On May 1, 2013, The City is for All got a call for solidarity from homeless people living in a park in Tokyo. Below is our statement of solidarity with everyone living without a decent home in Japan. The original call, which explains the diffiulties that homeless people are facing in Japan can be accessed here.

Dear Japanese friends,

We, members of The City is For All wish to express our solidarity with you from Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Our group is made up of people who are currently homeless or have expeienced homelessness, and their allies. As a group, we work for human rights and dignity for all, and for the right to housing.

We hereby ask your Government to respect your rights as spelled out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, namely that each individual is entitled to a standard of life fit for a human being, to social services and to housing.

We call on your Government to respect the laws concerning the entitlement to benefits in case of unemployment, illness, disability and old age and to provide you social services enabling your survival.

We are asking the Japanese government to find humane social (rather than criminal) solutions to the problems of homeless people, working jointly with those affected and with professionals.

We are calling on your Government to stop using discriminative measures against homeless and desperately poor people.

Dear Friends,

We in Hungary are also in a difficult situation. Our current leaders are working towards criminalizing and penalizing homelessness rather than helping homeless and desperately poor people. Although our Constitutional Court has ruled that it is against human rights and human dignity to penalize homeless people for living in public spaces, the government has declared this approach unrealistic and coded the possibility of criminalizing homelessness into the Constitution.

We think that it is the persecution of homeless people that is unrealistic. The solution to homelessness does not equal taking away the last crumbs of human dignity and no government should include in the constitution the negation of basic human rights.

We declare our solidarity with you – our work and our struggle is also yours.

Wishing lots of strength and success, with friendship, from Hungary

The City is for All

A Város Mindenkié

May 20, 2013.

A levél magyar változata itt elérhető.