Category: Habitat I downtown conference

It was irregular for a civilian not part of an official delegation to address the UN, but economist and author Barbara Ward spoke at Habitat I. She had after all written the theme books for the conference, Human Settlements: Crisis and Opportunity, and The Home of Man.  More on Barbara can be found at IIED,… read more Barbara Ward’s famous speech at Habitat I

The UN’s 1976 Habitat I conference in Vancouver produced The Vancouver Declaration. The Declaration was accompanied by the Vancouver Action Plan (also known as “64 Recommendations for National Action”). While the work of many—as all UN declarations and documents are—this portion of the  Vancouver Declaration known as the Vancouver Action Plan owes a great deal… read more UN Habitat I: The Vancouver Action Plan

Believe it or not, the above image is of the official PDF of this important declaration, on the UN’s own website. Doodles, spills and all Since the UN Habitat: Conference on Human Settlements was held in Vancouver in 1976, there have been major Habitat conferences every 20 years. Habitat II was held in Istanbul in… read more UN Habitat – The Vancouver Declaration, 1976

Dear friends of Habitat ’76, My friend Jim MacNeill, who served as Commissioner General of Habitat I (the 1976 UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements) and was one of the key intellectual and administrative forces behind it, died in Ottawa last Saturday at the age of 87. Pneumonia had got the better of him. It… read more Goodbye to Jim MacNeill, Habitat I Commissioner General, April 22, 1928 – March 5, 2016