Urucum Flower Collective – Assistance in Human Rights, Communications and Justice (Ceará)
The community gives the coordinates: social mapping of territories in environmental conflict
Ceará
The project is looking to develop social maps of territories in conflict with construction projects for the 2014 World Cup in three communities in Fortaleza, capital of Ceará – Poço da Draga, Montese and Castelão – where residents are threatened with eviction and removal.
The communities will be involved in a process of self-cartography. At meetings, the participants will also debate: Security of possession and title normalization; Powers and duties of the government in the expropriation; Right to shelter vs. Removal; the Fortaleza Master Plan and Urban and Environmental Planning.
Divided into groups and equipped with portable GPS units, donated by the Digital Cartography Lab of the Department of Geography at the Federal University of Ceará, the residents will be able to identify and detail the urban elements (social, cultural, services, healthcare, environmental impacts, areas to be vacated, among others) of each community.
The residents will even produce a documentary addressing all stages of putting together the social maps. Production of this video is organized along with activities realized as part of the project “Eye on the city – edu-communication for the strengthening of the struggle in defense of the right to urban territory,” supported by the Fund in 2011.
The final event will be a public showing to present the cartographic results and claims derived from them to the state and citizens’ rights organs, such as the Public Ministry, Public Prosecutor’s Office, UN Special Report on the Right to Housing, among others.
The project will also include a partnership with the State University Legal Aid Network, the Environmental Resistance Group for Other Sociabilities (Grãos), the research group Critical Theories of Latin America, affiliated with the Federal University of Ceará Law School and the Tramas Center – Employment, Environment and Healthcare.
Context
The growth of cities occurs in a context in which housing, infrastructure and urban resources are commercialized and foster the marginalization of the poor. Without access to the formal housing market, these communities resist, occupying areas previously undervalued. In these places they establish their livelihoods, sociability and survival.
As in other capital cities that will host games during the 2014 World Cup, since the event was confirmed there have been a number of development projects to facilitate the events, aside from the stadiums themselves. The construction of these projects demand great investments, public debt and result in impacts on communities such as those targeted by this project supported by the Fund. In Fortaleza there will be a Light Rail project, a dam on the Rio Cocó river and the construction of the Ceará Aquarium.
One of the government’s strategies is to not properly inform the affected populations of how the removal will take place and what its real consequences will be. At the same time, the prevalent discourse minimizes the impact of these removals (using the number of houses and not the number of families affected, for instance) and propagates a negative image of these communities, labeling them illegal and blaming them for violence, criminality, environmental damages, etc. The social mapping will allow the communities to do their own study of the data and impacts, demonstrating the complexity of their society and counteracting the simplistic rhetoric that blames the poor for the damages caused by poverty.
Reviewing the official data and data supplied by communities and social movements showed that, in all of Fortaleza, more than 10,000 families in poor communities will be evicted and removed. The information is still incomplete and little advancement has been made in innumerable attempts to negotiate with the authorities.
Exceptional laws have been approved to okay abuses. The Organic Law of Fortaleza states that there shall only be removal of communities with their prior agreement and participation, including the choice of a new location to live in, which should be in the same neighborhood. Meanwhile however, State Law no. 15.056/11 on the expropriations along the Light Rail pathway has been approved, which denies the right to indemnities to those without normalized title – a huge majority of communities – and obliges families to be enrolled in the “My House, My Life” Housing Project, in a location chosen by the State Secretary of Infrastructure.
While the Special Social Interest Zone (Zeis) in Poço da Draga isn’t yet in effect, the Fortaleza Master Plan is being modified to prevent its enactment. The region suffers from the expansion of the tourist hotel market and from sexual tourism.
And there is still the “ecological corridor” to be created, which will connect the promenade along the Rio Cocó river to the Castelão Stadium. The demarcation of houses for eviction was announced more than two years ago, without any posterior communication. Meanwhile, real estate speculation increases in the region due to various landscaping projects.
About the group
Undergoing a process of institutionalization since July 2011, the Urucum Flower Collective is comprised of human rights activists from the areas of law, social communications, geography and social services, and is already active in several different subjects, such as children’s and adolescents’ rights, territorial rights and access to land in the countryside and in the city, traditional fishing communities’ rights and those of indigenous peoples.
The group’s main focus is to defend, promote and socially control the right to the city of urban communities. In this sense, the group has already accomplished several activities together with the World Cup Popular Committee of Fortaleza, such as seminars, workshops in communities, public acts, media campaigns, public events and the preparation of reports on human rights violations.
The group is part of the World Cup Popular Committee, an network made up of several social movements, civil society organizations, community representatives; networks, such as Jubileu Sul, Brazil Network and the National Network of Popular Lawyers; and liberal professionals.
The World Cup Popular Committee of Fortaleza also includes the National Organization, which released in December of 2011 the dossier, “Mega-events and the violation of human rights in Brazil.”
Funding Line
Annual Call for Proposals
Year
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Total Granted
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Duration
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Main Themes
The right to just and sustainable cities