The UN Commission on Human Rights adopts a resolution that will have direct bearing on the controversial Narmada clam in Gujarat.
RESETTLEMENT of people against
their will constitutes a "gross violation of human rights", according to a
resolution adopted by the UN
Commission on Human Rights at a
recent meeting in Geneva.
The resolution was put together
by groups led by Habitat International Coalition of Mexico.
It applies to resettlement due to
large-scale development projects as
well as eviction of tenants, and
directs the UN secretary general
to compile a study on forced evictions for its consideration at its 1994
session.
The resolution was initially
opposed by USA, which objected to
the word "gross" and because of concern that it severely restricted the
right of landlords to evict rentdefaulting tenants.
The Sardar Sarovar project in
Gujarat which is funded by the
World Bank, probably will be the
first test of the resolution's impact
because a decision is expected to be
taken in May on continuation of the
project. which has evoked widespread,40rotests within the country
and abroad. The Canadian NGO
Probe International estimates World
Bank-funded projects will displace
upto 1.5 million people, with
another 1.5 million likely to be
affected by projects which are still on
the anvil.
According to the London office of
the Panos Institute, an NGO, the
worst displacement cases are the
Kedung Ombo dam, Indonesia,
25,000 people; the Akasombo dam,
Ghana, 80,000 p6ople, and the
Cahora Bassa and Cariba projects,
southern Africa, 75,000 people. In
China, 10 million people have been
displaced by 80,000 reservoirs since
1949, and a Chinese government official concedes, "only one-third of the
resettlement effort in the past seems
satisfactory".
People are often resettled to
make way for development projects
that supposedly w 'ill be to their benefit. Now governments will be pressed
to explain that the displaced were
not forced to leave their homes.
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