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	Trying to tame the debt vultures by UN News / IRIN News   20 April 2010   UN rights expert welcomes new British law to stop predatory financial funds.   A United Nations human rights expert on foreign debt today welcomed a landmark debt relief law in the United Kingdom which limits the ability of so-called "vulture funds" to sue the world"s poorest countries in British courts for repayment of debts, saying they could have ramifications for a recent court verdict involving Liberia.   "This law marks the first occasion on which a country has banned profiteering by vulture funds," said Cephas Lumina, in his role as the UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights.   "I commend the UK for taking a critical step to halt the profiteering of vulture funds at the expense of both the citizens of distressed debtor countries and the taxpayers of countries that have supported international debt relief efforts," Dr. Lumina added in a statement released by his office in Geneva.   Vulture funds buy up either all or a portion of debt of a weakened country. The funds often target governments that have received international debt relief, and then sue to recovery the full amount of the debt, diverting precious financial resources saved from debt cancellation.   "From a human rights perspective, the settlement of excessive vulture fund claims by poor countries with unsustainable debt levels has a direct negative effect on the capacity of governments of these countries to fulfil their human rights obligations," said Dr. Lumina, noting that "unconscionable profiteering" steals funds which could be better spent on health, water and sanitation, food, housing and education.   One of the first impacts of the British law could be to block a November 2009 ruling by London"s High Court awarding $20 million to two vulture funds that bought Liberia"s debt at a fraction of the sum.   The case dates back to 1978. Liberia, which is recovering from a 14-year civil war, has said that it does not have the funds to pay back the debt.   At the time of the case, Liberia was taking part in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) process, an internationally agreed debt relief measure designed to free up funds for poor countries to invest development issues.   Apr 2010 (IRIN)   A so-called Vulture Funds bill - to stop finance companies using British courts to extort excessive debt repayments from some of the world"s poorest countries - was passed in the frantic scramble to finish outstanding parliamentary business before Britain"s general election in May.   "It"s the first time since the global credit crunch that financial services companies have been told, "Thus far and no further". They won"t be able to fleece developing countries, and they will have to comply with the same rules on debt relief as the public sector and the more responsible parts of the private sector," said MP Sally Keeble, who proposed the bill.   In the last few days of the outgoing parliament many proposed laws were abandoned or drastically cut so they could be rushed through without debate. Keeble told IRIN she was "absolutely delighted" that the bill had been passed - "It"s a real landmark."   The companies targeted by the new law act as international debt collectors. They buy old debts incurred by developing countries from creditors happy to sell at a massive discount because they despair of ever getting paid. The new owners of the debt then pursue it far more aggressively than the original creditors would have done.   They also take advantage of the debt cancellation process offered to Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Once a country has gone through the HIPC process, most of its creditors agree to write off nearly all its debt, often accepting less than 10 cents for every dollar they are owed.   This is intended to make more money available for the country to spend on health, education and other essential services - but this is the moment the Vulture Funds have been waiting for.. Visit the related web page
	Lack of basic services for slum dwellers a form of rights violation says Ban by United Nations News   United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has described appalling living conditions in slums as a violation of human rights, saying that helping the urban poor reclaim their rights strengthened societies and stemmed environmental degradation.   “Conditions in slums are a violation of human rights,” Mr. Ban said in a message to the fifth session of the World Urban Forum, which got under way in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.   “The children who have no clean water, the women who fear for their safety, the young people who have no chance to receive a decent education have a right to better, and we have a responsibility to do better to help them,” said Mr. Ban.   The Forum was established by the United Nations to examine the effects of rapid urbanization on communities, cities, economies and the climate. It held its first meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2002.   The Secretary-General noted that an estimated 22 million people in developing countries had managed to move out of slums each year during the past decade, but that achievement was not enough to have the impact required to reduce urban poverty.   According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), the number of people living in slums rose from 777 million in 2000 to almost 830 million in 2010.   “All people have the right to safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter and basic services. All people have the right to live with a sense of security. All people should have the opportunity to work for a better future,” the Secretary-General said.   In a related development, a new report backed by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) launched lays out a new vision for urban planning to transform the way cities across the developing world grow.   That vision incorporates a flexible building design to allow families to expand their homes upwards by up to three stories.   In many of the world’s cities, governments seek to force poor communities into high-rise apartments so that the large informal settlements they occupy can be transformed into condominiums and other buildings to draw foreign investment.   “Most members of poor communities are used to living and working centrally and close to the streets,” said Arif Hasan, an architect and lead author of the new study. “When they are relocated to high-rise apartments, they are immediately beset by social and practical problems. They rarely want to move but don’t have a say in the matter.”   His research shows that when left to their own devices, dwellings in poor urban communities tend to grow incrementally, according to their needs and their ability to pay.   But without proper planning and support, this growth is not as efficient as it could be, potentially leading to congestion.   Studying four communities in Karachi, Pakistan, Mr. Hasan found that better managed incremental growth – not an ad hoc process – would lead to better social and physical environments.   This, he said, requires increasing the initial building costs by 15 per cent to erect decent foundations that can withstand building additional floors in the future, as well as support, including design advice and financial resources.   March 2010   While more than 200 million slum dwellers worldwide have escaped their conditions in the past decade, the overall population of slums has swelled by nearly 60 million in the same period, a new United Nations report finds.   “However, this achievement is not uniformly distributed across regions,” Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), writes in the introduction to the agency’s biennial “State of the World’s Cities 2010/2011” report.   “Success is highly skewed towards the more advanced emerging economies, while poorer countries have not done as well,” she says, stressing that “there is no room for complacency.”   Overall, the number of people residing in slums has climbed from 777 million in 2000 to almost 830 million in 2010.   The report, which focuses on the theme “Bridging the Urban Divide,” characterizes efforts to reduce the number of slum dwellers as neither satisfactory nor adequate, especially given that just over half of the world’s population – or nearly 3.5 billion – now lives in urban areas.   Short of drastic action, it warns, the world’s slum population will likely increase by 6 million annually to reach nearly 900 million by 2020.   Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly two-thirds of the world’s slum population, with 200 million people, with South Asia, East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South-East Asia rounding out the top five regions with the largest number of slum dwellers.   The new report also finds that urbanization benefits political leaders, public servants and the rich in Africa, Asia and Latin American and the Caribbean, leaving millions behind.   Urban planning and policies seem to favour the empowered, usually the local and regional economic elite, and in the developing world, this pattern is usually linked to historical and cultural hegemony.   “Achieving sustainable urban development is likely to prove impossible if the urban divide is allowed not only to persist, but to continue growing, opening up an enormous gap, even in some cities a gulf, an open wound, which can produce social instability or at least generate high social and economic costs not only for the urban poor, but for society at large,” Ms. Tibaijuka writes.   The report calls on governments to implement inclusive policies to narrow inequalities dividing residents of many cities in developing nations and allow them access to decent housing, transport, education, recreation, communication, employment and the judiciary.   “In an inclusive city, residents take part in decision-making that ranges from the political to issues of daily life,” it says. “Such participation injects a sense of belonging, identity, place into residents, and guarantees them a stake in the benefits of urban development.”   In-depth reviews of cities’ systems, structures and institutions, the publication argues, are vital to kick-start real change.
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