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Operation Murambatsvina, Zimbabwe
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Housing Rights Awards 2005
Recipients
Housing Rights Violator Award 2005
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has been named one of three Housing Rights Violators in 2005, for the catastrophic forced evictions carried out during Operation Murambatsvina (literally “drive out trash”), which left more than 700,000 people homeless and without livelihoods, and affected a further 2.4 million Zimbabweans. COHRE named Zimbabwe as a Housing Rights Violator for its persistent, systematic and unjustified violation of the housing rights of its people, resulting in a humanitarian and human rights crisis in the country, and for its ongoing failure to apply international and regional human rights standards.
The mass forced evictions campaign named Operation Murambatsvina (‘Drive Out Rubbish’) forcibly evicted more than 700,000 residents and informal traders in Zimbabwe, leaving them homeless and destitute – not because of conflict or natural disaster, but due to their own government’s calculated and brutal actions. These acts are unjustifiable under international law and clear evidence of the Zimbabwean Government’s blatant disregard for all human rights, including the right to adequate housing. It is abundantly clear that crimes against humanity have taken place in Zimbabwe, and those responsible should be held accountable and brought before the international judicial bodies to answer for these crimes.
Since May 2005, more than 190,000 homes have been demolished or burnt in poor areas of cities including Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and Victoria Falls.
China
More than 40 million Chinese farmers lost their land and livelihoods in the past 20 years due to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. At least 1.25 million households were demolished and nearly 3.7 million people evicted and relocated throughout China in the past decade, causing widespread suffering to thousands of communities across the country. The lack of legal remedies to resist these evictions, the inadequate compensation and resettlement provided to those evicted, the use of extreme force in carrying out evictions, and police brutality towards those protesting against land grabs and forced evictions are testimony to the Chinese Government’s ruthless contempt for housing rights. COHRE is particularly concerned about the forced evictions of at least 400,000 people carried out in Beijing in connection with the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympic Games – a figure to which the Beijing Municipal State Land Administration itself admits. Removing people from their homes against their will is not only a human rights violation, but contrary to the ‘Olympic Spirit’ as well.”
The Chinese Government has admitted that half the current demand for real estate in China is being met by local government-backed demolitions and evictions.
The State Government of Maharashtra, India
COHRE named the Maharashtra Government as a Housing Rights Violator for forcibly evicting more than 350,000 people from their homes and demolishing over 90,000 dwellings in Mumbai since December 2004, in a bid to transform the city into a “world-class metropolis” by 2013. Several of the evictions were carried out with force. Two children were killed during demolitions in Bandra in December 2004.
The government's development plan calls for the reduction of slums to 10% of their current extent, in order to transform Mumbai into the ‘next Shanghai’ by 2013. The evictees, mostly poor, long-term residents of the city and members of minority groups, were not provided with alternative accommodation or compensation. These forced evictions provide graphic evidence that the new “world-class Mumbai” is being constructed with complete disregard for the human rights of its poorest and most vulnerable people.
A Congress-NCP Government came to power in October 2004 in Maharashtra, with popular support for its promise to provide secure tenure to thousands of slum dwellers in Mumbai by regularising structures built prior to 2000. However, once in power the Government announced it would demolish all slums built after 1995, and would not relocate or provide any compensation to those affected by the evictions.
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Housing Rights Protector Award 2005
Mr Tasneem Siddiqui
Mr Tasneem Siddiqui has been awarded COHRE’s 2005 Housing Rights Protector Award for his work with the Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority (SKAA) in Pakistan, which resulted in many thousands of families gaining secure tenure through the regularisation of over 1,000 katchi abadis (informal settlements) in Karachi.
COHRE praises the ground-breaking efforts of Tasneem Siddiqui, the former head of the SKAA, for his outstanding personal contribution to its work. Over the years, he has assisted residents of 1,157 katchi abadis to obtain legal title to their land, thereby safeguarding hundreds of thousands of people from the threat of forced eviction and improving their housing and living conditions through better infrastructure.
The slums of modern Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province in Pakistan, began as informal settlements providing shelter to Muslim Indian refugees during Partition. These spontaneous settlements of the uprooted poor grew so rapidly that by the late 1980s there were more than 2,000 katchi abadis in Karachi, housing more than four million people (40% of the city’s population). The SKAA was established by the Sindh Government in 1987, to regularize the katchi abadis and integrate them into the city. However, the SKAA failed at the task until 1991, when Siddiqui was appointed as Director-General.
Siddiqui immediately set to work cutting through red tape to simplify the regularisation process. He saw that residents often fell prey to land cheats because government procedures were time-consuming and prone to corruption, and introduced on-the-spot “lease camps” to combat the problem. The camps allowed residents to register their homes quickly, without lengthy bureaucratic procedures. Siddiqui simplified the lease process from twenty steps to six, thereby providing thousands of poor people with secure tenure at an affordable price.
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| Acceptance Speech Tasneem Siddiqui |
Winner of the 2005 Housing Rights Protector Award
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| Ms Wardah Hafidz |
Housing Rights Defender Award 2005
Ms Wardah Hafidz
Ms Wardah Hafidz, the 53-year old Coordinator of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) in Indonesia, has been awarded COHRE’s 2005 Housing Rights Defender Award for her outstanding contribution to the fulfilment of the human right to adequate housing.
This Award recognises Wardah’s exceptional contribution to the struggle for the right to adequate housing in Indonesia, where she has worked tirelessly to mobilise communities against forced evictions and to empower urban poor leaders to advocate for the housing rights of their communities. Her work with slum dwellers and the displaced has resulted in innovative and inclusive housing rights processes, providing urban poor dwellers with security of tenure and helping to prevent a wide range of planned forced evictions.
Most recently, her work and activism in Aceh, following the tragic 26 December 2004 tsunami, has been instrumental in assisting survivors to return to their original lands and begin a community-driven rebuilding process. She has spearheaded the struggle to include local residents’ views and interests in the rebuilding and rehabilitation efforts now underway in Aceh.
The UPC has been working with 30 fishing communities in Aceh to rebuild houses and restore livelihoods. To date the UPC has built more than 1,000 homes, together with local partners. Wardah is currently overseeing a project which aims to construct a further 2,500 houses for those made homeless by the tsunami.
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| Acceptance Speech Wardah Hafidz |
Winner of the 2005 Housing Rights Defender Award
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