Forced evictions have been recognized by the United Nations Human Rights Commission as a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of the human being. Forced eviction is the permanent or temporary removal against the will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy. From Zimbabwe to India, as well as Cambodia and China, numerous voices are denouncing the practice.

In 2005, the international community became brutally aware of the eviction programme and house demolition conducted by the Zimbabwean government. No less than 700’000 people were directly affected, more than 2 million others suffered its repercussions. Dwellings, schools and health centres were torn down by bulldozers, set ablaze, whole villages were displaced. The forced relocation of part of this population in rural areas, already plagued by food shortage, was an aggravating factor. The humanitarian crises it set off is still being felt today.

According to Amnesty International, more than 150’000 Cambodian across their country currently run the risk of being forcibly evicted from their homes and land, due to land disputes, land grabbing or development projects. For many others, however, this has happened already. Sopheap explains : “I lost my house, rice and belongings like clothes and utensils. All houses were burned down and destroyed by the excavator and the bulldozer. They kept good-condition corrugated steel and planks of woods for themselves. They even took water jars and looted our chickens and ducks.” Extorted from their means of earning a living, the evicted dwellers remain without a roof, parked in makeshift shelters without drinking water or food.

Doomed “necessary” due to insalubrity of the houses and insufficient public infrastructures, urban modernization in China results in the demolition of entire neighbourhoods and eviction of the inhabitants. Those are rarely informed in reasonable time. Moreover, they are generally not offered an alternative housing, and redress, when there is one, is inadequate. Pressure, harassment and violence are used to constrain the people to vacate their houses. Filing a lawsuit in such a context is in fact ineffective due to close links between the judiciary power and local authorities.

India is not spared by the phenomenon either. For example, at the end of 2007 in the Kapurthala district (Punjab), the organisation Planète Enfants denounced the demolition of 135 shacks in a slum on the outskirts of the city of the same name. Families are now living on the street. They gather and pile up the bricks of their former lodgings, not knowing where and when they will be able to use them again. No solution to their housing problem has been proposed, old and young are left to sleep outside, sometimes even on the ground, in a temperature varying from 1° and 5°. What is at stake in this particular case is the enlarging of the motorway causing land seizures. (read our interview of Mr Vashdev Chander Parkash, founder of Planète Enfants)

Under pretence of development, violations of housing rights and of other related basic rights such as food, water, health or education go on unabated worldwide. Exclusion and impoverishment of part of the population weigh little with regard to economic interests at stake. Children, the most vulnerable population, are the first – innocent – victims of it...

Links :

NGOs - Archives 2005 / Planète Enfants

http://www.unhabitat.org

Any comment you may have would be welcome webmaster@childsrights.org.