Europa Ocidental

Germany’s statement on the security of tenure report

Published in Thursday March 7th, 2013

Read Germany’s statement regarding the presentation given by the Special Rapporteur about her thematic and mission reports on March 4th, during the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council.

Finland’s statement on the security of tenure report

Published in Thursday March 7th, 2013

Read Finland’s statement regarding the presentation given by the Special Rapporteur about her thematic and mission reports on March 4th, during the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council.

Report on Security of Tenure will be presented on March – Newsletter #31

Published in Tuesday February 19th, 2013

On March 4th, Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik will present her first thematic report on security of tenure at the 22nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. In the same occasion, the Rapporteur will also present three mission reports.

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The Special Rapporteur will visit the UK in September

Published in Friday February 15th, 2013 In News

The Special Rapporteur will conduct a mission to the United Kingdom between September 2-16, 2013. More information soon!

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Austerity may be hitting many in the UK, but it’s the homeless suffering most acutely

Published in Monday January 28th, 2013 In Opinion

From the mid-90s until 2010, following a concerted effort from national government, the numbers of people sleeping rough steadily declined. Thousands of men and women were helped to find social housing or private rented accommodation, often subsidised by housing benefit. But from 2010 onwards the effects of the economic downturn has slammed all this progress into a dramatic reverse.

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Stopping Evictions in Spain

Published in Monday January 21st, 2013 In Social movement news

As Spain’s unemployment rate climbs above 25 percent and its social welfare system is meticulously dismantled, around 500 eviction orders are issued each day. Banks are repossessing the homes of those who can’t meet their mortgage payments. This trend is sadly not new. There were more than 325,000 foreclosures between 2007 and 2011, according to Spain’s justice department. A fellow Polis blogger explored who is to blame for evictions in Spain early last year. In this post, I look at how advocacy and grassroots groups, including Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) and the housing groups from 15M assemblies, are working to stop and transform this process.

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The Champagne of Housing Rights: France’s Enforceable Right to Housing and Lessons for U.S. Advocates

Published in Monday January 14th, 2013

In the October edition of the Northeastern University Law Journal, Eric S. Tars, Julia Lum and E. Kieran Paul wrote an article about the right to housing in France and its lessons that can be applied at the United States of America. Nowadays, the US faces a serious homelessness crisis and the authors emphasize the need to address this issue.

New rights for the homeless come into force in Scotland

Published in Friday January 4th, 2013 In In the media

Legislation which aims to effectively end homelessness in Scotland has come into force. The change entitles anyone finding themselves homeless through no fault of their own to settled accommodation. Previously, only those classed as being in priority need – often families with children – had that right. It meets Scotland’s historic 2012 homelessness commitment, first set 10 years ago by the Labour/Lib Dem government.

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Green belt housing gamble in England – a bet too far?

Published in Thursday January 3rd, 2013 In Opinion

Watching two of the better-known rightwing thinktanks prime their intellectual cannons and bombard the same target is an impressive, if stomach-churning, sight. In the past week the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Policy Exchange, both of which have the ear of No 10 and No 11 Downing Street, have taken aim at the UK’s planning laws.
The IEA opted for a straightforward bombardment of the green belt. It argued that property developers should be allowed to give incentives to local communities to free up otherwise sacred ground. In other words, if developers see a profit in building on certain land, most likely in the London commuter belt, and the local parishioners can be successfully bought off, then what right does anyone have to intervene?

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Pain in Spain grows as evictions spark new wave of protests

Published in Friday December 7th, 2012 In In the media

The fact that several of the banks repossessing homes are receiving state funds has fuelled Spaniards’ anger. On December 2nd, Tarragona city hall in northeastern Spain revealed it was planning to cut off ties with any bank that evicted local people who could not pay their mortgage. In doing so, it was following a handful of other towns and cities across Spain which have responded in a dramatic way to a deepening evictions crisis.

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