Monday was World Habitat Day, which was established in 1985 by the United Nations General Assembly, and was first celebrated in 1986. The purpose of World Habitat Day is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to have adequate shelter. But also, remind the world that WE have to power to maintain adequate shelter for all living beings on earth.
This year's theme is “Voices from the Slums” in an effort to focus on the hardships of slum living, thus giving voices to the people living in slums and give rise to their experiences and ideas about improving their living conditions. The UN's Media Release states, " A quarter of the world’s urban population is living in ‘slums’, informal urban areas characterised by inadequate and harmful living conditions. In some regions, this is as high as 70 per cent. "
However, World Habitat Day should also be about the Climate refugee's that have already been given this title, and the many more to come. Climate Change is forcing people to uproot from their homes and become refugees, because of environmental changes. The island paradises are under attack by the destabilising forces of climate change, the extreme rising sea levels and forceful storms are ruining the most beautiful locations on earth, and soon they will be gone from our earth forever. These aren’t just beautiful landscapes, these are peoples homes, and they are being forced to relocated
It is a basic right for everyone to have a home, and an adequate home. Due to the high rate of people living in slums in the developing world, this is no where near achieved in current society. And now we are seeing the effects of climate change making this much worse. The UN established the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) in order to tackle these problems " by improving the capacity of relevant urban actors, from concerned authorities to slum dwellers themselves, to collectively assess their urban development needs, devise city-wide strategies to improve living conditions, and to implement these solutions " states the UN's media release.
World Habitat Day is an important time to acknowledge these problems and combine ideas on how to make things better, on how to give every person on earth their basic human right to a home.