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OECD Calls for Privatizing Tunisia’s Water |
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By: HIC-HLRN |
| 27 October 2014 |
Overcoming the Challenges to Private Sector Participation A new report diagnoses of the OECD addresses the main governance and financing challenges to management of the water supply and wastewater sector of Tunisia, and provides ways forward to address them through “private-sector participation” (PSP). Although OECD admits that the performance of
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The Right to the City: Jerusalem |
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By: Joseph Schechla |
| 26 October 2014 |
HIC-HLRN has produced a new report from an ongoing study on the prospects of realizing the principles of the “right to the city” for specific cities in several regions.
This report finds that applying the "right to the city" in Jerusalem challenges the current governance grounded in discrimination against, and dispossession of
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SR`s Survey: Housing and Local Authorities |
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By: Leilani Farha/OHCHR |
| 23 October 2014 |
Responsibilities of sub-national governments with respect to the right to adequate housing
Introduction
In her first report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Ms Leilani Farha, outlines some of the priority themes for her mandate (A/69/274).
Among others, she identifies the important role of governments at the sub-national level
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3D-printed Postdisaster Homes |
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By: Rosanne Roobeek, Al Jazeera |
| 23 October 2014 |
Amsterdam—Architects in Amsterdam are building a 3D-printed house, an effort some say could soon transform disaster reconstruction and help the homeless around the world as the technology becomes increasingly more affordable.
The idea behind the project, according to the architects, was to develop ways to build homes in a faster and
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SR on Water Condemns Discrimination against Poor |
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By: OHCHR Statement |
| 20 October 2014 |
DETROIT / NEW YORK (Issued as received) – The unprecedented scale of water shut-offs taking place in Detroit is disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable and poorest, most of whom are African American, two United Nations human rights experts have warned today. So far this year over 27,000 residences have had
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Protests Disrupt London Property Fair |
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By: Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian |
| 15 October 2014 |
London—It was billed as the ultimate “property marketplace”, a high-profile networking event for investors, developers and local authorities to broker big deals, but the first day of the Mipim conference in Olympia, west London ended in a police lockdown. Protesters forced organisers to close the gates and one conference delegate
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The Struggle over World Bank Safeguards |
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By: HIC-HLRN |
| 14 October 2014 |
The World Bank’s “consultation” with global civil society on the proposed new safeguard policies in lending and project implementation took place in Washington DC on 11 October 2014. The proceedings of the session reflect wide skepticism about the avowed improvements in World Bank performance sought in the current draft policies.
The
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Disappointing ICN2 Outcomes |
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By: |
| 14 October 2014 |
Governments met in the FAO Headquarters in Rome from 10-12 October to finalize the Rome Political Declaration and the Framework for Action for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2). After 22 years, civil society organizations (CSOs) were expecting significant progress to address the urgent problem of the more than
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USA: Home Is Where Car Is |
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By: Dina Demetrius and Michael Okwu, America Tonight/Al Jazeera |
| 10 October 2014 |
SANTA BARBARA CA—For four years, the only life Paula Corb and her two daughters have known is the one inside their 2000 Mazda minivan, stopping once in a while for take-out, groceries and gas.
Corb and the girls Alice and Emily are among 214,000 "unsheltered" homeless people in America, meaning they
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How World`s Poor Farmers Subsidise TNCs |
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By: Vandana Shiva, EcoWatch |
| 09 October 2014 |
The conflict between “free trade” and food rights came to the fore again at the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in September, when India did not back down from its stance that a permanent solution be found for food security issues before signing the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
The TFA is
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Twiga Farm: Story of a Kenyan Land Grab |
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By: Leila van Rinsum, Pambazuka News |
| 08 October 2014 |
Landless citizens of a location just outside Nairobi have been fighting for their rights to land since Kenya’s independence 50 years ago. Successive governments – including those of two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and his son Uhuru, who come from the area – have failed to give these people justice.
On Tuesday,
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New Report from HLRN`s Violation Database |
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By: HIC-HLRN |
| 06 October 2014 |
For your Habitat October reading, please find here HIC-HLRN’s World Habitat Day 2014 report: Bearing Witness to Forced Evictions: Habitat II’s Broken Promise, Habitat III’s Missing Link.
This year, the HLRN report from its Violation Database (VDB) addresses the Habitat III process and the ongoing preparations for the 2016 world
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Haj 2014: Mecca’s Transformation |
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By: Various |
| 04 October 2014 |
For a slide show of the changes to the City of Mecca since the 1950s, and prospects for future transformation, see Haj 2014: How Mecca has changed over the years
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The State of Land Grabs in Africa |
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By: Alexander Reid Ross, Counterpunch.org |
| 03 October 2014 |
What’s the Matter with the Global Financial System?
As torrential water cannons, stones, and tear gas canisters pounded the thousands of protestors gathered outside, the European Central Bank managers met in the sumptuous Museo di Capodimonte yesterday to discuss the future of the faltering Eurozone. Only about two miles from the
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O, Canada: Only State to “Veto” Indigenous Rights |
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By: The Huffington Post |
| 02 October 2014 |
Prime Minister Stephen Harper listens to speeches at the Canada-European Union Summit in Toronto on 26 Sept. Days before, the prime minister was in New York City attending UN climate summit events. | CP
Canada singled itself out as the only country to raise objections over a landmark United Nations document
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South Africa: Shack Dwellers Leader Murdered |
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By: Abahlali baseMjondolo |
| 30 September 2014 |
Between half past six and seven last night, an armed man burst into Thuli Ndlovu’s home in KwaNdengezi, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, while she was watching TV. He shot her seven times and she died on the scene. Ndlovu was the Chairperson in KwaNdengezi of Abahlali Basemjondolo kwaNdengezi, South Africa’s movement
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USA: Detroit Foreclosures Could Displace 20K |
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By: Michele Oberholtzer, Critical Moment |
| 30 September 2014 |
On Monday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes made a landmark decision to authorize continued water shutoffs for unpaid water bills, leaving thousands of Detroiters without access to water. At the same time, and less reported on, some 20,000 Detroit residents stand to lose another basic human right — their housing
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World Bank Self-indictment in Kenya Forest |
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By: John Vidal, The Guardian |
| 29 September 2014 |
A leaked copy of a World Bank investigation seen by the Guardian has accused the bank of failing to protect the rights of one of Kenya’s last groups of forest people, who are being evicted from ancestral lands in the name of climate change and conservation.
Thousands of homes belonging to
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Kenya: Implementing 2010 Endorois Ruling |
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By: Minority Rights Group |
| 29 September 2014 |
Minority Rights Group International (MRG) welcomes the formation by the Government of Kenya of a new task force dedicated to implementation of the 2010 African Commission ruling which recognised the Endorois` rights over their ancestral land in and around Lake Bogoria in Kenya`s Rift Valley.
The task force will be
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China`s Brutal Urbanization (dossier) |
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By: HIC-HLRN/The New York Times |
| 28 September 2014 |
China already has built a reputation for dispossessing its farming rural population and forcing them into cities. Over the last two decades of the previous century, China urbanized some 40 million people in this way.[1]
This form of urban social engineering actually has caused the loss of assets, livelihoods, cultural endowment
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