Home » International Tribunal on Evictions » Sessions » ITE 2019 Session on climate change » The International Tribunal on Evictions denounces violations of the right to housing and land and calls for climate policies based on respect of human rights, beginning from the moratorium of evictions

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The International Tribunal on Evictions denounces violations of the right to housing and land and calls for climate policies based on respect of human rights, beginning from the moratorium of evictions

This Session on Climate Change of the International Tribunal on Evictions, the 9th  since its creation in 2011 by the International Alliance of Inhabitants as part of the Zero Evictions Campaign, analysed the human rights violations specific to the right to housing and land of 8 cases from all continents, representing 280 million people around the world under threat of evictions due to climate change.

This Session was established thanks to the commitment of the social organizations promoting the Social Summit for the Climate in Chile and Madrid, which were able to face the challenge of doubling the session following Chile's disengagement as a response to Chile's popular mobilizations despite military repression.

The Jury, composed by international experts and chaired by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, began its work on the 5th  December in Santiago de Chile and continued its work in Madrid on the 8th   December as part of the Social Summit on Climate Change parallel to COP 25.

The testimonies of the victims of the evictions, who did not find a place at the official summit, showed that governments do not take into account their legal obligations towards the protection of human rights, on the one hand, by not implementing policies to address climate change, and on the other hand, by adopting "resilient" policies that often hide their interests and those of people. This dis-responsibilization is encouraged particularly, by the absence of the "evictions" indicator by the COP to measure the impact of climate actions.

The Preliminary Recommendations call for a sensitive and human rights-based approach to climate action, recognizing people as rights holders. A comprehensive moratorium on evictions is needed, as well as the protection from all violence and criminalization of housing and land rights activists, human and nature rights defenders.

All parties responsible for evictions, states and companies, as well as the COP, will have 30 days to respond, after which the final Recommendations will become effective and be subject to monitoring of their implementation, in October 2020 as part of the World Zero Evictions Days  and in December 2020 as part of COP 26.

 

Informations and contacts:

Soha Ben Slama, coordinator of International Tribunal on Evictions

ite.coordinator@habitants.org

www.habitants.org


 

Cases considered by the session of the International Tribunal on Evictions on climate change (Santiago de Chile- Madrid 5-8/12/2019

Latin America

The Chilean cases highlight that, behind the threats of eviction from informal settlements, motivated by the so-said measures taken for their security, there are hidden infrastructure projects and real estate speculations.

  • Argentina - Sewer Collapse  The absence of policies to prevent environmental disasters has been denounced by the case of Villa el Libertador, Argentina, where 30,000 inhabitants are overwhelmed by faecal matter due to the absence of  policies to deal with the collapse of the groundwater table and black wells as a result of the climate change.

Asia

  • Bangladesh - Kutubdia Island   Almost 40,000 inhabitants of this disfigured island, whose ecosystem has been completely disrupted by cyclones and tides, have so far not received adequate responses from the state respecting all their human rights.

Europe

  • Italy - High tide in Venice: the impact of climate change and tourism  Venice, increasingly submerged by the tide, shows that the choice that has been made to dig canals to allow the passage of large ships has disrupted the balance of the lagoon that the great dam of the "Mose" can never restore, in addition to the rise in sea level, caused by climate change.

Africa

  • Kenya - Forceful Eviction of the Sengwer Embobut  The evictions of the Sengwer Embobut People in Kenya, caused by the Water Project under the pretext of the forest protection and climate change mitigation, violate the rights of  communities of people which, in reality, have been preserving it for centuries.

 

What is the International Tribunal of Evictions?

The International Tribunal on Evictions (ITE) is a peoples’ and opinion tribunal established in 2011 by the International Alliance of Inhabitants and civil society organisations as tool of the Zero Evictions  Campaign to practically and interactively put forced evictions from around the world in the dock. The Tribunal relies on the expertise of an international Jury of well-respected and competent individuals, as well as on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and other instruments of international law, in order to pass judgement on real cases of forced evictions that constitute human rights violations.


 

The ITE Jury : Engaged Activists Experts on Human rights and environment

An international Jury of experts and activists, chaired by Leilani Farha, UN Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, issue verdicts and recommendations for solutions that respect human rights and the environment. A People's Jury of activists will interact to discuss issues and propose solutions and mobilization

  • Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, Canada
  • Agustin Territoriale, Human Rights Lawyer, Argentina
  • Alejandra Vania Cajas, Lawyer, Chile
  • Ana Sugranyes, Architect, Housing and Housing Committee, College of Architects, Chile
  • Diego Lillo Goffreri, Lawyer, Environmental Justice Clinic, Chile
  • Gabriela Burdiles Perucci, Human Rights Lawyer, FIMA-SCAC, Chile
  • Hung-Ying Chen, Urban Planner, ITE Asia-East Session Coordinator, Taiwan
  • Ignacio Silva, national legal chief legal Inmobiliaria Social de TECHO, Chile
  • Toñi Vasquez, Activist, PAH International Commission, Spain
  • Juridical support: Julietta Perucca, Human Rights Lawyer, Canada

 

Who makes the International Tribunal of Evictions

The Session of the International Tribunal on Climate Change, is coordinated by the International Alliance of Inhabitants in collaboration with the Local Organizing Committee and Habitat and Participation for the World Habitat Map.

Santiago de Chile:

  • Fundación FEMAN
  • Mesa Social por la Vivienda Digna y la Ciudad Justa, Antofagasta
  • Movimiento pobladores Ukamau
  • ONG de Desarrollo ATTAS-FRACTAL, Antofagasta
  • ONG FIMA
  • Sociedad Civil por la Acción Climática (SCAC)
  • TECHO Chile
  • TECHO Internacional

Madrid:

  • Plataforma Afectados por la Hipoteca
  • Ecologistas en Acción

The ITE session is supported by Misereor, Foundation of the German Catholic Church.


 

Local Organising Committee of the ITE Session on Climate Change in Santiago de Chile

  • Boris Cofré (Fundación FEMAN - Movimiento pobladores Ukamau) 
  • Felipe Reyes (Fundación FEMAN - Movimiento pobladores Ukamau)
  • Ezio Costa Cordella (ONG FIMA - SCAC) 
  • Felipe Pino (ONG FIMA - SCAC)
  • Patricia Araya (ONG FIMA - SCAC) 
  • Gabriela Burdiles Perucci (ONG FIMA - SCAC)
  • Juan Joaquín Aedo (ONG FIMA – SCAC)
  • Juliana Mercau (TECHO Internacional)
  • Matthias Casasco (TECHO Chile) 
  • Pablo Rojas Varas (ONG ATTAS-FRACTAL y Mesa Social por la Vivienda Digna y la Ciudad Justa, Antofagasta) 

International Steering Committee of the International Tribunal on Evictions

  • Soha Ben Slama: Tunisia -  Coordinator of the International Tribunal for Evictionsn, IAI Coordinator in Tunisia.
  • Cesare Ottolini: Italy - IAI Global Coordinator, Unione Inquilini Padua. Previously member of the UN Habitat advisory group on Forced Evictions – Co-founder of a collective housing cooperative he lives in.
  • Mike Davies:  Zimbabwe - Coordinator of Anglophone Africa for the International Alliance of Inhabitants and  co-founder of SMART Harare, and a technical producer for Urban Farming Zimbabwe.
  • Rob Robinson:  New York – NESRI Volunteer - Coordinator of the USA-CANADA of the International Alliance of Inhabitants and Co-founder and member of the Take Back the Land leadership committee.
  • Varghese Theckanath s.g.: India -  Is the founder and director of the Social Institute Montfort (Center for Education for Human Rights and Sustainable Development), Hyderabad, India.
  • Hung-Ying Chen: Taiwan/UK Durham University -  Co-founder and member of the Executive Committee of the Taiwan Alliance Against Forced Evictions and  the international coordinator of the 2016 East Asia International Evictions Tribunal session. in the anti-eviction movement.
  • Ernesto Jimenez Olin : Mexico - Internal Coordinator of the Committee for the colony Valle Gómez, he represents the UPVG in the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of the Human Rights Program of the Federal District.

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