A safe city is a just city

[i]World Habitat Day [/i] World Habitat Day Celebrations Monterrey, Mexico, 4 October 2007 International conference to mark World Habitat Day 2007, The Hague, the Netherlands, 1 - 2 October 2007 In a tradition dating back to 1985, the United Nations celebrates World Habitat Day on the first Monday in October each year to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. It is also intended to alert the world on its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat. I am delighted to announce that the Dutch city of The Hague has been designated to spearhead the 2007 global celebration of World Habitat Day The most significant cause of fear and insecurity in many cities today is crime and violence. Between 1990 and 2000, incidents of violent crime per 100,000 persons increased from 6 to 8.8. Recent studies show that over the past five years, 60 per cent of all urban residents in the world have been victims of crime. Clearly, crime, whether violent or not, is a growing and serious threat to urban safety all over the world. Other significant threats to urban safety today are forced evictions, insecurity of tenure, and natural and human-made disasters, including climate change. Incidents of forced evictions have been highly publicized in recent years, partly because freedom from forced eviction has become recognized as a fundamental human right within international human rights law. With regard to disasters, current evidence suggests that natural and human-made disasters are increasing in frequency the world over. From 1975 to 2005, the number of disasters in the world increased from 100 to 400 per year. Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami and the Pakistan Earthquake are some of the recent disasters that, in a frightening way, magnified our lack of preparedness. Visit the official site: http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=534