On July 16, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) release a report on housing and domestic violence in Latin America. The report, entitled A place in the world: The right to adequate housing as an essential element of a life free from domestic violence, documents how women facing domestic violence in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia are unable to escape the violence due to a lack of adequate housing, including emergency shelter.
Read the COHRE press release
Read the COHRE report: A place in the world: The right to adequate housing as an essential element of a life free from domestic violence
Demand Dignity: Human Rights = Less Poverty
Every person, everywhere in the world, has a basic right to an adequate standard of living and the right to food, housing, health and education. Our new campaign - Demand Dignity - will aim to hold national and international leaders accountable for the human rights violations that drive and deepen poverty; and it will defend every person's right to live with dignity. Its first actions will concentrate on ending forced evictions and preventable maternal deaths of women, as well as calling for the development of clear rules to hold extractive industries to account for human rights abuse. In Canada, a major focus of our campaign will be to address the connections between poverty and the failure to protect the land rights of Indigenous Peoples. In this blog, you will find reports, news releases and actions aimed at ending violations that keep people poor. Bookmark this page for updates or subscribe to receive updates by email.
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions report on domestic violence and housing in Latin America
21 July 2010 8:44 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Hundreds made homeless by mass forced eviction in Kenya
15 July 2010 11:11 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Photo Credit: The evictions have left hundreds of people, mainly women and children, without shelter. © Amnesty International.Amnesty International has called on the Kenyan authorities to halt the forced evictions in a Nairobi settlement that have left hundreds of families homeless and destitute.
A bulldozer from the Nairobi City Council flattened market stalls in Kabete NITD on Tuesday night for the second time this week. On Saturday, authorities had demolished around 150 homes and 470 market stalls.
Despite rumours in the community that forced evictions were imminent, no official notice was given to residents or traders.
When some traders continued to work on the rubble of their former stalls, the bulldozer returned just before midnight on Tuesday to re-flatten the site.
Angry residents reportedly clashed with armed police on Wednesday as tensions flared in the settlement.
Read the News Update
Kenya: Fear of attack leaves women prisoners in their homes
7 July 2010 9:09 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Photo Credit: Private toilets in Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Nairobi, February 2010. These toilets are owned by landlords and used by tenants, some of whom have to walk for up to ten minutes from their homes to reach them. Amnesty International.
Women and girls in Nairobi’s slums live under the constant threat of sexual violence, leaving them often too scared to leave their houses to use communal toilet and bathroom facilities, Amnesty International said in a report released today.
Insecurity and Indignity: Women’s experiences in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya details how the failure of the government to incorporate the slums in urban plans and budgets has resulted in poor access to services like sanitation, which hits women in slums and informal settlements especially hard.
“Women in Nairobi’s settlements become prisoners in their own homes at night and sometimes well before it is dark,” said Godfrey Odongo, Amnesty International’s East Africa researcher. “They need more privacy than men when going to the toilet or taking a bath and the inaccessibility of facilities make women vulnerable to rape, leaving them trapped in their own homes.”
The situation is compounded by the lack of police presence in the slums and when women fall victim to violence they are unlikely to see justice done. Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum and home to up to a million people, has no police post.
Read the News Release
Read the Report
Urgent Need for G8/G20 Summit Security Review: An Open Letter
7 July 2010 8:55 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Dear Prime Minister Harper and Premier McGuinty,
URGENT NEED FOR SUMMIT SECURITY REVIEW: AN OPEN LETTER
We are writing on behalf of the more than 80,000 members of Amnesty International across Canada to urge that you work together to launch an independent review of the security measures adopted and the range of police actions taken in association with the G20 Summit in Toronto. This letter highlights many of the crucial issues that we believe need to be examined in that independent review.
We first called for such a review in a Closing Communiqué issued at the end of Amnesty International Canada (English branch)’s Annual General Meeting on June 27th. The meeting was held in Toronto, with some 200 members from across the country in attendance. Amnesty International members took part in the People First demonstration on June 26th and witnessed many other demonstrations and some instances of arrest and other confrontation between police and demonstrators over the course of the weekend. We have also reviewed many of the growing number of media accounts, individual testimonies and monitoring reports describing police tactics, patterns of arrest, conditions of detention, and acts of vandalism and other violence, including the Preliminary Report of Observations issued by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on June 29th.
Read the Open Letter
URGENT NEED FOR SUMMIT SECURITY REVIEW: AN OPEN LETTER
We are writing on behalf of the more than 80,000 members of Amnesty International across Canada to urge that you work together to launch an independent review of the security measures adopted and the range of police actions taken in association with the G20 Summit in Toronto. This letter highlights many of the crucial issues that we believe need to be examined in that independent review.
We first called for such a review in a Closing Communiqué issued at the end of Amnesty International Canada (English branch)’s Annual General Meeting on June 27th. The meeting was held in Toronto, with some 200 members from across the country in attendance. Amnesty International members took part in the People First demonstration on June 26th and witnessed many other demonstrations and some instances of arrest and other confrontation between police and demonstrators over the course of the weekend. We have also reviewed many of the growing number of media accounts, individual testimonies and monitoring reports describing police tactics, patterns of arrest, conditions of detention, and acts of vandalism and other violence, including the Preliminary Report of Observations issued by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on June 29th.
Read the Open Letter
Toronto and the G8/G20: Peaceful protest suffers
7 July 2010 8:51 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
As the Annual General Meeting of Amnesty International Canada (English branch) concluded today in Toronto, Amnesty International members from across the country expressed their very deep concern that important rights associated with peaceful protest have suffered considerably in the city over the weekend.
In connection with the G20 leaders summit, the heavy police and security presence that has permeated the city for several days, as well as acts of vandalism and other violence by numbers of individuals, have contributed to an atmosphere of apprehension and fearfulness that has led many individuals to refrain from or limit their involvement in peaceful demonstrations and other activities.
At a time when the public should be encouraged to actively engage in debate and discussion about pressing global issues, the security measures that were put in place in Toronto in the lead up to the G20 Summit held in the city instead narrowed the space for civic expression and cast a chill over citizen participation in public discourse. Many thousands of individuals did take part in public events such as the “People First” demonstration during the afternoon of June 26, but felt apprehensive while doing so. Many others did not take part out of a sense of unease and fearfulness.
Read the Public Statement
In connection with the G20 leaders summit, the heavy police and security presence that has permeated the city for several days, as well as acts of vandalism and other violence by numbers of individuals, have contributed to an atmosphere of apprehension and fearfulness that has led many individuals to refrain from or limit their involvement in peaceful demonstrations and other activities.
At a time when the public should be encouraged to actively engage in debate and discussion about pressing global issues, the security measures that were put in place in Toronto in the lead up to the G20 Summit held in the city instead narrowed the space for civic expression and cast a chill over citizen participation in public discourse. Many thousands of individuals did take part in public events such as the “People First” demonstration during the afternoon of June 26, but felt apprehensive while doing so. Many others did not take part out of a sense of unease and fearfulness.
Read the Public Statement
AI Sierra Leone launches solidarity sign post at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital
7 July 2010 8:37 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
In June, Amnesty International Sierra Leone, in collaboration with the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital, launched a solidarity sign post just outside the hospital. The solidarity sign post will receive the solidarity letters from Amnesty International members around the world calling for an end to maternal mortality in Sierra Leone and the need for government action. Messages of hope and concern for the women at the hospital have been written around the world, including 1000 letters from AI members in Canada.
Joint statement on maternal mortality and morbidity supported by 108 States
7 July 2010 8:16 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Amnesty International warmly welcomes the joint statement on Maternal Mortality and Morbidity and Human Rights made during the 14th session of the Human Rights Council on Monday 14 June, on behalf of an overwhelming 108 States from all UN regions and political groups.
The statement was made during a panel discussion on maternal mortality and morbidity organised to discuss the thematic study by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights. Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights A/HRC/14/39, 16 April 2010. Amnesty International also addressed the Council during the panel discussion.
Amnesty International supports the important call in the joint statement for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to take the study to the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, to be held in New York in September, to further discussions on the importance of integrating a human rights perspective into realising the MDGs.
Read the Public Statement
The statement was made during a panel discussion on maternal mortality and morbidity organised to discuss the thematic study by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights. Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights A/HRC/14/39, 16 April 2010. Amnesty International also addressed the Council during the panel discussion.
Amnesty International supports the important call in the joint statement for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to take the study to the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, to be held in New York in September, to further discussions on the importance of integrating a human rights perspective into realising the MDGs.
Read the Public Statement
Ecuador first to ratify new UN mechanism to enforce economic, social and cultural rights
7 July 2010 8:13 am
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Amnesty International urges other countries to follow Ecuador's example and ratify a new UN mechanism that will provide access to justice for everyone whose economic, social and cultural rights are violated and who is denied an effective remedy in their own countries.
Ecuador is the first country in the world to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights which allows individuals and groups within the country to seek justice from the United Nations should these rights - which include the rights to adequate housing, food, water, health, work, social security and education - be violated by their government.
The Optional Protocol will enable people denied their human rights to have their complaints heard in front of an independent, international panel of experts. The decisions made by this new mechanism are likely to influence decisions of national and regional courts around the world.
Read the News Release
Ecuador is the first country in the world to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights which allows individuals and groups within the country to seek justice from the United Nations should these rights - which include the rights to adequate housing, food, water, health, work, social security and education - be violated by their government.
The Optional Protocol will enable people denied their human rights to have their complaints heard in front of an independent, international panel of experts. The decisions made by this new mechanism are likely to influence decisions of national and regional courts around the world.
Read the News Release
Take Action: Put Human Rights at the Heart of the MDGs
25 June 2010 2:37 pm
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Millions of people continue to face a daily struggle to live in dignity.In 2000, countries around the world agreed to 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a global initiative to eradicate poverty by 2015.
Ten years on - five years from the deadline - these goals are still not a reality. Progress has been made, but it has been unequal. Goal 5 on improving maternal healht, for instance, is the most off-track of all of the MDGs. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls continue to die in pregnancy and childbirth each year, and most of them live in the poorest countries and communities.
Join Amnesty International to make sure that human rights are at the heart of the MDGs and the global fight against poverty.
Take Action
G8: Time for bold actions, not just promises
25 June 2010 2:36 pm
Posted by: Lindsay Mossman
Amnesty International welcomes the G8 Muskoka Accountability Report and
the commitment of G8 countries to increase transparency and
accountability in relation to their individual and collective efforts
towards achieving development goals. We also welcome the contribution
by G8 countries to supporting global efforts to meet the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). However, as deadlines draw nearer, there is a
very real danger that the MDG targets will not be met in several areas.
Amnesty International believes that human rights standards – and the duty of all governments to realise them – must be put at the heart of MDG efforts in order to fulfil the promises made in the Millennium Declaration. For those living in poverty international co-operation and assistance can play a crucial role in ensuring the realisation of at least the minimum levels of economic, social and cultural rights.
Read the Public Statement
Amnesty International believes that human rights standards – and the duty of all governments to realise them – must be put at the heart of MDG efforts in order to fulfil the promises made in the Millennium Declaration. For those living in poverty international co-operation and assistance can play a crucial role in ensuring the realisation of at least the minimum levels of economic, social and cultural rights.
Read the Public Statement