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Inner City Press
Global Inner Cities Report - February 2, 2006
Post-Tsunami Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent
NEW YORK, Feb. 1 -- In the aftermath of the
December 2004 tsunami, human rights are being violated, including in at
least one instance with funding from the World Bank and the United
Nations Development Programme.
In a
report
released February 1 at the United Nations in New York, three
non-governmental organizations identify land-grabs, loss of livelihood
and forced relocations. While Sri Lanka’s shifting proposals for “buffer
zones” prohibiting rebuilding on the short are the subject of some
controversy (and reporting), less known is the UNDP-funded “safe
islands” initiative in the Maldives. At the Feb. 1 report-launch
briefing, a video was shown of the Hulhumale refugee came for people
displaced from the islands of Villifushi, Madifushi and Kadholhudhoo.
The camp consists of tin long houses with faulty plumbing that become so
hot it is impossible to sleep, according to residents.
Both during and after the
briefing, Miloon Kothari, the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing to
the UN Commission on Human Rights, was asked by Inner City Press whether
this UNDP-funded program in the Maldives runs afoul of application human
right standards, including the Commission’s 1988 Guiding Principles on
Internal Displacement, which state that “Every human being shall have
the right to be protected against being arbitrarily displaced from his
or her home or place of habitual residence… Displacement shall last no
longer than required by the circumstances.” During the brief, Mr.
Kothari replied that “human rights standards apply to everyone,
including UN agencies.” He said that the report has been sent to “Bill
Clinton’s office” (the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami
Recovery). After the briefing, Mr. Kothari added that the issue will be
raised directly to UNDP.
On the other side of
Manhattan island – after a 4 p.m. fire drill cleared the UN Secretariat
– the Outreach Officer for the UN Office of the Special Envoy for
Tsunami Recovery, Annie Maxwell, gave a
lecture about
the Office’s work, noting that while all are in favor of coordination,
no one wants to be coordinated. When asked about the report, and the
UNDP-funded displacement project in the Maldives, Ms. Maxwell replied
that the report is “in her inbox,” and that she will look into it.
Whether the discussed human rights standards can be substantively
applied, to this UNDP-funded project, will be something of a test.
Watch this space.
Some previous reports:
Halliburton
Repays $9 Million, While Iraq’s Oil Remains Unmetered
Darfur on the
Margins: Slovenia’s President Drnovsek’s Quixotic Call for Action
Ignored
Who Pays for the
Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN
Royal Bank of
Scotland Has Repeatedly Been Linked to Terrorist Finance and Money
Laundering, Not Only in the Current Brooklyn Case
From Appalachia
to Wall Street: Behind the Mining Tragedy, UBS and Lehman Brothers
Iraqis Absent
from Oil Oversight Meeting on Development Fund for Iraq, Purportedly Due
to Visa Problems
Watching the
Detectives: Oversight of the Development Fund for Iraq Will be Discussed
at the UN on December 28, 2005
From the UN
Budget, Transit Strike, to the USA Patriot Act, 2005 Ends with
Extensions
Some previous
highlights and special reports:
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
The United
Nations' Year of Microcredit: Questions & No Answers
Older Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org - if you have
trouble finding previous articles, please
contact us
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