KATRINA/TSUNAMI transnational Exchange

In late August of 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left a path of destruction and serious human rights concerns in their wake. The storms displaced hundreds of thousands of people, who consequently were entitled to the human rights protections defined by the United Nations in the Guiding Principles on the Rights of Internally Displaced People.  Survivors, however, were abandoned by their government both during and after the storms.  Promises that were made in the wake of the storms by the national government have failed to materialize, leaving many communities on their own to piece together their fractured lives relying on community resources and charity alone.

The hurricanes devastated the Gulf Coast and their reach encompassed issues such as the right to return, the right to sustainable rebuilding, the right to a healthy environment, the right to housing and the rights of migrant workers.  As the severity of the human rights crisis became increasingly clear, post Katrina and Rita organizing has inspired a range of coalitions from diverse communities and locales.  The national and international collective organizing and solidarity that has emerged is probably one of the greatest hallmarks of the post recovery efforts.  

Basic Information on the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement issued by the Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on Internally Displaced Persons identify internationally recognized rights and guarantees of persons who have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to a number of factors, including natural disaster.  Those who have been displaced from their homes but not crossed international borders are not refugees, but rather “internally displaced persons.”  National authorities are primarily responsible for ensuring the human rights of internally displaced persons; however the guidelines are relevant to intergovernmental agencies, non-governmental agencies, as well as local authorities. For more information on the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, click >>>

Background
In partnership with advocates and community organizers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Thailand and Indonesia, NESRI is helping to facilitate solidarity through information sharing and exchange between Gulf Coast hurricane survivor activists and Asian tsunami survivor activists. The major objective of this project is to pass on best practices and strategies for post-disaster rebuilding that is grounded in community participation and human rights principles.

Members of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights and Tsunami Survivor Network, who have been applying innovative and effective strategies for rebuilding villages damaged by the tsunami and other disasters, visited New Orleans in June 2006 to assess the situation and meet with community groups. Subsequently, two delegations of community groups traveled to Indonesia and Thailand in September and October 2006 to visit local projects and learn from their model. A committee of these Gulf Coast delegates implemented a rebuilding project for a “right to return” house in New Orleans that is modeled after the examples from villages in Asia.  

See photos from the exchange. >>>

See a video about the post-Tsunami rebuilding efforts. >>>

Interview with Gulf Coast Exchange Delegate, Latosha Brown of SOS Katrina >>>  

Seminar
Members of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) and the Tsunami Survivor Network, visited the Gulf Coast during the week of July 1-6, 2007. As a part of their visit, NESRI sponsored a half-day seminar entitled, Survivors of Natural Disasters Unite Across Borders and Exchange Ideas & Strategies for Rebuilding , at Loyola Law School in New Orleans, LA on July 3, 2007. Moderated by Professor Bill Quigley, this seminar is a part of the ongoing Transnational Exchange project between activist survivors of the Asian tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. There were several panelists from the Asian and Gulf Coast delegations who shared their stories of survival, grief, rebuilding and the lessons that have emerged from common experiences.

Upon returning to Asia, members of the Indonesian delegation were so outraged by the deprivations facing New Orleans residents that they staged a protest in front of the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia where they demanded that the U.S. government respect the human rights of hurricane survivors and, in particular, their human right to housing.  To view pictures of the demonstration and read the protesters’ official statement click here >>>

See photos of the seminar and the Asian Delegation trip to the Gulf Coast. >>>

Documentary Project
Filmmaker Michèle Stephenson of Rada Film has been documenting the Katrina/Tsunami exchange and is in the process of developing a full length documentary film about this project in order to share the lessons from this experience with a wider audience.

See trailers for the documentary. >>>

Public Education and Training
Human rights concerns have been palpable at every stage of the disaster resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Poverty was an epidemic in the Gulf region well before the storms, particularly in the African American community. This poverty, coupled with racism, segregation, corruption and recklessly poor disaster preparedness, contributed to unequal vulnerability and shockingly inadequate evacuation. These abuses were then exacerbated in the relief and recovery stage, where resources were squandered or used corruptly and the poor were systemically excluded from planning and rebuilding, and denied adequate support to salvage their homes and communities.

Soon after the hurricanes hit, NESRI produced a general statement on the human rights implications of the situation, analyzing both the underlying social inequities and the inadequate government response that left disproportionately poor communities of color struggling to survive.  NESRI continues to issue statements on emerging issues impacting the human rights of hurricane survivors and produces analytical issue briefs, public education materials and other relevant documentation. In particular, NESRI has worked to ensure that international standards, such as the UN Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons, are incorporated into local social justice campaigns and are considered in the development of rebuilding policy at the local and national levels. Click here to view Tiffany Gardner’s testimony at the Culture Project’s Criminal Negligence and Hurricane Katrina on the Guiding Principles and the obligations owed to Katrina and Rita Survivors >>>. 

NESRI has also conducted community trainings in the wake of the disaster.  In the fall of 2006, along with Amnesty International, the US Human Rights Fund, and Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, NESRI participated in a training of organizers and community leaders in the Gulf Coast on the human rights framework, strategies for incorporating the framework into local activism and the main tenets of the UN Guiding Principles.  Training participants included those organizing around immigrant rights, housing rights, and environmental rights. 

ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPATING IN EXCHANGE

Advocates for Environmental Human Rights >>>
Asian Coalition for Housing Rights >>>
C3/Hands Off Iberville Coalition
Gentilly Welfare Rights Union
Gert Town Revival Initiative
Holy Cross Neighborhood Association >>>
Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church >>>
May Day New Orleans
Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance >>>
Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church
National Policy & Advocacy Council on Homelessness >>>
People's Hurricane Relief Fund
Saving Our Selves
Survivor’s Village
Uplink >>>
Urban Poor Consortium

Individual Participants from the Gulf Coast