Livewire – Amnesty International blogging for human rights

By Bridget Burrows, Africa Regional Campaigner Slums, Amnesty International,

From N’Djamena to Harare, Cairo to Accra, Port Harcourt to Nairobi, thousands of residents of slums and informal settlements and people affected by forced evictions mobilized from 17-25 March calling for an end to forced evictions in Africa, in a week of action organized by housing rights activists with Amnesty International and local partner organizations.

Events were also organized in Togo, Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso, in which thousands of people showed their support and solidarity during the week.

Sakwa Frank, a resident of Mathare informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, had this to say about the week:

“It felt so great seeing so many residents of informal settlements, even from Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, who have been neglected by our governments for so long, standing up well-informed and peacefully to say ‘people live here’ and demanding that their rights are respected.”

Check out the photo slideshow to see some of the inspiring campaigning that took place over the week, and add your voice to those of people across Africa by signing the petition

The Roma community forcibly evicted from Coastei Street has been living in the New Pata Rat area since December 2010. (c) Joshua Gross, Joshua Tree Photography

By Creta Ernest & Fekete Petru members of the Coastei Street community,

Support the call for justice of the Roma community forcibly evicted from Coastei Street by taking action

It’s been over a year 76 families, the majority Roma, were forcibly evicted from the centre of the city of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Over half of the families were re-housed in new housing units on the outskirts of the city in the New Pata Rat area, close to a garbage dump and a former chemical waste dump, in inadequate housing conditions. The rooms are overcrowded, they do not provide protection from damp and mould and the sanitation facilities are inadequate. 36 families, including the authors of the blog entry, were not provided with any alternative housing. Most of them had to construct improvised homes. They have no access to water, sanitation and electricity. With only a verbal agreement from the municipality and no formal title to the land, they live in a fear of eviction and of losing their homes again. Two young Roma who experienced the eviction shared it with us their story during the recent mission to Cluj-Napoca.

“The forced eviction from Coastei Street nr. 18 started on 15 December 2010. We aim to be as brief as possible in describing the traumatising event which took place from 15 to 17 December 2010. Continue reading ‘Roma community forcibly evicted from Coastei Street share their story’

A bulldozer parked just metres from the via Sacile camp is a reminder that the construction works will go ahead © Private

By Matteo de Bellis, Europe Campaigner at Amnesty International

“We know we have to leave because of the construction works, but they should give us a place to go, not just leave us in the street.”

Giovanni speaks to me while standing in front of a line of shacks, grouped in an area as small as a seven-a-side football pitch.
Continue reading ‘“We’d like a place to stay” – Milan’s Roma face eviction’

Ernest Creta, one of the Roma men forcibly evicted in December 2011, among others participating at the March for Social Justice in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 19 December 2011. (c) Csaba Farkas

By Enikő Vincze*, Adrian Dohotaru* and Cristina Raţ*, on behalf of the Working Group of Civil Organizations (glOC), Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The 19^th of December 2011 was incredibly sunny for the smoggy city of Cluj-Napoca, up on the hills of central Romania. As people gathered near the Heroes’ Boulevard, picked up placards which they could resonate with, greeted each other or simply exchanged glances with the sundry crowd of Roma from Pata-Rat (the famous “Gypsy ghetto” near the garbage dump of the city), civil society activists, university professors and academic researchers, artists, students, and many others… The March for Social Justice began, with messages of “Stop forced evictions!”, “Decent housing for everybody!”, “For a Society without Prejudices!”, “Social Justice for the Roma” floating above our heads.

The leitmotiv of the “Super-Owl” (“Superbufniţa” in Romanian) captured the eyes of the passers-by: the fictive “Superbufniţa”, supposed to save the humanity in our hearts, was invented by Roma children from Pata-Rat and their Romanian peers from the ELF school, in a joint artistic workshop organized two days before, at the Tranzit House, an old former synagogue, now place for alternative social art and multicultural events. It was a powerful message of solidarity and claim for social justice, coming from children on different sides of the socio-economic and ethnic divide. Some of them were present at the March, along with heir parents. Continue reading ‘Marching for social justice and housing rights for the Roma from Pata-Rat, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania’

Informal settlement residents joined together with Amnesty International to demand an end to forced evictions at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. (c) Madi Keita/Amnesty International

By Francis Makanda Sakwa, Amnesty International Kenya ‘Gender Defender’ and resident of Mathare slum, Nairobi

I live in an informal settlement. I work, pay taxes, and use the money I earn to raise my children and support my family. Mine is a voice that isn’t often printed in my country’s newspapers, or heard by my Government. But did you know that in sub-Saharan Africa three out of every four people living in a city or town live in a slum, like me? That is a staggering statistic: three-quarters – a clear majority – of Africa’s urban people live in homes that are built without planning or other permission. This is a massive hidden crisis for our cities and our governments.

Us ordinary Kenyans living in informal settlements face many challenges. The authorities fail to adequately provide us with essential services, such as water, sewers, roads, schools, health clinics and police posts. But the biggest violation of our human rights we face is the threat of forced evictions.

In early November, supported by Amnesty International, I travelled with slum dwellers from Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Zimbabwe and Chad to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in The Gambia. We went united to ask for help in demanding an immediate end to forced evictions in Africa. Continue reading ‘Slum residents address Africa’s human rights body to demand end to forced evictions’