Forced Evictions in the Name of Development

Most development projects, at face value, seem aimed at improving the lives of people. A new dam will generate more electricity to power industry; a new sports complex for a major event like the World Cup will bring in new revenue and evoke national pride; a new shopping mall will create new businesses and therefore more jobs. 
 
The reality for communities living at or near a project – be it a dam, a sports complex, or a shopping mall – is often quite different.  A project being developed on their land, on their homes, is often about the destruction of communities, the disruption of lives, and the impoverishment of people. These development projects result in the forced eviction of an estimated 15 million people each year.  Forced evictions are involuntary, and regularly do not uphold obligations to fairly compensate, resettle and rehabilitate people and the physical and social infrastructures that once made them a community. Human rights abuses such as a lack of adequate housing, no access to water, schools or hospitals, can be the results of a forced eviction. 
 
WITNESS and the Habitat International Coalition (HIC) are working together to incorporate video advocacy into local and global campaigns on forced evictions across HIC’s worldwide network in Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, India and Mexico and will continue into other countries over the course of the 3-year partnership.
Read and watch more on the blog »
 
Previous Partnerships
WITNESS has worked previously on development-induced displacement, most notably with our partner CEMIRIDE in Kenya; the Video Advocacy Workshop with International Accountability Project where 15 activists in 9 Asian countries were trained to produce advocacy videos on development-induced displacement; with our partner LICADHO in Cambodia; and with our former partners NAKAMATA in the Philippines and Burma Issues in Burma.

 

Forced Evictions Videos

 

Telling the Story at the Heart of the News
March 15, 2013 - By Guest Blogger
At the beating heart of every news event is a story about people. But without a human voice, even the most well researched story will fade as events recede into the past. Here are some ideas for...

Key for a Key: Unlocking a Video Advocacy Training in Brazil
February 16, 2013 - By Jackie Zammuto
What's it like to be in a WITNESS video training? This post brings you inside the classroom in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where two dozen activists are working to save their communities from forced...

Land rights violations in India meet continued resistance
February 8, 2013 - By Ryan Schlief
In the dark hours of the night, police forcefully entered two Indian villages, in the name of "development". 6 people were seriously injured; 50 were arbitrarily detained; and 1 was arrested. Here's...

 

More Articles »

Footage of Neighborhood in Brazil being demolished for the World Cup

Source: ELITES TV | March 4, 2013

WITNESS partnered with Rio People's World Cup and Olympics Committee to document how the World Cup is resulting in the forced evictions of entire communities. Citizens are still fighting to get a fair compensation after their neighborhood was bulldozed without warning.

More »


Youth to sue the government to save the environment

Source: The Register-Guard | March 4, 2013

In the final keynote at the 31st annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon, several of the TRUST campaign plaintiff spoke about their motivations in suing state and federal government to protect natural resources.

 

More »


Article highlighting WITNESS’ Minidoc in partnership with Rio People's World Cup and Olympics Committee [PT]

Source: Publica | February 1, 2013

Hundreds of families are without homes after tractors came to demolish a whole neighborhood in the community Restinga. WITNESS helped residents to tell their stories via video.

 

More »


See More »

Each year an estimated 15 million people across the globe are forcibly uprooted from their homes, farmlands, fishing areas, forests to make way for dam reservoirs, irrigation projects, mines, plantations, highways, and tourist resorts. Urban slums are bulldozed to make way for luxury condominiums, sporting facilities and shopping centers.

Forced eviction tends to go hand-in-hand with the use or threat of violence. Under represented communities and those living in poverty are affected most dramatically and each project underscores the discrimination rooted in the existing financial, legal and political systems. A forced eviction exacerbates poverty, social unrest, environmental degradation and loss of cultural identity. Its affects remain long after the last home is torn down.

Communities in every corner of the globe have long struggled to keep their land and homes or, if the project is being built, to receive just compensation and rehabilitation. Too often governments proposing a project do not effectively consult communities at risk of displacement and therefore activism frequently occurs after a project receives approval and funding. In the past three decades, communities and activists have campaigned for international guidelines and safeguards on development-induced displacement. Many major development banks and more than 60 private banks lending funds to governments and corporations for large-scale projects have adopted at least minimum safeguards to prevent human rights abuses associated with forced evictions.

Despite these guidelines and safeguards, the UN in 2010 reported that forced evictions are on the rise. Routinely, implemented projects do not follow the financial institution's own safeguard policies and investors and governments often ignore obligations to avoid or at least minimize displacement. Domestic laws protecting the rights of persons forcibly evicted vary greatly from country to country and, in practice, there is often little recourse domestically for communities challenging a forced eviction.