Hon'ble Chief Minister
Dr. Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi
Tamil Nadu, India.
The District Collector
Collector's Office, Kanchipuram
Tamil Nadu, India.
District Collector
Collectorate, Thiruvallur
Tamil Nadu, India.
Prime Minister of India
Shri Manmohan Singh
New Delhi
President of India
Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam
Rashtrapati Bhawan
New Delhi
Minister for Urban Development
Mr. Jaipal Reddy
Nirman Bhawan
New Delhi
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka
Executive Director
UN-Habitat
Governments of G8 countries
CC:
PASUMAI THAAYAGAM (Green Mother Land)
International Alliance of Inhabitants
We, associations of inhabitants, international networks, voluntary groups, NGOs, public agencies, citizens of the world,
express our indignation and denounce the massive forced evictions, carried out by the government of Tamil Nadu, India, from 23 November 2006, rendering around 30,000 people homeless in Chennai, including around 5,000 students. Three people died, among them a three-year-old girl who fell into the water.
A further million evictions are waiting to happen all over the state of Tamil Nadu to clear all encroachments on Government land.
The people who were living in the Porur lake area were forcefully evicted without any prior notification or announcement, when police arrived in large numbers with earth movers and bulldozers to demolish all the settlements. It was particularly shocking for these people that such a thing could happen when all government officials had promised them full facilities and when the area had already been provided with a full electricity supply, a sub post office and public call offices. People are now out in the open with whatever belongings they managed to salvage from the demolished site. Women and children are sitting under the scorching sun with no provision for alternate housing, and schoolchildren are unable to attend classes.
We denounce the fact that the government of Tamil Nadu, India, is brazenly violating National and International Human Rights Laws:
* Article 21 of the Indian Constitution affirming the principle of indivisibility of all human rights - the fundamental right to life encompasses the right to live with human dignity; Articles 2, 11, 12, 13 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which India acceded in 1979;
* UN General Comments No. 4 on the right to adequate housing and No. 7 on forced evictions;
* Articles 16, 27 and 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to which India acceded on 11 December 1992, despite the Concluding observations on India adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child at its thirty-fifth session of 26 February 2004: "the Committee further recommends that the State party prevent any occurrence of forced relocation and other types of involuntary population movements.”;
* Article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDaW), which it ratified on 9 July 1993.
The demolition also constitutes a gross violation of:
* The objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically the target to have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least a hundred million slum dwellers;
* The new Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing of the UN Commission on Human Rights;
The Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, proposed in May 2004, stating: “Forced eviction and demolition of slums will be stopped and, while undertaking urban renewal, care will be taken to see that the urban and semi-urban poor are provided housing near their place of occupation.”
Thus, joining the international solidarity appeals launched by Pasumai Thaayagam (Green Mother Land), the Centre for Social Work and Research (CSWR) and the International Alliance of Inhabitants
we call upon:
* the Authorities of India, to respect their obligations under national and international law to protect, promote and fulfil the human right to adequate housing by:
* stopping immediately all the demolitions and evictions in Tamil Nadu;
* providing a forum where the Government of Tamil Nadu and all the interested parties, including the recognised representatives of the inhabitants of the slums, international networks, NGOs and public agencies, can decide on providing for the relocation of the evicted in the same area, and setting a plan for the recovery of the slum areas in agreement with the interested communities in accordance with international norms;
* guaranteeing security of tenure, setting up a Popular Fund for Land and Housing, controlled by all the interested parties, including the inhabitants and organised civil society, with clear mechanisms to guarantee transparency, and the reform and redistribution of land and access to basic public services;
* guaranteeing the right to compensation for all the victims of the evictions, including the right of access to justice, restitution, recovery, compensation, amends and a guarantee that these violations will not be repeated again in future.
the G8 and creditor countries to India:
* to permit the cancellation of external debt of USD 125.2 billion of India only if the freed resources are allocated to the development of housing and urban policies for the poor, in particular that they are directed toward Popular Funds for Land and Housing;
* to block all investment in Tamil Nadu if the effects of the investment violate international norms on rights.
the United Nations to take immediate action, particularly UN-Habitat:
* to supervise the respect of international norms protecting housing rights by sending a fact-finding mission of the UN-Habitat Advisory Group on Forced Evictions to help and act as mediators.
Click here to sign the Appeal!
Read the UN-AGFE report on Forced evictions in Chennai (Madras).
Read the news about the evictions in Tamil Nadu: clicking here
