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Human Rights Watch Award Goes to Cambodian Monk Fighting Forced Evictions
Human Rights Watch has awarded a prestigious Hellman/Hammett grant to the Venerable Loun Sovath for his human rights defender work supporting communities facing forced evictions and land-grabbing in Cambodia.
WITNESS
June 28, 2011
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Threats Increase Against Monk Fighting Forced Evictions in Cambodia
Since 2009, our partner organization in Cambodia, LICADHO, has been using video to document forced evictions and land-grabbing. We met the Venerable Loun Sovath, a Buddhist monk, through our work with LICADHO. His tireless campaigning for those at risk of forced eviction in Cambodia, has repeatedly put him at risk.
WITNESS
June 27, 2011
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New Videos: Four Communities on Forced Evictions in Rio
As part of our ongoing campaign on forced evictions in the name of development, I was just in Brazil to meet with our partners and plan our upcoming video advocacy workshop in Rio de Janeiro.
Priscila Néri
June 20, 2011
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Act Now to Stop the Eviction of 25,000 People in Mexico
Our partners in Guerrero, Mexico, need your help. For the past eight years, they have been fighting to defend their homes and communities against the threat posed by the planned construction of a new megadam in the region. If built, the La Parota Dam would displace at least 25,000 people from their lands and negatively impact an additional 75,000 people.
Priscila Néri
May 27, 2011
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Stopping the Construction of a Dam to Prevent Your Home from Being Flooded
The roughly 300 families that live in Temacapulín – a tiny town nestled between four green hills along the Verde River in the state of Jalisco, Mexico – have been fighting against big odds for the past five years for the basic right to stay in their homes.
Priscila Néri
April 12, 2011
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Video Shows What Happens After a Forced Eviction and Why They Should Be Prevented
Amnesty International lent support to filmmaker and friend Chris Kelly and others to produce a short documentary about the forced eviction of residents of Boeung Kak Lake where 4000 families are now facing forced eviction.
WITNESS
April 1, 2011
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Mexico: Children Protest La Parota Dam
Six weeks ago we completed our first video advocacy training in Mexico as part of our global campaign on Forced Evictions. The workshop took place in a charming convent in Mexico City and, for nine intense days, we and our partners at HIC worked with 11 activists/leaders from four local communities whose rights are either being compromised or violated by large-scale dams and other mega-development projects (see photos of the training here).
Priscila Néri
March 15, 2011
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Dams and Human Rights: Using Video to Resist Evictions
It's International Day of Action Against Dams and, as we kick off our global forced evictions campaign supporting dam-affected communities at risk of eviction in Mexico, this post looks at how video and visual imagery have helped propel campaigns to protect human rights in different dam-resistance struggles around the world.
Priscila Néri
March 14, 2011
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Community Complaint Leads to World Bank Conceding Role in Forced Evictions
The municipality of Phnom Penh is not only forcibly evicting communities from land, it is also removing 90% of the city’s major lake to build luxury apartments and hotels. To do this, water and silt are being pumped into Boeung Kak Lake, purposefully flooding nearby homes in several feet of murky water and causing other homes to collapse into floodwater. Approximately 20,000 people are effected.
WITNESS
March 12, 2011
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Communities in Rio de Janeiro Blame Olympics for Evictions
Communities in the West Zone (Zona Oeste) of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil have been earmarked for eviction and removal by the City Hall in preparation for the 2016 Olympics. Recently, at least two of them, 'Vila Harmonia' and 'Vila Autódromo', have witnessed the presence of tractors, government staff and police.
WITNESS
March 7, 2011
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Interview: Brazilian NGO CONAM on Resisting Evictions
Many poor communities in Brazilian cities are at risk of eviction due to the rising demand for space in urban centers and the onslaught of development projects underway in preparation for upcoming megaevents like the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics (read more on how Brazilian civil society is fighting back in this post).
Priscila Néri
March 2, 2011
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Actions against land-grabbing in Cambodia shared in Africa
At an international conference for African communities facing land-grabbing, LICADHO presented a video showing how communities in Cambodia are resisting forced evictions and land grabbing. The three-day conference, Land grabbing in Africa – Dangers and Challenges, was hosted by Caritas Senegal in cooperation with other groups like, FIAN - that is FoodFirst Information and Action Network.
WITNESS
February 21, 2011
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Video Interview: Railway Communities at Risk of Eviction in Kenya
More than 11,000 families are at risk of being forcibly evicted from their homes along the railway line of the Kibera settlement in Nairobi, Kenya.
Priscila Néri
February 18, 2011
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Video Interview: How To Resist Forced Evictions in Venezuela
In this interview (one more from our World Social Forum 2011 series from Dakar), Elizabeth Santos of the Red Metropolitana de Inquilinos y Movimientos Sociales de Caracas (Network of Tenants and Social Movements in Metropolitan Caracas) talks about the different tactics allied networks have used to resist and fight forced evictions in Caracas, Venezuela.
Priscila Néri
February 14, 2011
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Thousands At Risk of Losing Their Homes in Accra, Ghana
This week, WITNESS, and other land and housing rights organizations, signed a public statement demanding a stop to the planned forced eviction of thousands in Ghana’s capital city Accra. The signature campaign was organized here at the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal.
WITNESS
February 10, 2011
