Minutes/Notes

Amnesty International Group # 642

June 9 , 2005

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  The meeting began with the showing of the Amnesty International video Human Needs, Human Rights.  “In 2003 , Amnesty International (AI) decided for the first time to make the advancement of economic, social and cultural rights an integral part of its human rights strategy.  Although AI’s actions have traditionally focused on civil and political rights, the interdependence and indivisibility of all human rights have long been central to our understanding and vision and are at the heart of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).”  The UDHR states that “All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated.  The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.”  “This video highlights some of the ways in which Amnesty International and the broader human rights movement are working to advance economic, social and cultural rights and make the UDHR a reality for people everywhere” (jacket of the CD).

 The video depicted cases from Mexico, South Africa, and the United States.  In Mexico, clear cutting was destroying the livelihood of peasants.  When peasants protested, their leaders were imprisoned and their attorney was murdered.  Amnesty International is working to protect the peasants land and obtained the release of their leaders.  In South Africa, a clinic was providing antiviral drugs to rape survivors.  That clinic was shut down by the government.  Amnesty International was able to get the clinic reopened.  In the United States, Amnesty International assists existing NGOs, such as the Kensington Human Rights Union, to reduce poverty, displacement of the poor, and other economic, social, and cultural rights violations.

 Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE).  Bret and Mayra shared a PowerPoint presentation and discussion showing how their work with COHRE complements, and is different from, their Amnesty International work.  Human rights law says that governments have the obligation to respect the rights, protect the rights, and fulfill the rights of persons within their jurisdictions.  These governments are in violation of human rights law when they bulldoze houses because the people in those houses are in a hated ethnic group, or in an opposition political party.  COHRE documents these violations and pressures governments to abide by the human rights obligations.  Mayra and Bret were in Accra, Ghana and Banjul, The Gambia last week to provide these COHRE services to the Agbogbloshie settlement in Accra, Ghana and to train the judiciary in The Gambia. 

 The COHRE Evictions Monitor (Vol. 1 No 2 December 2004 available from the web as a PDF file under the keyword Agbogbloshie) describe the case in the following way: “The Agbogbloshie/Old Fadama settlement in Accra, Ghana, consists of approximately 30,000 people living under very difficult conditions on the left bank of the Odaw River, in the upper reaches of the Korle Lagoon in Accra, Ghana. 

 “On 28 May 2002 , the residents were served with an eviction notice by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).  This followed the completion of a series of studies and the formulation of a project known as the Korle Lagoon Environmental Restoration Project (KLERP), designed to restore this vital marine and river system to a cleaner and more natural ecological state.

 COHRE and other organizations responded to this eviction notice by writing letters of protest to the Government and the AMA.  COHRE argued that: ( 1 ) no feasible alternatives to the planned eviction had been considered; ( 2 ) the serving of the notice in May 2002 was insufficient advance warning; ( 3 ) residents had not been consulted during the process; and ( 4 ) alternative housing or adequate resettlement sites had not been provided. 

 “In addition, the residents, assisted by the Accra-based Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL), applied for a High Court injunction to restrain the AMA from going ahead with the eviction.  However, on 24 July 2002 the Accra High Court rejected the community’s application, and authorized the AMA to evict.  Since the, a series of deadlines for eviction have been set.  The latest was set in January 2004 , when a Tourism Ministry official was “emphatic” in stating that by “September this year Sodom and Gomorrah would be empty.” [Evening News, 14 Jan. 2004 ].

 “The organizations assisting the residents soon realized that in addition to considering questions of legality, it was important to try to understand the practical rationale behind the eviction plan.  COHRE therefore commissioned a counter-study engineer and slum-upgrading expert, which found that although many concerns about living conditions in the settlement were legitimate, the KLERP consultants had grossly overstated the case against continued habitation in the area.  Based on this and other findings, the COHRE report concluded that:  

• Agbogbloshie could in fact be developed in-situ, given the political will;
• An upgraded Agbogloshie could co-exist with the KLERP;
• The informal land development of Agbogloshie would provide the Government with a model that could be of major benefit to Accra’s future development.

 COHRE urged the Government and other parties to engage in discussions around such alternatives to forced eviction, and suggested that UN agencies in Accra could play a facilitating role.  In August 2004 , COHRE convened the first of a planned series of round-table discussions.  

“Among local groups also working with the residents to develop alternatives is People’s Dialogue in Accra, which tries to create a platform for residents to negotiate directly with the Government.  Their approach is to mobilize the residents’ energies and resources by creating joint savings schemes and other projects.

 “The new openings being created by communities and their support organizations through actions such as the above are vital, yet they will remain small and limited until the threat of eviction is removed.  The government of Ghana and the AMA would do well to declare a moratorium on these evictions, pending the outcome of intensive negotiations with the residents on their future—a process that should allow their demands and concerns to be properly heard, and directly incorporated in the planning process.”

 Bret and Mayra also described some of the work of COHRE in the Untied States.  They do training in Washington, D.C. and Chicago.  Their work is to assist attorneys with “bottom up” organizing for housing rights.  One example is the 8,000 people who are right now being evicted from Cabrini Green in Chicago with no place to go.   

Mamun al-Humsi.  We are reactivating the action to get Mamun al-Humsi released from prison.  Please send letters urging that Mamun al-Humsi and other prisoners of conscience in Syria be freed immediately and unconditionally. Write to:

President Bashar al-Assad

c/o His Excellency Dr. Imad Moustapha

Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic

2215 Wyoming Avenue N. W.

Washington, D.C. 2008

Fax ( 202 ) 234 - 9548  

Duluth Citywide Plan.  The first Duluth citywide plan will be discussed in the Harberview ballroom at 7 : 00 PM on Wednesday, June 15 .

June 26 Day of Action.  The June 26 Day of Action Against Torture was discussed.  We agreed to discuss it further via email.