- The Geneva based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions
(COHRE) has identified the countries guilty of most consistently abusing
and defying international housing rights law in 2002 for its new annual
Housing Rights Violators Award. Israel is among the ten states chosen to
receive the award.
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- The list of the top ten housing rights violators includes
BURMA (Myanmar), COLOMBIA, CROATIA, GUATEMALA, INDIA, ISRAEL, PAKISTAN,
USA and ZIMBABWE. The countries were selected on the basis of reliable
data which confirmed the widespread occurrence of housing rights violations
in recent years with a particular focus on the previous twelve months.
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- Over the past two years Israel has continued with impunity
to violate international human rights and humanitarian law. International
human rights organizations have denounced the brutal policies of the Israeli
government, including the practice of house demolition, a war crime under
the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Israel fails to abide by its obligations
under all international human rights conventions, such as the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination; the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a.o.
-
- Israel's major housing rights violations identified by
COHRE in 2002 include the following:
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- * In April 2002 Israeli forces destroyed hundreds of
homes in the Jenin Refugee Camp leaving 4,000 people homeless. From April
2001 to April 2002 over 400 houses were completely destroyed and another
200 seriously damaged in the Gaza Strip, leaving 5,000 people homeless.
Between September 2000 and September 2001, 5,000 residential buildings
were destroyed in the West Bank. Homes are demolished for 'administrative'
and 'punitive' reasons.
-
- * Palestinian Arabs - who in 1948 owned most of Israel
and now own only 3 per cent of the land - are severely restricted from
building on this 3 per cent because of discriminatory laws and practices.
Thus thousands of Palestinians who had no chance of ever getting a building
a permit live in fear of having their non- permitted homes demolished by
the Israeli Authorities. In July 2002 the Israeli cabinet voted for the
adoption of a bill to restrict access to 'state land' (predominantly expropriated
land from Palestinians) to Jews only. Non-Jews may not purchase the land
and are rarely permitted to even use the land, leaving them with nowhere
to go.
-
- * In January 2002, the Israeli Attorney General rejected
a request to compel the Israeli Custodian of Absentees' Property to release
information on property belonging to Palestinian refugees on the grounds
that it might damage Israel's foreign relations and would require too much
effort. Since 1948 more than five million Palestinians have had the entire
contents of their homes and businesses taken, with no recompense, by the
Israeli government.
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- On the other hand, COHRE was able to identify a number
of governments with outstanding performance in the area of housing rights
in 2002. "BRAZIL, EAST TIMOR and SOUTH AFRICA exemplify what can
be done when the political will of governments is genuinely applied toward
protecting human rights and safeguarding human dignity. Emerging from violent
and repressive histories, these three governments have taken notable steps
in redressing the human rights abuses of the past."
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- For a complete copy of the COHRE press release, see:
www.cohre.org
-
-
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- CONTACT INFORMATION
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- The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is
an international, non-governmental human rights organization whose mission
is to promote and protect the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural
rights for everyone, everywhere, with a particular focus on the human right
to adequate housing and preventing forced evictions. In order to achieve
its mission, COHRE uses the full spectrum of human rights, whether civil,
cultural, economic, political or social in nature to promote housing rights
worldwide.
-
- COHRE was established in 1994 and has its International
Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. COHRE currently has thematic programmes
in Women's Housing Rights, Housing and Property Restitution, and Internally
Displaced Persons, as well as three regional programmes in Africa, Asia-Pacific
and the Americas.
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- For more information on the COHRE Housing Rights Violator
Awards Project, please feel free to contact COHRE at:
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- The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) International
Secretariat 83 rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva Switzerland
-
- Tel: + 41 22 734 1028 Tel: + 41 22 734 1052 Tel: + 41
22 734 1057 Fax: + 41 22 733 8336 For press inquiries, please contact Harriet
Martin at harriet@cohre.org.
-
- _____
-
- The Israeli Holocaust Against the Palestinians by Michael
Hoffman and Prof.Moshe Lieberman 6 x 9 paperback. 110 pages. A MUST READ.
-
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