UN compares Dale Farm to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and China

Thu Sep 15 01:07:55 BST 2011

sorry its the horrid mail article!

UN compares Britain's eviction of travellers to 
human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and China

UN adviser Yves Cabanne says the UK is breaking 
travellers' human rights three times over
Argues that 'the people who are abusing the law 
are the council, not the travellers'
By Paul Harris - Mail - Last updated at 11:26 PM on 14th September 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2037358/Dale-Farm-eviction-compared-to-human-rights-abuses-Zimbabwe-China.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

A United Nations adviser championed Britain's 
biggest illegal gipsy site yesterday by comparing 
the travellers' situation there to some of the 
world's most appalling acts of oppression.
The astonishing parallel was drawn by Professor 
Yves Cabannes in an 11th hour visit to Dale Farm 
in Essex, where he branded Monday's planned 
eviction an 'inhumane and illegal' violation of international law.
The French academic said the UN was used to 
dealing with millions losing their homes in 
countries such as Zimbabwe, China and Nigeria - 
yet no one seemed to be able to solve a dispute involving 86 families.
'Human rights violation': UN adviser Yves 
Chabanne, front, held a press conference at Dale Farm travellers' site
Although half of the six-acre site is legal, an 
estimated 400 people are said to be living on 51 unauthorised plots.
Travellers and supporters say they will resist 
the eviction peacefully but police are preparing 
a major operation starting on Monday to ensure 
the Basildon Council-led eviction passes off peacefully.
During an extraordinary press conference in front 
of the UN flag, Mr Cabannes said the council had 
failed to provide the pitches it should make available to travellers.
Flanked by Gipsy Council officials and 
travellers supporters in the front garden of one 
of the homes earmarked for demolition, he said: 
The people who are abusing the law are the 
council, not the travellers. The council is not fulfilling its duties.
Prof Yves Cabannes talks to Gypsy Council members 
Candy Sheridan (right) and Joseph Jones (2nd 
right) as they tour Dale Farm travellers' camp with residents
'There are many Dale Farms which face these 
issues every day and there needs to be a 
co-ordinated approach across the country.
We are used to seeing millions of people losing 
their homes in Zimbabwe, China and Nigeria  how 
is one country unable to solve the problem of 51 pitches?
Earlier he had told Radio 4s Today programme 
that council chiefs were infringing human rights at Dale Farm.
He claimed Basildon Council had breached three 
international rights: The right to adequate 
housing, the right for protection against forced 
eviction and the right of ethnic minorities to be protected.
While the UN adviser speaks inside the camp, 
security contractors construct fencing along the 
perimeter of the Dale Farm site
Council leader Tony Ball reacted angrily to the 
visit, which comes less than a fortnight after a 
UN committee urged a postponement of the eviction 
until a culturally appropriate site could be found.
Mr Ball said: The current site has been 
illegally developed. After ten years, when we 
have exhausted the judicial process and every 
effort to negotiate, we have no option but to 
resort to direct action to clear the site.
The travellers can find a culturally appropriate 
answer to their housing problem but it must 
involve a site with the proper planning 
permission. The UN representative may not be 
aware that Basildon provides more approved 
traveller sites than any other local authority 
area in Essex and among the greatest number on any area in the country.
The UN refers to the rights of the families 
involved. Basildon Council respects those along 
with the rights of the vast majority of its 
residents who want this illegal camp moved after 
ten years of stalling tactics by the travellers.
Last night, in a last-minute deal proposal, it 
emerged that the elderly and infirm may be given 
new pitches on the authorised site to prevent 
them having to move large distances. Some 
travellers have started to leave  but others 
appear to be digging in and were placing tyres 
with spikes to try to deter bailiffs.
As Professor Cabannes, who is based at University 
College, London, toured Dale Farm he was cheered 
by travellers, and at one stage presented with flowers.
They must have thought that the tall, confident 
figure in blue suede shoes was the champion they 
needed with just five days to go before the deadline.
But despite his strident words and defiant 
assertions, the 59-year-old professor was not 
quite as billed.  The UN Advisory Group on Forced 
Evictions, which he chaired, lost its mandate and packed up last September.
A report he prepared for the UN, researching 
traveller evictions across the world and 
including Dale Farm, was written and published two years ago.
And although he described himself as an expert 
adviser for the UN, its Human Settlement 
Programme, which is monitoring developments at 
the Crays Hill site, said it had no part in the 
Dale Farm visit and described it as an initiative of individuals.
Despite the UNs efforts to distance itself from 
Professor Cabanness comments, his tour 
underlined growing concern that the organisation, 
more normally associated with famine and 
disaster, should even be considering whether to back a group of law-breakers.
The outcome of Mondays planned eviction will be 
crucial to action in the pipeline against other such sites around the country.
Gipsy leaders plan to make an 11th hour legal bid 
to stop the clearance and are still gathering support.
Meanwhile, one local resident told how he had 
taken three years to get planning permission for 
a garage extension to his house, and a neighbour 
had been forced to demolish and rebuild a 
bungalow on his own land because it was sited 
somewhere slightly different from the location the council approved.
Its one law for us but another law for the gipsies, he mused.
Everyone seems scared stiff of infringing their so-called human rights.

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