Housing rights body names U.S., Russia as
violators
24 Nov 2004
Source: Reuters
GENEVA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A global activist group on Wednesday named the United States, Russia and Sudan as the world's worst violators of the right to good housing in 2004.
"Although the right to adequate housing is overlooked by many governments ... Sudan, the United States and Russia stand out for their appalling disregard for this basic human right," the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said.
The non-governmental organisation, which is accredited at the United Nations' European headquarters in Geneva, said the United States continued to treat "millions of homeless people within its borders in an unjust and brutal manner".
It said homelessness had been "criminalised" in nearly 50 U.S. states, while U.S. military operations in Iraq had left thousands of people there with no home to live in.
Russia was accused of repatriating thousands of Chechen refugees from camps in the neighbouring region of Ingushetia without providing them with adequate shelter in their homeland.
"This move forced thousands of Chechen IDPs (internally displaced people) on to the streets," the centre's executive director, Scott Leckie, said.
As for the government of Sudan, the group alleged that it had supported Arab militias in the western Darfur region in their campaign of burning and looting Black African villages.
It was the second time the United States had appeared on the offenders' list since the group began publishing it in 2002.
For the entire series of COHRE releases, please click here.