UN Authority Figures

UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) Governing Council: Zimbabwe

Thousands of homes have been demolished in Zimbabwe's cities. (BBC, June 9, 2005)

Mission of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT): "The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all." (UN-HABITAT web-site, "Our Mission")

Zimbabwe's Term of office: 2007-2010

Zimbabwe's Record on Sustainable Human Settlements:
"The government continued to evict citizens and to demolish homes and informal marketplaces...The government's campaign of forced evictions and the demolition of homes and businesses continued during the year. At least 30,000 people were displaced between April and July in the wake of government-sponsored political violence and destruction of property, particularly in rural areas. The government did not provide assistance to IDPs, established an NGO ban that forbid humanitarian agencies from assisting IDPs or conducting surveys to assess the scope of the problem, and refused to acknowledge that its policies had caused internal displacement. In August, when violence levels in rural areas declined in the wake of political talks, many IDPs returned to or near their homes and were "fined" in food, animals, or money by local ZANU-PF militias. In the wake of the government ban on humanitarian organizations' activities between June and the end of August, aid agencies had limited access to displaced persons...In 2005 an estimated 700,000 persons lost their homes or businesses following Operation Murambatsvina, and approximately 2.4 million persons were directly affected...[V]ictims of Operation Murambatsvina continued to suffer and lacked permanent shelter." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2008, Zimbabwe)

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