20 March 2010 - Today, more than half the world's population lives in cities.

Every year, hundreds of thousands are uprooted when neighborhoods are cleared to make way for “development” or the “world class city” ambitions of the politically and economically powerful.

Millions live in dire conditions, without water and sanitation, public infrastructure or security of tenure.

In the next 50 years, it is projected that two-thirds of us will be living in towns and cities – particularly in Africa and Asia.

In fact, by 2030, the towns and cities of the developing world will make up 81 percent of urban humanity. Most new urban dwellers will be poor.

On 22-26 March,  the fifth session of the World Urban Forum will be held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro to address these issues.

According to a UN Habitat report, State of the World's Cities, released in advance of the WUF, any housing efforts made by countries to improve living conditions over the last decade were more than countered by world population growth and the rural exodus to cities.

Overall, the total number of slum dwellers increased over the last ten years by more than 50 million – from 776.7m to 827.6m.

According to the report, Sub-Saharan Africa has the most slum dwellers (199.5m) followed by South Asia (190.7m) and East Asia (189.6m). The most unequal cities in terms of wealth are Buffalo City, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, all in South Africa

The WUF was established by the UN to examine precisely these issues: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.

The theme of this year's Forum is “The Right to the City: Bridging the Urban Divide.”

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) will be actively participating in this year's World Urban Forum.

“Hundreds of millions of people are living in desperate situations,” said Salih Booker, Executive Director of COHRE. “The UN Habitat report reveals that we need to think of our cities as environments that should guarantee the human rights of their inhabitants: including the right to adequate housing, which must include access to clean water and sanitation, security of tenure and adequate infrastructure.”

“Governments need to start thinking about cities in a new way. They need to construct – in full consultation with the cities' inhabitants – the legal instruments, public policies and new forms of management that can create cities that are safe, just and able to fulfill the basic human rights of all of its residents.”

At this year's  World Urban Forum, COHRE will be partnering with key local and regional networks such as the Habitat International Coalition, the International Alliance of Inhabitants, and the National Forum of Urban Reform in Brazil, among others, on five activities [link] to promote the “right to the city”. The main goals of these activities will be to :

• raise global awareness of the importance of human rights within urban settings;
• encourage a greater use of  “right to the city” concepts by  civil society partners and key international forums;
• ensure increased use of international housing rights standards by local actors in their activities.

One of the main activities at the Forum will be an event on “Urban Conflicts, Mega-events and evictions”.  The event comes as Brazil prepares to host two “mega-events”: the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

”We are very concerned about the continuous practice of forced eviction in several states in Brazil, and fear this could get worse during preparations for both the  World Cup and Olympics,” said Salih Booker.

Just last week,  the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Brazilian Raquel Rolnik, presented her report to the UN Human Rights Council regarding the current state of housing rights in Brazil. She has also expressed concern to the Council on the impact of “mega events” on housing rights for residents of states hosting such events.
“The Brazilian government should take a human-rights based approach to all of its preparations for these important events and develop policies to prevent and mediate land conflicts,” said Salih Booker.

To see a full schedule of events at the Fifth WUF, please visit UN Habitat's website.