US Human Rights Network/Advocates for Environmental Human Rights: Human Rights Groups Call Destruction of Low Income Housing Projects in New Orleans Act of Racial Cleansing
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 13, 2007
2:40 PM
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CONTACT: US Human Rights Network
Advocates for Environmental Human Rights
Janvieve Williams, US Human Rights Network, 404-610-2807
Nathalie Walker, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, 594-453-6791
Monique Harden, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, 504-919-4590
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Human Rights Groups Call Destruction of Low Income Housing Projects in New Orleans Act of Racial Cleansing
Advocates Say Federal Government Continues its Assault on Displaced Residents
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NEW ORLEANS - December 13 -- Today, the US Human Rights Network (USHRN), a nationwide human rights coalition comprised of over 250 groups, and Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (AEHR), a New Orleans based public interest law group, condemned the imminent destruction of 4,600 low-income housing units in New Orleans that people were ordered out of after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. On Saturday, the federal housing authority plans to begin the process by demolishing 723 apartments in the CJ Peete project. All the residents in the project were poor and black. While the Bush Administration asserts that it will replace the projects with market rate, mixed income developments, in fact they will only build half the number of units, less then a quarter of which will be filled by low-income residents.
Local activist Nathalie Walker, co-director and attorney at AEHR pointed out that, “This comes at a time when New Orleans is facing a serious housing crisis. Upward of 12,000 people are homeless, and there is a severe lack of affordable rental housing.”
“Make no mistake, the Bush Administration is engaged in an all out assault on the economic rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized displaced Gulf Coast residents, particularly their right to housing,” said USHRN Executive Director Ajamu Baraka. “First they failed to save residents from the ravages of Katrina, now they are sending the clear message that they don’t want them back. The impact of these actions amounts to nothing less then racial and class cleansing.”
Even though the House of Representative has passed legislation requiring HUD to provide one-for-one replacements for each low-income unit that will be demolished, the bill has stalled in the Senate. The inadequacy of federal law to address the impacts of Hurricane Katrina has galvanized a burgeoning movement in this country to hold the U.S. government accountable under international laws, including treaties it has signed and ratified such as the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The disparate impact of the demolition of public housing not only violates the rights of displaced persons to housing, but it is also is a clear violation of ICERD.
“We, in the United States, live in a country that espouses the inviolability of human rights within the international community and we hold other states accountable to international standards and laws. Yet, our country has purposefully neglected to promote human rights at home. There is no clearer example of this than the aftermath of Katrina and Rita,” said Monique Harden, co-director and attorney at AEHR.
Added Mr. Baraka, “It is tragically poignant that the demolishing of people’s homes comes just days after most of the world celebrated International Human Rights Day and marked the day the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We must redouble our efforts to build a strong human rights culture in this country and develop mechanisms to hold the US government accountable to international human rights standards and laws.”
Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (“AEHR”) is a nonprofit, public interest law firm whose mission is to provide legal services, community organizing support, public education, and campaigns focused on defending and advancing the human right to a healthy environment, and advocating for the human rights of internally displaced Gulf Coast hurricane survivors. To learn more about AEHR, please visit: www.ehumanrights.org
The US Human Rights Network is made up of more than 250 organizations and over a thousand individuals working to bring the United States into compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other internationally recognized human rights instruments by applying the standards and principles within those instruments to domestic and foreign policy priorities. To learn more about USHRN, please visit: www.ushrnetwork.org
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