Daily report for 28 April 1995

WORKING GROUP I

The Group continued consideration of Agenda Item 2, Preparations for the Conference.

NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PREPARATIONS: Several countriesincluding Romania, Benin, Algeria, Tanzania, Cameroon, Senegal, Bulgaria, Malawi,Zambia, Gabon and The Gambia had undertaken activities such as creating broad-based national committees and preparing national reports and plans of action. Norwayheld a ministerial level round-table this year whose output is available. In light ofrecent experiences, Rwanda is starting from scratch and needs financial assistance.France will host an international meeting for mayors from 20 cities in 5 regions inNovember.

The Economic Commission for Europe reported on the regional preparatory meetingheld in September 1994, in Geneva, which established an open-ended task force tomonitor regional activities. UNIDO will convene a colloquium on issues such as wastedisposal systems and environmental regulations, and will hold regional consultationswith the housing industry.

The World Health Organization described its Healthy Cities Programme and proposeda presentation on the programme during Habitat II. ESCAP highlighted a publicationon habitat issues in Asian cities and will convene a forum on urban issues in Asia.Indonesia is planning a national awareness campaign. Greece has held three nationalconferences and begun a country-wide competition on Best Practices.

Swaziland asked why subregional organizations such as SADC were not involved andwhether the preparation of the Global Plan of Action (GPA) would be based on thenational action programmes or vice versa. The Secretariat said its GPA was preparedwith input from three sources: cross- and multi-sectoral issues identified in PrepCom I;preliminary priorities from national reports and regional and subregional meetings; andover 300 experts from around the world. The group redrafting the GPA intends to baseits version on national action programmes.

FUNDING: Swaziland, Gabon and Algeria reiterated the funding concernsraised Thursday by India and Kenya. Burundi asked the Secretariat not to tire ofhelping developing countries as Habitat II approaches. The Gambia warned that itspreparatory process will fail without immediate financial support. Malawi hadrequested assistance for its housing indicators programme and national plan of action,but received none. Zambia has completed an urban indicators program for its capitalcity, but lacks the funds to continue.

The Secretariat reported that the total income including pledges and funds requestedfrom the regular UN budget is US$5.3 million. The total received to date is US$4.6million. US$3.3 million has been spent for partial reimbursement of activitiesincluding PrepCom I participation, regional and subregional meetings, gender andwomen's networking activities, documentation of best practices and NGOparticipation. In kind contributions amount to US$8.9 million. Cash pledges have beenprovided by 18 countries, including two developing countries.

Thirty-nine requests for financial assistance have been received from developingcountries. The assistance provided falls into three categories: application of indicators,documentation of best practices, and ad hoc technical assistance. In total, 55countries have received technical assistance. The Secretariat hopes to provideassistance to 39 countries in 1995, in particular to national committees, regional andsub-regional meetings and the preparation of national reports and national plans ofaction.

INFORMATION: Tanzania urged the Secretariat to utilize country missionsin Nairobi or the UNDP offices to forward information to governments, while Beninnoted that countries without missions in Nairobi receive information late. He requestedTurkey to provide information on Istanbul at least six months before Habitat II. TheSecretariat is using four channels to disseminate information on Best Practices:missions in Nairobi, national committees whose addresses are available, key actors andthe media.

ISTANBUL AND DUBAI PREPARATIONS: Gabon commented that theGroup was not given any information on Turkey's civil war during the last meeting.Turkey said the best answers on the 'alleged civil war' should come from theSecretary-General of Habitat II, who recently visited Istanbul. He added that Turkeyhosted many international meetings last year.

The Secretariat is currently considering the question of selection criteria for BestPractices and the possibility of setting up an independent international jury comprisingall key actors. France had proposed that selection and nomination criteria should beconsistent and that different categories for successful cases should be developed. Heurged other delegates to share their suggestions on the issue.

WORKING GROUP II

Chair Amb. de Silva (Sri Lanka) reported that the open-ended informal working groupset up Tuesday met during the week to consider the Draft Statement of Principles andGlobal Plan of Action (GPA), and invited Dr. G.A.C Khonje (Zambia), Chair of theopen-ended informal working group to give a report.

Dr. Khonje said the open-ended informal working group had met twice and discussedthe document prepared by the Secretariat and the draft proposal of the European Union(EU). There was consensus that the EU proposal would form a good basis to preparethe GPA. A drafting group was set up to discuss the modalities.

Dr. Khonje, who is also chairing the drafting group, then reported on its progress. Itdiscussed the structure and content of the document at its first session Thursday. Thestructure has a preamble, principles, goals and commitments, and a Global Plan ofAction.

The group also worked on the principles, adding international solidarity and justice,the family, peace, and poverty eradication, to those of the EU. The group hascompleted work on civic engagement and is working on equity and the newlyintroduced principles. In addition, the group will work on an outline of thecommitments, a comprehensive preamble and an outline for the Global Plan of Action.

Amb. de Silva said the document being prepared by the drafting group will beavailable by Monday morning and will form the basis of discussion for the WorkingGroup. He then requested contributions from delegations who were unable to makeinputs into the open-ended informal working group. The International Labour Officesaid reference to links between unemployment, poverty and human settlements shouldbe stronger and more explicit.

The delegates then debated the procedure for the drafting group. India, supported byChina and the Philippines, proposed that the drafting group should be open-endedbecause the current arrangement excludes delegates who have something to offer,deviates from general practice in Nairobi meetings for drafting groups and will cause are-opening of debate on the documents during the Working Group or Plenarymeetings.

Benin clarified that a drafting group differs from a negotiating group, and was set upto prepare text that will be negotiated and read paragraph-by-paragraph in the WorkingGroup.

Senegal concurred and stated that prior to the creation of the drafting group, delegateshad extensive discussions in the informal working group on the GPA. Sweden,supported by Tanzania, suggested that delegates submit their texts to the draftinggroup. Finally, consensus was reached to retain the drafting group as it was, but toallow interested delegates as observers.

At Benin's suggestion, it was agreed that whatever text is ready Monday morningshould be submitted for negotiation in the Working Group, while the drafting groupcontinues its work.

DRAFTING GROUP: The drafting group continued work on the principlesof the family, international solidarity and justice, peace, and sustainability. On thefamily, many delegates stressed the need to include all types of families and suggestedlanguage from recent UN conferences. On international solidarity, some delegatessuggested moving this topic elsewhere in the document because national and localauthorities are central to this Conference. Others held that without this principle, theConference is pointless. The group continued discussions on sustainability andinternational solidarity during the afternoon, and expected to work through theweekend to produce a draft by Monday.

COMMISSION ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

Committee II resumed discussion of the right to housing, considering several proposalsto resolve disagreements over its inclusion in Commission documents. The smallworking party chaired by Brazil presented a draft that takes note of the term 'right toadequate housing' in several Commission reports and states that the term should beunderstood as referring to the basic need for adequate shelter and the goal ofGovernments to help their populations meet that need. The phrase does not, in suchdocuments, refer to an international human right. The draft also requires that thestatement be appended to documents distributed outside the Commission. Brazil saidthe draft did not prejudice other decisions or activities of the Commission. He said atleast two Member States are facing problems in their courts over judicial claims to theright to housing and that this should be considered.

The Netherlands objected to the working party's text, noting that it prejudges theSecretariat's review agreed to in a resolution Thursday. Supported by Sweden, theHoly See, France, and Senegal, he proposed an alternative to state that no consensusexisted on the interpretation of the concept of the right to adequate housing.

The Philippines rejected the working party's text, noting that it would manacle theability of member States to apply their own legal systems regarding the right tohousing. It would preclude further consideration of other instruments on the right toadequate housing and would negate existing international instruments that manydelegations believe include the human right to housing. The right does not mean aState is obliged to give property to citizens.

Cameroon opposed the draft. China said the document should be re-examined. Russiaexpressed frustration at the mess that resulted after three days of debate. Supported byMexico, he said the document should indicate that there is no consensus on assessingthe legal meaning of the right to housing or on the contents of the documents, and thatthis should be indicated in Commission documents.

Romania cannot accept the obligation to the right to housing. He supported either theworking party draft or Russia's proposal. The US said the working party language isnon-prejudicial and that the Committee cannot approve documents as if there isagreement. The Committee problems could jeopardize the substantive workprogramme.

After several hours of afternoon in-the-corridor consultations, the Chair proposed anon-paper stating that the Commission found no agreement on the existence and/or thelegal status of the 'right to adequate housing.' He proposed that a note to that effectshould be appended to documents distributed outside the Commission, that factualerrors on this matter should be corrected and that the Commission's biennial workprogramme (HS/C/15/7) should be revised to reflect this. Mexico supported theChair's non-paper.

The Philippines said delegates had debated the corrections submitted, but were nowmaking a mockery of themselves. He said if others insisted, he would ask for a roll-call vote. Russia called for the vote, noting that a procedural motion takes precedence.A discussion of procedure ensued for the next hour.

China called for the decision not to be made, noting that this motion takesprecedence. Norway noted that UN practice suggests that proposals from the Chairshould be withdrawn in the absence of consensus. The Chair withdrew the non-paper,noting there was nothing on which to vote and nothing to be decided. Delegatesplanned to resume the discussion Saturday morning.

THINGS TO LOOK FOR TODAY

WORKING GROUP I: The Group convenes Monday morning to completeconsideration of Agenda Item 2, Preparations for the Conference, and beginconsideration of Agenda Item 4, state of human settlements report and major reviews.PrepCom Chair Lujanen is expected to begin the afternoon session with his report onthe structure and organization of work for the Istanbul Conference.

WORKING GROUP II: The Group will meet to consider the new DraftStatement of Principles and Global Plan of Action prepared by the drafting group.