“Adequate Housing and Human Dignity”
The Monthly Webinar Organized by the Middle East Council of Churches
Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs: It is useful to provide decent housing from the inside and place it in a destroyed, polluted, and neglected environment, where public life is miserable
The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) pursues its series of monthly seminars, and held a new webinar entitled “Adequate Housing and Human Dignity”, on Thursday 25 January 2024, with the participation of specialists, academicians, universities’ students and interested attendees in the topic at hand. Noting that this webinar comes within the framework of the “Human Dignity Project” - “Dialogue and Social Cohesion-Social Capital Rehabilitation”, which MECC is implementing consecutively.
The webinar, which was broadcasted live on the MECC Facebook Page, included two interventions, moderated by Dr. Chawki Attieh who presented in his opening speech a definition of adequate housing, stressing the need to respect human dignity and provide privacy and security, noting that safe housing is a basic human right recognized by the United Nations. He added that when families grow in decent housing, societies will flourish.
The webinar began with a speech delivered by the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches Dr. Michel Abs, in which he talked about the model home and the dangers to which housing is exposed to, and said, “The housing must be sufficient for the size of the family, has the conditions of comfort, and even luxury, preserve the privacy of the family, and allow the privacy for all the family members, and must be healthy, free of starch and moisture, and has all the basic service elements related to health, hygiene and prevention...”
He continued, "It is useful to provide decent housing from the inside and place it in a destroyed, polluted, and neglected environment, where public life is miserable. Accordingly, we must consider that the concept of adequate housing is beyond the immediate micro-social home, and includes the macro-social dimension, that is, civil organization, which is civil organization in its broad sense, meaning life in the neighborhood or village.”
He added, "Tonight's symposium is the first in a series of symposiums about housing, through which we aim to sensitize our religious and civil leaders to the seriousness of the housing situation in our countries, and urge these leaders to establish new residential areas, taking into consideration the latest methods, that will renew the urban fabric in our countries, provide a decent life for families who will be created due to population growth, and constitute a primary barrier to the migration of our youth who are searching for a better life. Noting that such projects generate income and provide a lot of jobs. Sociological studies have shown that securing housing is an essential element in preventing migration and urging people to not leave.”
Afterwards, the first intervention started under the title “Housing Policy in Lebanon: The Deficiencies of Procedures and Measures in Confronting Housing Vulnerability,” with Dr. Charbel Lichaa, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences - Lebanese University. In his intervention, Dr. Charbel stressed the importance of raising the issue of housing and its policy, and provided some statistics on this issue. He also talked about the various social, economic, demographic and legal dimensions of this issue. Dr. Charbel also highlighted the international housing legislation and literature, as well as the main components of the human right to housing, in addition to the interest in housing and its policy, and the orientation of housing legislation in Lebanon.
The second intervention revolves around “Egypt’s Experience Towards Providing an Alternative to Slums,” with Prof. Dr. Iman Nasri Daoud, Professor and Head of the Sociology Department at the Arts Faculty - Helwan University in Egypt, and Deputy Population Division. During her intervention, Prof. Dr. Iman started her explanations from a study she had made to shed light on the housing situation in Egypt, where she presented the classification of unsafe areas in Egypt and the mechanism to cope with it. She also talked about the emergence of regions instead of slums, presenting some statistics on this issue. In addition, Prof. Dr. Iman presented the most important efforts made by the government in this context, based on some examples and models that were established in Egypt.
The webinar ended with a question and discussion session among the participants, where they exchanged opinions and experiences, each according to his and her specialty and field of work. As well as, the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches Dr. Michel Abs made a final intervention in which he stressed that housing is part of the nation. He also suggested that Churches and their affiliated institutions place their endowments at the service of housing projects for citizens, and mentioned the efforts of the Middle East Council of Churches to work in this context.