WUNRN
Report of Former UN Special
Rapporteur on Adequate Housing to the Human Rights Commission/Council, on Women
& Adequate Housing: E/CN.4/2005/43
WOMEN & ADEQUATE HOUSING
B. Forced Evictions
49. Forced evictions often
have a much greater impact on women because of the higher degree of
contribution and commitment to sustaining the home as opposed to men, women’s
perception of “home”, the role women play in the home, the fear women have of
losing their home, and the fear women have of living in insecurity. Women are
exposed to gender violence in urban slum evictions because women tend to be the
main defendants, either due to their role in managing the household, which
often makes them the only ones at home at the time of the eviction, or due to
deliberate targeting by the community. The Special Rapporteur notes that forced
evictions involving women, resulting from external forces or domestic violence,
is a common issue for the mandates of both the Special Rapporteur on violence
against women and the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing.10
50. The testimonies from
regional consultations also highlighted the impact of having to consistently
live with the threat of eviction and associated violence. Such burdens manifest
themselves in both physical and psychological ways, reaching such extreme
levels that many respondents claim they are comparable to forms of cruel and
inhuman degrading treatment. To this extent it is important to recognize
protection from forced evictions as a distinct element of the right to housing.
___________________________________________________________
Amnesty International
Report - Website & Multilingual Report Download: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA23/007/2011/en
Cambodia: Eviction and Resistance in Cambodia: Five Women
Tell Their Stories: Recommendations
____________________________________________________________________
Cambodia - Women on Front Line of Eviction Fights
Bridget
Di Certo - 25 November 2011
Friends of Chea Dara, a woman who took her life,console one another during an Amnesty International meeting yesterday at Meta House concern ing forced evictions. Photo by: Hong Menea
Broken
promises and empty commitments from the Royal Government of Cambodia must stop
and be replaced by real action when it comes to forced evictions, Amnesty
International said yesterday.
Launching their report on the effects of evictions and resistance on Cambodian
women, Amnesty representatives said they were troubled by the treatment of
human rights defenders in
In
the case of forced land evictions, these human rights defenders are
predominantly women.
“Cambodian women are increasingly at the forefront of the battle against a wave
of forced evictions sweeping the country,” Amnesty Asia-Pacific deputy director
Donna Guest said.
Three prominent women, who have been fighting forced evictions in
“Our husbands travel to work, so it is the housewives, the mothers, that are at
home facing the evictions,” Boeung Kak lake resident Tep Vanny said. “We feel
the worst of the economic and emotional pressure and suffering from being
forced off our lands.”
The 31-year-old presented a short video Boeung Kak lake residents produced in
honour of Chea Dara, who committed suicide on Tuesday amid her despair over
what she believed was her pending eviction. Friends of Chea Dara, dressed in
black, wept openly through the film.
The Royal Government’s broken promises have left the women fighting evictions
with little hope in the legal system being able to defending them, evictees
said.
“The court is never for poor people,” Tep Vanny said. “I had lived on my land
since 1993, had land title since 2006, but that did not stop them from giving
the concession in 2007 or starting to fill the lake in with sand in 2008.”
Leading human rights advocate and opposition Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian
Mu Sochua, who attended the launch with two of the recently resigned SRP
members, similarly said the ruling party had shown it would not aid helpless
villagers.
“This is a country ruled by greed, and not ruled by law,” Mu Sochua told the
Post.
“The international community in
The sugar plantation in Oddar Meanchey that forced 48-year-old Hoy Mai from her
land is a joint venture with tycoon CPP senator Ly Yong Phat and Thai
conglomerate Mitr Phol Sugar is one example of where the international
community can increase pressure, the women representatives said.
The sugar production joint venture is a major supplier of sugar to the EU and
popular softdrink maker Coca-Cola.
“The EU must stop buying this sugar,” said Hoy Mai, whose home and entire
possessions were torched to the ground by authorities in 2009, as she stood by
helplessly and watched.