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Civil Society Groups Pledge to Ensure India’s compliance with UN Human Rights Commitments
2004-09-02
SARP
On 30 and 31 August 2004, civil society groups met to launch an alternate report on housing and land rights in India to the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. The groups reaffirmed their commitment to ensure India’s compliance with its UN human rights commitments. Participants included representatives of non-governmental and community-based organizations such as Kalpavriksh, Citizens Initiative, the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, Mines, Minerals & People, Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan, Action Aid India, International Centre for Research on Women, India, Muktidhara, the National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers and Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land Rights Network.
India became a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) on 10 July 1979. Although Articles 16 and 17 of the ICESCR require State parties to submit periodic reports to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, India is now three reports overdue. This despite the instructions in Article 51 of the Constitution of India, which the Supreme Court of India asserts is a requirement for legislative and executive conformity to the principles established in international covenants.
In light of this negligence in reporting, as well as concern over noticeable failures on the part of the Indian government to fulfill, respect, promote and protect the economic, social and cultural rights of its citizens, Habitat International Coalition-Housing and Land Rights Network in collaboration with a diverse group of non-governmental and community-based organisations, prepared an alternate report on the status of housing and land rights to the Committee.
The report provides an overview of seven groups that have been particularly vulnerable to violations of the right to adequate housing in India: the urban poor, forest dwellers, Dalits, victims of the 2002 riots in the State of Gujarat, communities displaced due to large-scale development projects (including large dams and mining projects), the urban homeless, and nomadic communities. In each case, it is clear that violations of the right to adequate housing occur because of a failure on the part of the central government to respect and protect the right to adequate housing. In particular, we would like to draw attention to the following violations:
- Near systematic reliance on forced evictions of urban slum dwellers in the name of “reclamation” and “clearance” of government-owned land;
- Failure to provide access to secure tenure for marginalized groups such as forest dwellers, the urban poor, nomads and Dalits;
- Failure to follow due process of law in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in the name of “development” projects, and failure to provide adequate resettlement and rehabilitation packages to those who have been displaced;
- Failure on the part of the Indian courts to protect the right to adequate housing, in particular with respect to their authorization of forced evictions without respect for procedures for prior notice and resettlement, as mandated by India’s international human rights obligations;
- Failure to take adequate steps to assess urgent needs of India’s homeless population and provide them with basic shelter; and
- The de facto criminalization of poor and marginalized groups such as the homeless, slum dwellers, forest dwellers, and nomads, which, in turn, exacerbates problems related to security of tenure.
These violations work to the detriment of the lives of millions of Indians.
For the full report see https://hic-sarp.org/documents/HIC-1.pdf
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