Governments must successfully implement the program they outlined at U.N. headquarters this week if the U.N. Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium is to improve life for the world's 3 billion urbanites. Even reaching agreement required unusual dedication. More than 150 countries had agreed even before the conference began Wednesday on all but seven points in a declaration to move forward the U.N. Habitat Agenda, adopted at a 1996 conference in Istanbul. But two additional paragraphs submitted by Palestinian supporters at the opening session Wednesday morning turned what would have been a diplomatic cake walk into a grueling marathon. The obvious reference to Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank raised hackles in the Israeli delegation, and sent the negotiations into the United Nations' version of overtime.
Many countries openly admit that they have made little progress since the Istanbul meeting.
More than 1 billion people still lack adequate housing worldwide. Fast-growing slums are common on the outskirts of Asian, African and Latin American cities. Some observers complained that the latest declaration would do little to help. Activists accused the United States of watering down the declaration by refusing to allow reaffirmation of adequate housing as a human right. Kothari suggested the U.S. delegation's real motivation was an attempt to avoid legal responsibility for homelessness and racial segregation.