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Successes Strategies: Responses to Forced Evictions

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Successes Strategies: Responses to Forced Evictions SUccesses STRATEGIes: responses to forced evictions COHRE 2 0 0 8 Research and publication of this report was supported by Cordaid SUccesses STRATEGIes: responses to forced evictions COHRE 2 0 0 8 ii Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions Centre on Housing Rights & COHRE Global Forced Evictions Evictions (COHRE) Programme (GFEP) COHRE International Secretariat (Postal address) PMB CT 402, 83 Rue de Montbrillant Cantonments, 1202 Geneva Accra SWITZERLAND (visitors address) No. 17 Fifth tel.: +41.22.7341028 Crescent Street fax: +41.22.7338336 Asylum Down e-mail: [email protected] Accra web: www.cohre.org GHANA tel.: +233.21.238821 COHRE Women & Housing Rights fax: +233.21.231688 Programme (WHRP) e-mail: [email protected] 8 N. 2nd Avenue East Suite 208 COHRE Americas Programme (CAP) Duluth, MN 55802 Rua Jeronimo Coelho 102, Sala 21 USA Porto Alegre, CEP 90010-240 tel./fax: +1.218.7331370 BRAZIL e-mail: [email protected] tel./fax: +55.51.32121904 e-mail: [email protected] COHRE ESC Rights Litigation Programme (LP) CAP - US Office 8 N. 2nd Avenue East 8 N. 2nd Avenue East Suite 208 Suite 208 Duluth, MN 55802 Duluth, MN 55802 USA USA tel./fax: +1.218.7331370 tel./fax: +1.218.7331370 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] COHRE Right to Water Programme COHRE Asia & Pacific Programme (RWP) (CAPP) 83 Rue de Montbrillant (Postal address) P O Box 2061 1202 Geneva Phnom Penh 3 SWITZERLAND (visitors address) No. 9A, Street 420 tel.: +41.22.7341028 Sangkat Boeung Tra Beak, fax: +41.22.7338336 Chamkarmon e-mail: [email protected] Phnom Penh CAMBODIA tel.: +61.3.94177505 fax: +61.3.94162746 e-mail: [email protected] Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions iii CAPP - Sri Lanka Office COHRE Africa Programme 106 1/1 Horton Palce (Postal address) PMB CT 402, Colombo Cantonments SRI LANKA Accra tel: +94.11.269.3143 (visitors address) No. 17 Fifth e-mail: [email protected] Crescent Street Asylum Down Accra GHANA tel.: +233.21.238821 fax: +233.21.231688 e-mail: [email protected] © Copyright 2008 The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Geneva, Switzerland Successes and Strategies: Responses to Forced Evictions ISBN: 978-92-95004-53-5 All rights reserved The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions is registered in Brazil, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the US as a not-for-profit organisation. Copies are available from COHRE International Secretariat (see contact info. above) Prepared by: Richard Pithouse, COHRE Global Forced Evictions Programme Graphic design and Print: Wits Associates - Sri Lanka iv Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Defining forced evictions and security of tenure 2 1.2 Key causes of forced evictions 2 1.3 The cost of forced evictions 3 1.4 Forced evictions and international law 5 1.5 The scale of the problem 9 1.6 Resisting forced evictions 9 1.7 Housing crisis in the cities 10 1.8 The crisis in rural communities 14 1.9 Key solutions for avoiding forced evictions 15 1.9.1 Legislation and policy 15 1.9.2 Providing housing to the poor 16 1.9.3 Community organisation and NGO strategies 16 1.9.4 Land sharing 17 1.9.5 Invoking international and regional legal remedies 17 1.10 This report 18 vi Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions 2 HALTING EVICTIONS 21 2.1 Colombo. Sri Lanka 21 2.1.1 General background 21 2.1.2 Tamils evicted in Colombo 23 2.1.3 Responses 24 2.1.4 Results 28 2.2 Motala Heights, Durban. South Africa 29 2.2.1 General background 29 2.2.2 Threatened evictions in Motala Heights 33 2.2.3 Responses 36 2.2.4 Results 43 2.3 Vila União, Municipality of Almirante Tamandaré. Brazil 43 2.3.1 General background 43 2.3.2 Threatened evictions in Vila União 50 2.3.3 Responses 51 2.3.4 Results 51 2.4 General lessons 52 2.4.1 Media support 52 2.4.2 Litigation 53 2.4.3 Expropriation of land 54 Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions vii 3 COMMUNITY-DEVELOPED ALTERNATIVES TO FORCED EVICTION 57 3.1 Pom Mahakan. Thailand 57 3.1.1 General background 57 3.1.2 Responses 58 3.1.3 Results 63 3.2 Group 78, Bassac. Cambodia 64 3.2.1 General background 64 3.2.2 Responses 70 3.2.3 Results 73 3.3 General lessons 75 3.3.1 Counter proposals 75 3.3.2 A multi-pronged approach 77 4 NATURE RESERVES AND PEOPLE 79 4.1 Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Botswana 79 4.1.1 General background 79 4.1.2 Responses 82 4.1.3 Results 85 4.2 Makuleke. South Africa 88 4.2.1 General background 88 4.2.2 Responses 89 viii Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions 4.3 General lessons 95 4.3.1 Need for a paradigm shift 96 4.3.2 Lacking political will 98 4.3.3 NGO support 98 5 PREVENTION: URBAN PLANNING WITH COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT 101 5.1 Máximo Tajes. Uruguay 101 5.1.1 General background 101 5.1.2 Responses 102 5.1.3 Results 104 5.2 Naga City. Philippines 105 5.2.1 General background 105 5.2.2 Response 106 5.2.3 Results 113 5.3 General lessons 115 5.3.1 Innovative win-win solutions 116 5.3.2 Popular organisations and popular participation 117 in decision making ix AcKNOWLEDGEMENTS The principle author of this report was Richard Pithouse, a COHRE consultant with the Africa Programme. Deanna Fowler and Malavika Vartak of COHRE’s Global Forced Evictions Programme (GFEP) contributed to the writing of the report. Thanks to Natalie Bugalski of COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme and Daniel King of the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) for information on Group 78; Leticia Osorio and Ignacio Lorezo of COHRE Americas Programme for information on Máximo Tajes; Vinicius Gessolo from NGO Terra de Direitos (Land of Rights) for Vila Uniao; Nilanka Nanayakkara for information on the Colombo case study; and Kate Tissington of GFEP for information on Botswana and Makuleke. Thanks to Robert Furlong for editing this report, and to Hannah Neumeyer of COHRE Asia Pacific Programme for kindly assisting with final proof reading and layout. x Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions 1 1 INTroDUCTION The forced eviction of individuals and communities from their homes and lands is a growing global phenomenon affecting millions of people in both rural and urban areas. In a majority of cases, it is the poor and other oppressed groups that are forced to give up their homes and lands and thus pay the price for development strategies that rarely benefit them. Forced evictions are therefore not only profoundly unjust and illegal, but are also counterproductive to human development. There is, however, a growing wealth of positive innovations in the work of community organisations, social movements, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and local governments where forced evictions are being averted and viable alternatives are being developed. This report aims to draw on that wealth of experience to create a useful resource for people – be they in government, NGOs, community organisations, or social movements – wanting concrete information about how forced evictions can be avoided and security of tenure achieved. The report explains and briefly assesses nine case studies from eight countries in order to provide a variety of recent examples of successful strategies developed by a range of social actors in different circumstances. Successes and Strategies: responses to forced evictions 1.1 Defining forced evictions and security of tenure The term ‘forced evictions,’ as defined in General Comment No. 7 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is “the permanent or temporary removal of individuals, families and/or communities against their will from the homes and/or land that they occupy, without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.”1 Therefore, any action that results in the removal of people from their homes or land against their will, without adequate notice, access to legal remedy, and adequate compensation or rehabilitation, is considered a forced eviction. Forced evictions are most common, but not limited to, situations where dwellers do not enjoy security of tenure. Security of tenure can be defined as freedom from fear of forced eviction. Security of tenure is not restricted to ownership but includes full legal protection against arbitrary eviction for all occupiers, including tenants. It is best guaranteed via specific legislative interventions but also by policy decisions against forced evictions. The declaration of moratoriums on forced evictions or the declaration of areas as ‘eviction-free zones’ can be effective in granting security of tenure. 1.2 Key causes of forced evictions Forced evictions are a result of a variety of processes that disadvantage certain sections of society. Research by COHRE around the world has revealed the following causes of forced evictions to be the most common: • tenure insecurity/absence of formal tenure rights; • authoritarian top-down planning; 1 ‘General Comment 7: The right to adequate housing (art. 11 (i) of the Covenant): Forced Evictions’, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1997, available at: http:// www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(symbol)/CESCR+General+Comment+7.En?OpenDocument, last accessed 1 December 2008. Introduction • development and infrastructure projects; • large international events, such as major sporting events, conferences, etc.; • urban redevelopment and ‘beautification’ initiatives; • property market forces and ‘gentrification’; • absence of State support for the poor; • political conflict, ethnic cleansing, and war.
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