This year the International Housing and Land Rights Day and/or the celebration of the Habitat Day begin a special trajectory – a joining of forces with all who are in the fight to live with dignity and against evictions worldwide.  The initiative, this coming together is expressed in this website, and reflects a preparation phase for the World Social Forum (WSF) 2008.

In 2008, the World Social Forum will have a new form.  Instead of taking place in a single location in the world, the new call will be open to all in any part of the world.  The goal is to create a worldwide mobilization that culminates on the 26th of January of 2008 under the umbrella of the WSF. This WSF 2008 challenge is immense. On the one hand it requires the capacity to mobilize locally and nationally, and on the other hand thematic links need to be established. This website is a response to the latter.

The issue of habitat – housing, land, and public services – is present in the World Social Forum.  The World Charter to the Right to the City was generated in the Forums.  The meetings between habitants have multiplied in the Forums. The fight for the right to housing and land has been linked in the Forums, especially in Nairobi in the Human Dignity/Human Rights Caucus. The joining of networks and organizations around housing and urban issues for the WSF 2008 have been in development since the creation of the Urban Spot (WSF 2007) that is an initiative to create a channel through which we can keep joining forces.
The idea of this campaign was crystallized in June 2007 when the International Council of the WSF was working on the organization of the 2008 Forum.  Therein, the original idea spurred to:

Act Together – Housing for All!

We have opened a space on the internet to facilitate and extend the global reach of our collective struggle to stop forced evictions, to stop the speculation of housing, land and water, to enforce the housing right, to enforce sustainable and inclusive cities, and to reach affordable housing and secure tenure for all.

This website – with its information, and meeting spaces, debates and exchanges between networks, movements and organizations – will support all of us in our combined struggles.

• All organizations are invited to share activities in this site in the events section.
• All documents -regarding the issues that unite us- can be shared in the site in the issues section.
• All opinions about the space -its form and content- is welcomed. Share your inputs in the blog.
• All contributions are welcomed to better and complete the site.  Please contact us!

The Site: Below is an explanation of each part of the website so that you may better use it for your own organizing. Please let us know what works and what doesn't so that we may make necessary changes along the way. Send comments & suggestions to gs@hic-net.org

Sign-On: This statement was created to bring us together. Sign-on and leave edits
to have it ready for the World Social Forum 2008. Also, use it, change it, add local issues - make it yours. <<go there>>

Networks: In this section you will find the various networks developing and realizing campaigns, events, and other important efforts to fight for housing rights. Join them, support their efforts! <<go there>> Become a network member as well - <<go there>>

Issues: So far, these are the issues that different groups have brought up as key for the WSF 2008. Realizing that each region or community addresses housing and land rights differently we created a space to have all the issues represented and discussed. <<go there>>

How To: Educational materials to sharpen our skills to win more victories for people's lives. Let us build a materials database to exchange and grow. <<go there>>

Efforts: During the four months of the campaign many of our sister organizations will be working on different projects related to the issues of housing rights. This space exists so that we can share our projects with each other - learn, teach, exchange, and not reinvent the wheel. <<go there>>

Events: To keep each other up to date on activities, we have created this events form and page. <<go there>>

Blog: Start or participate in a blog discussion. <<go there>>

Partners: A list oforganizations involved in this global effort. Take the opportunity to visit their website, contact them to learn about their work, support their efforts and become a member with them.<<go there>>

Media: The importance of media has become more and more critical. We have therefore started a media database that is available to you. To build it, help us all by imputing media outlets you are familiar with. <<go there>>

Global Calendar: In addition to the events page we have created this global calendar of events organizations send to us from around the globe. <<go there>>

Translation: We are working very hard to translate many parts of the site. As you probably know it is an expensive and time consuming process. And, it is critically important. Our goal is to have the principal parts of the site in Spanish, French and English, and the links will be in whatever language the user wants to submit the article or resource. Please be patient, and please let us know if you can help us out whenever possible. Moreover, if you are able to translate the site into more languages - German, Swahili, Tagalog, etc - let us know and we will build a onto what we already have.

Please send all comments and suggestions to HIC a gs@hic-net.org