Zero Evictions Campaign

This movement involves strengthening the commitment, proposals and struggle of citizens, associations of inhabitants, urban social movements, local authorities, non-government organisations (NGOs), and progressive governments to act. Through social mobilisation and advocacy, the campaign works toward:

• An international alert system with local “antennae” for violations of housing rights
• Appeals for international solidarity
• Proposals for exploratory missions and conciliation by the UN-Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (AGFE)
• Support for the exchange of experience of good practices on the part of inhabitants’ organisations, local bodies, and others working to avoid evictions
• Support for the drafting and monitoring of local, national, and international plans of action for security of housing tenure.

In October 2005, Eviction World Days saw many activist initiatives planned in Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia and Europe to denounce forced evictions and propose alternatives; in total, 30 groups, with a total of over 350 individuals, responded to the appeal by organising initiatives in 22 countries throughout the world. Examples of action taken include: public protest marches, information booths, occupation of land/lodgings, seminars, petitions, laying of the foundation stones of new houses, and press conferences. IAI estimates that more than 100,000 people were directly contacted through such activities during the month of October 2005.

To elaborate on a few specific advocacy strategies used during this month of action, in the United Kingdom (UK), efforts in the "Red Wheels" version of the campaign have focused on the Romanies, or Gypsies, and the Travellers, who have apparently been "evicted by force from their own properties and left to fend for themselves as 'illegal' squatters on car-parks and lay-byes. Why? Because they belong to a minority, in England for 500 years, which has always suffered from the intolerance, prejudices and racial discrimination of the majority..." As part of the campaign, on Roma Nation Day in the UK, Irish actor Michael Collins symbolically shovelled away an earth barrier at Five Acre Farm (where many homes were slated to be destroyed). In addition to celebrities, religious personnel have also been involved; Father John Glynn, wrote an article in the Economist magazine pledging that "I'll be up there at the site if they evict the travellers. And my poster will say This is ethnic-cleansing." Father Glynn also delivered to council leader Malcolm Buckley a worldwide petition backed by IAI calling for a halt to the plan to destroy the homes.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been used as a tool to spur action and exchange ideas. For example, the Alliance of Tenants' Associations of Croatia promoted the campaign together with the IAI and many social, trade union and political organisations, as well as individuals, through an online appeal. The Nigeria campaign drew on a similar online approach for "breaking the silence" and gathering voices in defence of housing rights in that country.

Interactive ICTs were also used to evaluate the impact of the October 2005 activities - how has the campaign contributed to promoting the will to speak out, to exchanging experiences, to uniting in protest, and to strengthening the impact of the proposals made by inhabitants' associations on other parties? - as well as to set out a way forward. An online forum took place from November 27 2005 to January 29 2006, in an effort to share assessments of the Zero Evictions Days, articulate proposals for the next moves to make, and suggest new projects.

Housing Rights.

According to IAI, one billion people all over the world are either threatened with homelessness or living in bad housing conditions, due to large-scale investments of financial and real estate capital, social, economic and racial discrimination, wars and natural disasters. Instead of this figure diminishing by 100 million by 2015, IAI predicts that it is will rise by another 700 million. The organisation claims that the recent United Nations Summit "chose to largely ignore" what IAI calls a "substantial failure of policies proposed by governments to deal with the effects of globalisation", instead focusing on discussion of the reform of the United Nations and the fight against terrorism.