, news24 |
31 August 2020 |
High Court sets aside R135m Sea Point school sale, frees land to address apartheid legacy
· The Tafelberg school property case has been running for five years.
· Finally, the High Court has ruled, upholding the legal challenge by two not-for-profit organisations.
· The sale of the land has now been reversed – much to More...
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
By :Al Haq |
24 August 2020 |
Al-Haq International Law School Program, 12–22 October 2020
The Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Sixth International Law Summer School Program for professionals, legal researchers, post-graduates and academics in the fields of international law and human rights.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainty around international More...
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
By :Al Haq |
24 August 2020 |
Al-Haq International Law School Program, 12–22 October 2020
The Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Sixth International Law Summer School Program for professionals, legal researchers, post-graduates and academics in the fields of international law and human rights.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainty around international More...
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Indonesia: Indigenous Timor Families Evicted |
By :Ryan Dagur, Union of Catholic Asian News |
18 August 2020 |
Evicted Indonesian families vow to stay put
Dozens of people in Catholic-majority province left homeless as land dispute turns violent
Defiant members of an indigenous community in Indonesia have vowed to stay put after security forces fired tear gas and demolished their homes on Aug. 18 in a bid to More...
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Land Times issue 20 |
By :HIC-HLRN |
08 August 2020 |
HIC’s Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN) welcomes you to its 20th issue of Land Times. This milestone edition emphasizes the role of civil society in identifying and remedying housing and land rights problems in the context of a global pandemic.
Amid this protracted crisis, events and developments in the Middle More...
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Brazil: Resisting Pandemic Repossessions |
By :Alexander Putti, CartaCapital |
06 August 2020 |
On Monday, 10 August, representatives of urban and rural popular movements and parliamentary fronts for urban reform and human rights met virtually with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, to ask for the vote on the bills 1975/2020 and 827/2020 that suspend the removal and reintegration actions More...
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Kashmir: Prolonged Settler Colonialism |
By :Samreen Mushtaq and Mudasir Amin/The Polis Project |
27 July 2020 |
India’s settler colonialism in Kashmir is not starting now, eliminating the natives is a process long underway
From controlling space to regulating movement, from land holdings to resource extraction, from neoliberal policies converging with colonial aims to memory erasures and intensive surveillance, the Indian state has been at it for long. More...
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Palestine/Israel: JNF Trees Dispossess Bedouin |
By :Zafrir Rinat and Almog Ben Zikri, Haaretz |
14 July 2020 |
Israel pushing large tree planting in Naqab to disclaim lands to Bedouin
Israel is pushing through a plan to plant trees across a significant swath of the Negev in a bid to deny Bedouin residents from accessing the lands.
The plan is described as “agricultural planting” but local activists and human More...
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A Chinese Province Razes Its Countryside |
By :Alexander Boyd, SupChina |
10 July 2020 |
A Chinese province razes the countryside. Why?
How are Shandong villagers being convinced to go along with a provincial plan to raze their homes and move them into high-rises? With promises of economic benefits in the future, and if that doesn’t work, with coercion and threats.
Since March, the provincial government More...
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USA: Evictions Soon to Hit Black Renters Hardest |
By :Renae Merle, The Washington Post |
06 July 2020 |
Evictions are likely to skyrocket this summer as jobs remain scarce. Black renters will be hard hit
Eviction moratoriums and unemployment benefits are expiring, which will have a bigger effect on minority neighborhoods, experts say.
A backlog of eviction cases is beginning to move through the court system as millions of Americans More...
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USA: Coronavirus Evictions |
By :John Oliver, HBO |
02 July 2020 |
With evictions on the rise due to COVID-19, comedic actor and TV host John Oliver uses irony to discuss the long struggle to obtain and sustain adequate housing in the United States, why it’s gotten worse in recent months and how to prevent an impending crisis.
View the broadcast on YouTube: More...
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South Africa: Relocation Again in Alexandra TS |
By :Dennis Webster, New Frame |
29 June 2020 |
Relocation rears its head: Bringing de-densification home in Alexandra
The American poet GC Waldrep recently described gravity as “a debt … incurred by God”. In the Stjwetla shack settlement in Alexandra, Johannesburg, gravity is God-sent. Built around a series of small rivulets that flow down the western bank of the Jukskei River in the More...
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USA: A Coming ‘Avalanche of Evictions’ |
By :Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times |
27 May 2020 |
An ‘Avalanche of Evictions’ Could Be Bearing Down on America’s Renters [i.e., in USA]
The economic downturn is shaping up to be particularly devastating for renters, who are more likely to be lower-income and work hourly jobs cut during the pandemic.
EUCLID, Ohio — The United States, already wrestling with an economic More...
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Kenya: Ruai Evictions, Why Now? |
By :Ruai News |
21 May 2020 |
Ruai Evictions : Is This Why Government Had To Do It Before September?
Renowned political commentator Allan Kibet has come out to claim that President Uhuru Kenyatta forcefully evicted the residents of Ruai and Kariobangi from the ` public` land so as to commence the construction of Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement More...
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USA: The Coming Eviction Crisis |
By :Megh Wright, New York magazine |
18 May 2020 |
Patriot Act Returns to Terrify You About an Eviction Crisis
Hasan Minhaj’s Netflix series, Patriot Act, returned last night with its first new episode since the pandemic began, and Minhaj wasted no time addressing the show’s new remote format: “Don’t think of this as a Netflix show compromising. Think of this as a YouTube video overachieving.” More...
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USA: Which States Protect from Eviction? |
By :Dan Keating and Lauren Tierney, The Washington Post |
29 April 2020 |
Which states are doing a better job protecting renters from being evicted during the coronavirus pandemic
For millions of renters who have lost income, rent day on May 1 is a looming disaster.
A majority of the country’s 43.8 million renting households have lost at least some of their income in the coronavirus shutdown, More...
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Evicted Indigenous People in Manaus |
By :Ignacio Amigo, Mongabay |
29 April 2020 |
Evicted indigenous people in Manaus struggle to stay safe amid COVID-19 crisis
A group of about 400 indigenous people were displaced from an informal settlement on the outskirts of Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon in February, reportedly in connection with drug trafficking issues in the area, despite previous promises to regularize More...
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Kashmir: Broken Supply Chains |
By :Nazir Masoodi, NDTV |
27 April 2020 |
Amid Lockdown, 3 Million Cartons Of Apples Lying In Kashmir Cold Storage
Kashmir produces 22 lakh (2,200,000) metric ton of apple every year which is over 70 per cent of the country`s total production.
SRINAGAR—The nationwide coronavirus lockdown has badly hit apple farmers in Jammu and Kashmir. As the farmers are not More...
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One Species Responsible for COVID-19 - Us |
By :Josef Settele, Sandra Díaz, Eduardo Brondizio[1] and Peter Daszak[2] |
27 April 2020 |
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
COVID-19 stimulus measures must save lives, protect livelihoods, and safeguard nature to reduce the risk of future pandemics
There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic - us. As with the climate and biodiversity crises, recent pandemics are More...
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South Africa: Hsg Crisis, Eviction amid Lockdown |
By :Kim Harrisberg, Thomon Reuters Foundation |
24 April 2020 |
Evictions, power cuts heighten South Africa housing crisis amid lockdown
JOHANNESBURG—From demolished shacks to water and electricity shutoffs, South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown is worsening the country’s housing crisis, despite government orders to suspend evictions, residents and activists warned.
With many unable to work or pay rent since stay-at-home orders went into effect More...
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Guatemala: Evicting Maya Q’eqchi` amid COVID-19 |
By :Minority Rights Group International |
21 April 2020 |
Violent attempt to evict Maya Q’eqchi villagers despite COVID-19 crisis in Guatemala
On 13 April 2020, private security forces suspected of working for Industria Chiquibul, S.A., an agribusiness engaged in the harvesting and extraction of palm oil, attempted to evict 200 indigenous peasant families from their homes in Tierra Blanca, municipality More...
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Palestine/Israel: CSOs Urge Prisoners’ Release |
By :Civil society organizations |
18 April 2020 |
On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Civil Society Calls for Urgent Release of Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Prisons
As we mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day this year, Palestinian prisoners and detainees face the additional threat of a coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Israeli prisons and detention centers. While governments around the world are More...
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Call to Protect Dalit Rights during Pandemic |
By :International Alliance for Social Justice |
16 April 2020 |
Global Call for Protecting Dalit Rights During COVID-19 Pandemic
We, the global alliance of Dalit organizations, strongly urge the Member-States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), United Nations, civil society, and donor agencies to provide immediate relief to poor Dalits and protect their basic human rights during More...
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COVID-19: Solidarity with Food Producers |
By :HIC-HLRN, IPC |
07 April 2020 |
The COVID19 crisis is rapidly expanding and deepening, highlighting and exacerbating existing inequalities including wealth, health, race and gender. In many countries it will develop into a deep social and economic crisis where the most vulnerable will again suffer the most – with no access to healthcare, losing their jobs More...
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Kashmir: Indian Residency Law Triggers Fury |
By :Deutsche Welle |
04 April 2020 |
New Delhi has announced a controversial new domicile law for the highly disputed Himalayan region. Experts and rights activists warn the move could renew tensions in the already restive Muslim-majority territory.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s Hindu nationalist government has introduced a new set of laws for India-administered Kashmir, including a controversial More...
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South Africa: Evictions Despite Moratorium |
By :Abahlali baseMjondolo |
29 March 2020 |
Evictions continue in Durban despite the national moratorium
The national government made a clear promise that there would be no evictions during the national shutdown implemented to slow the spread of the coronavirus. However, today, at around 12:30, Calvin Security returned to the Ekuphumeleleni settlement in Mariannhill, which falls under More...
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India: Migrants Marched Further to Margins |
By :Aajeevika Bureau |
29 March 2020 |
How the Lockdown Drove a Workforce on the Margins to Further Alienation
An incisive report highlights how a substantial workforce of 139 million internal migrant workers, invisible to the system, has been the hardest hit post-lockdown. Further, it lists the urgent measures needed to ensure a safe and dignified existence for More...
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UN Invites Corporate Capture of Food Systems |
By :HIC-HLRN |
23 March 2020 |
The UN has increasingly involved corporations in UN decision making, a trend made obvious in the 2012 Rio+20 Conference. This time, the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) has formed an alliance with the corporate world—outside of the framework of UN Charter-based specialized agencies—to set the global agenda for further corporate capture of More...
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South Africa: Call for Solidarity amid Crisis |
By :Abahlali baseMjondolo |
22 March 2020 |
Coronavirus: A Call for Solidarity in a Time of Crisis
Abahlali baseMjondolo has held small meetings with elected leaders in all the provinces where we have members to discuss the coronavirus crisis. The best available scientific information has been shared with our members. We have decided to suspend our entire programme More...
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COVID-19: We Need a Human Rights Habitat |
By :HIC-HLRN |
17 March 2020 |
In the current COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has advised and responsible governments have enforced that we stay at home stay, frequently wash our hands often with soap and warm water, maintain social distancing and keep our immune system strong, these live-saving measures are impossible for vulnerable people More...
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Indonesia: Taman Sari`s Eviction |
19 February 2020 |
Taman Sari`s evicted residents pursue alternative avenues after court loss
BANDUNG –Residents who were evicted from Taman Sari subdistrict in Bandung, West Java, have filed more than 100 complaints to the government’s online public-service complaint system to step up their fight against their eviction.
Twenty residents submitted around 120 reports regarding More...
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HIC-HLRN: New Ways to Work with UN Habitat |
By :HIC-HLRN |
09 February 2020 |
ABU DHABI—At a networking event in the 10th World Urban Forum (WUF) to consider a new UN Habitat “Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism for Sustainable Development,” HIC-HLRN presented its contribution to the current discussion about the eventual methods and functions of UN Habitat’s partnership with civil society, local governments and authorities, and More...
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Brazil: President Opens Indigenous Land to Mining |
By :Amazon Watch |
06 February 2020 |
Illegal Bill to Permit Mining on Indigenous Territories Proposed by Bolsonaro to Brazil`s Congress
Yesterday, marking his 400th day in office, Brazil`s extreme-right President Jair Bolsonaro proposed new legislation that would permit industrial mining, oil and gas projects, and hydroelectric dams on protected indigenous lands. The bill – which brazenly violates Brazil`s constitution More...
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Wealth Inequality, not Over-population Causes Climate Crisis |
By :The Conversation |
28 January 2020 |
Stop blaming population growth for climate change. The real culprit is wealth inequality. Consumption by the world’s richest 10% makes up half of the planet’s consumption-based CO₂ emissions. Why we should be wary of blaming ‘overpopulation’ for the climate crisis
The annual World Economic Forum in Davos brought together representatives from government and More...
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20 Firms Emit a Third of All Carbon |
By :Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts, The Guardian |
09 October 2019 |
New data show how fossil fuel companies have driven climate crisis despite industry knowing dangers
The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern More...
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We`re Celebrating 70th Human Rights Day |
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 More...
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USA: Rep. Bill to Make Disabled Homeless |
By :Updated by Dylan Matthews, Vox |
22 June 2017 |
These are all the people the Senate health care bill will hurt
The actual policies contained in the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the Senate Republican plan introduced on Thursday to repeal and replace Obamacare, would help some Americans a lot. The biggest winners are households making $250,000 a year or more, More...
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Brazil: Water Privatisation Imposed for Games |
By :Corporate Europe Observatory |
14 July 2016 |
Brazil’s new government imposes Rio water privatisation to pay for Olympic Games
A few weeks after the May coup against Dilma Rousseff by conservative parties backed by the country`s largest corporations, Brazil`s “interim” government, led by Michel Temer, signed an emergency loan to the State of Rio de Janeiro to help More...
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