Habitat International Coalition. (ephnet).

Habitat International Coalition (HIC) was founded in 1976 as the nongovernmental-organization counterpart to the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Settlements. Although HIC began with a truly international focus, its character has evolved, and it now concentrates on the developing world. The coalition's website, located at http://www.hic-mena.org/home.htm, outlines HIC's history, overarching objectives, action plan, organizational structure, and activities, which are conducted along the governmental spectrum from the local to the international level.

In support of its objectives, HIC, which holds consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, conducts and sponsors seminars and conferences, publishes a variety of policy and educational materials, and promotes research in areas related to its sphere of interest. HIC's membership includes 450 advocacy groups, academic and research institutions, and individuals based in 80 countries who share the goal of improving habitat conditions in impoverished communities. HIC has played a significant role in the drafting, implemention, and defense of international housing rights standards. The coalition is striving to expand its network to include organizations focused on health and food supply issues.

The website's Documents page is the central source for conference reports, policy statements, fact-finding mission reports, and UN documents. The HIC Statements page provides a link to the coalition's declaration at the 4th Preparatory Committee Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in early summer 2002 in Bali, Indonesia. This declaration emphasizes how closely humans are intertwined with the natural environment and how sustainable development solutions are indispensable to the comfortable survival of the human race. The declaration also brings a newly significant environmental issue to the international development table--how large-scale human conflicts severely impact the natural environment and human health in the regions where they occur, and how they negate or reverse environmental progress that may have been made.

Visitors can access a condensed overview of international housing rights through the Solutions page. Provided here are the standing international legal provisions for environmental goods and services and for housing habitability, which calls for structures to provide shelter not only from wind and rain but also from disease vectors and environmental pollutants, and for them to be sited to allow reasonable access to food and water.