WORLD HABITAT DAY

     The solemn ceremony of proclamation of the World Habitat Day was held in Kazan city hall.

    Since 1985 every year on the first Monday in October United Nations and their Program on human settlements UN-Habitat hold World Habitat Day. The purpose of these forums is to warn the world about its collective responsibility for the future of environment. This year in view of the 30th anniversary since the first Habitat Conference, the World Habitat Day was held in two cities ? on 2 October in Naples, Italy and on 4 October in Kazan, Russian Federation. It is necessary to note that for the first time this event was organized in Russia. In the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan the World Habitat Day was held with the assistance of Euro-Asia section of the World organization of United Cities and Local Governments and Kazan city municipality.
 
   Decision on holding the World Habitat Day in Kazan was taken in connection with the successfully realized in 1994-2004 Presidential program on liquidation of dilapidated habitation of the Republic of Tatarstan. The program was declared as the contribution of the Tatarstan and Kazan to the realization of UN goals for the current millennium on improving the housing conditions of 100 million inhabitants all over the world by 2020. For this project Kazan won the award of the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour in 2005.
    The theme of this year?s World Habitat Day is, Cities, magnets of hope. This theme, chosen by the United Nations, is to remind society that the world is witnessing the greatest migration of the people into towns and cities. In 1950 only one-third of the world?s people lived in cities. Just 50 years later this rose to one-half and will continue to grow to 6 billion people by 2050. The major task of the cities authorities under the present conditions is to create such conditions on which every citizen is provided by the worthy housing.

     More than 140 participants of the solemn ceremony from 18 countries of the world gathered in the conference room of Kazan City hall on 4 October; among them: 11 heads of international organizations and heads of 83 cities of Russia, representatives of 10 national and regional associations, staff and experts of international organizations, journalists.       
    
    UN Deputy Secretary General, UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far East Federal district, President of Euro-Asia section of the World organization United Cities and Local Governments, Vice-President of the World organization UCLG Kamil Iskhakov, President of the Congress of municipalities of Russia Stepan Kirichuk and Princess Zahra Aga Khan, the representative of Aga Khan Foundation that made a great contribution to preservation of cultural and architectural heritage,  took part in the solemn ceremony of proclamation of the Habitat Day in Kazan.   
    Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin opened the ceremony of proclamation of the World Habitat Day in Kazan wishing to its participants successful and fruitful work, in his welcoming speech he expressed sincere gratitude to Ms. Anna Tibaijuka for accepted decision to hold the Habitat Day in Kazan and personal participation in events. Ilsur Metshin gave the floor to the Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin.
     In his presentation the speaker of the parliament read out the greeting of the President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiyev.   
    ?Today we here, in historical building of Kazan city hall, celebrate and important and a solemn event, World Habitat Day, - said Farid Mukhametshin. ? It is a great honour for us that Kazan with its millennial history and traditions has become the city of the Russian Federation where so important international action is held.  We take this fact as recognition of achievements of our republic in solving urgent problems of municipal engineering, reformation of housing and communal complex; as appreciation of contribution of Tatarstan to realization of the Program of UN on human settlements?.
    At the solemn ceremony the acting permanent coordinator of UN in Russia Sietske Steneker read out the message of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the occasion of the World Habitat Day.
     It is particularly said: ?By the year 2050, some 6 billion people representing two-thirds of humanity will be living in towns and cities. Never before in history has the world witnessed such rapid urbanization.  The two phenomena -- migration and urban growth -- are strongly linked, mainly because the majority of people on the move go for the bright lights of the city. As we reflect on the theme of this year?s observance of World Habitat Day ? ?Cities, magnets of hope? -- we must also bear in mind that cities can also be places of considerable despair. Never before has the world witnessed such a large proliferation of urban slums. Today, more than 1 billion people live in slums. Almost everywhere, cities are the destinations for people escaping poverty, conflict and human rights violations, or simply those looking for ways to build better lives?.
     In the message it is marked that these and other challenges came into sharp focus at third session of the World Urban Forum held in Vancouver, Canada in June 2006. That meeting made it clear that UN Member States, along with non-governmental organizations, the private sector and citizens all over the world, need to galvanize their strength as never before in the quest for sustainable urbanization and inclusive cities. These are the key challenges confronting humanity in the 21st century.
   After speech of Sietske Steneker UN Deputy Secretary General, UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka and Plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far East Federal district, former mayor of Kazan Kamil Iskhakov appeared.


    According to the tradition at the ceremony of proclamation of the Habitat Day awards of UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour were presented and for the first time joint diplomas of UN-Habitat and the World organization United Cities and Local Governments were presented for achievements in settlements development.
  

    After solemn ceremonies Press-conference was held.
   UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka, Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin, Plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far East Federal district, ex-mayor of Kazan, hitherto acting as the President of Euro-Asia section of the World organization United Cities and Local Governments Kamil Iskhakov and taken up the post of the President actual mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin answered the questions of journalists. Besides, the representative of Aga Khan Foundation Princess Zahra Aga Khan (France), the President of the Foundation of city construction development Pag IBIG (Philippines) Romero Federico Quimbo and the President of the Congress of municipalities Stepan Kirichuk also were at the press-conference.
    Press-conference was opened by the question to Ms. Tibaijuka, concerning her thesis about the fact that Kazan is the city of hopes. High ranking guest noted in her question an ancient history of the city, which counts more than thousands years. On her opinion any other city, which is not ?the city of hopes?, could not exist so long. Especially, Kazan is the place of different cultures and religions. At equal efforts of authorities such position will remain later on.  
    By the way, many were interested in what the reason is that Kazan was chosen as the place of holding the World Habitat Day and what this gives to the city. Farid Mukhametshin also gave his view on this issue. It is the opinion of the Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, also acting as the representative of the Congress of municipalities and local governments of the Council of Europe, that opportunity to be the venue of the Habitat Day is a very important for the city. This is important for Kazan, Tatarstan and Russia as a whole. But Kazan, being the venue of the forum, made headway informationally. The city got one more chance through the given trust to the new mayor of Kazan, elected today as the President of UCLG Euro-Asia, marked Farid Mukhametshin.
    Mayors of Kazan, both former and actual, hold the same opinion. Ilsur Metshin also noted that ?Kazan becomes traditional place of holding international conferences, assemblies, different summits?. This, as well as the fact that the capital of Tatarstan was chosen as the place of holding the World Habitat day, according to his words, is the result of work of city authorities for the last years, especially important and difficult were the last ten years.
    Other guests also as far as possible were trying to meet the interests of journalists on different themes and praised Kazan and Tatarstan for achievements that are outside the possibilities of majority regions of Russia.  Discussion could be continued, however because of heavy schedule of the forum many questions were left undiscussed.

    Events of the World Habitat Day were continued by the General Assembly of Euro-Asia section of UCLG and the seminar of UN-Habitat ?Problems of Sustainable developments of Cities? and closed by the reception on behalf of the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin.

Photo by Yuriy Krasnov

04.10.2006

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