Forced-Evictions Archives - Page 4 of 6

VIDEO: Meet Elisângela, the Other Face of Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Legacy Elisângela wasn't home when they arrived. Her 17-year-old daughter called her cellphone, frantic, to break the news: "There are several men from the municipal government here at our door; they're saying they're going to demolish our house." Elisângela raced home to try to negotiate, to no avail. In a few hours, the home she and her family had spent years building was now a pile of rubble. Priscila Néri June 21, 2012
Cambodian Monk and Advocate for Human Rights is Detained, May Be Defrocked We have received word that the Venerable has been released and was not defrocked. More information soon. The fastest way to get updates on this developing situation is to follow me on Twitter: @WitnessRyan WITNESS May 24, 2012
Airport Expansion in North-East India Forcibly Evicts 17 Families Since independence in 1947, tens of milions of Indians have been displaced in the name of development. They have been forcibly uprooted from their homes, farmlands, fishing areas and forests to make way for dam reservoirs, irrigation projects, mines, plantations, highways, and tourist resorts. Reportedly less than 20% have ever been rehabilitated. WITNESS April 11, 2012
NYTimes Reports on Forced Evictions in Rio, But Serious Questions Remain In December, we brought you a Video the Government of Rio de Janeiro Didn't Want You To See and showed you how our partner activists in Rio were confronting Olympics organizers on the forced evictions of poor communities in Rio ahead of the 2016 Olympics. Priscila Néri March 5, 2012
New Year Brings Broken Promises in Cambodia WITNESS partner LICADHO has been documenting with video forced evictions and land grabbing throughout Cambodia. LICADHO is also a part of WITNESS' global campaign on forced evictions. WITNESS January 12, 2012
New Video the Government of Rio de Janeiro Doesn’t Want You to See Roughly 170,000 people are either at risk, or have already been subjected to, forced evictions throughout the 12 Brazilian cities gearing up to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. Priscila Néri December 14, 2011
Mexico Partners Use Video to Pressure Governor, Influence Media, Document Protests A few weeks ago, I met our forced evictions campaign partners in Mexico and we traveled together to Temacapulín, a small community in the mountains of Jalisco state that has been fighting its own eviction for several years due to the construction of the El Zapotillo Dam. Priscila Néri December 2, 2011
Join the Call: No More Evictions for Rio 2016 Olympics We’ve joined forces with our local partners in Rio and Amnesty International to call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to address the complaints of hundreds of poor families that have been (or are at risk of being) forcibly evicted from their homes under the pretext of the XXXI Summer Olympic Games to be held in Rio in 2016. Priscila Néri November 15, 2011
What do the World Cup and Olympics Have to do with Human Rights Violations? Sometimes, quite a bit. Did you know that in Beijing alone, over 1.25 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes to make way for Olympics-related development in the lead-up to the 2008 Games? Priscila Néri October 20, 2011
World Habitat Day Is About People: Their Struggles, Their Strategies As I shared in an earlier post, Global Networks Unite on Forced Evictions, WITNESS, our partner the Habitat International Coalition and 6 other networks working on housing and land rights have organized World Habitat Days - six weeks (16 September - 31 October) to bring attention and activism to forced evictions, land grabbing and activists at risk. WITNESS October 3, 2011
Video Captures Police Destroying Homes, Beating Locals in Phnom Penh Riot police and security forces moved into the Boeung Kak area of Phnom Penh with batons and shields on Friday to forcibly evict families from their homes. In all eight homes were destroyed. Our partner in Cambodia, LICADHO, and LICADHO Canada, captured the attack on video, including the violent beating with a brick by police of a local activist. This video contains graphic and violent content. WITNESS September 18, 2011
Global Networks and WITNESS Unite Against Forced Evictions Today marks the first day of a six week period of focus on housing issues around the world called World Habitat Days. Collectively representing hundreds of organizations and thousands of activists, WITNESS, our partner the Habitat International Coalition, and 5 housing and land rights networks have organized the World Habitat Days to draw global attention and actions to housing issues around the world - as part of our larger focus on forced evictions. WITNESS September 16, 2011
Cambodian Government Attempts to Silence Work on Forced Evictions International non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have written to 35 foreign ministries to review donor aid if the Government of Cambodia passes a law severely restricting the activities of NGOs in the country. WITNESS September 1, 2011
Forced Evictions Training in Rio: Social Activism as Samba Whether it was talking social movement strategy and video action plans or singing samba underneath the stars, an overwhelming energy of solidarity and brotherly and sisterly love pulsed through WITNESS’ video advocacy training in Rio. WITNESS August 10, 2011
New Film Captures the Trials and Triumphs of Housing Activists in South Africa Less than two decades ago, South Africa joined the ranks of democracies around the world as years of agonizing civil struggle and violence gave way to the moment so many had fought for: the end of apartheid, and the beginning of a government representative of all its people. WITNESS July 26, 2011