Background Paper:
 Mainstream sociological concepts and approaches have been inadequate to come to terms with the phenomenon of social violence, often reducing it to a simple consequence of societal fluidity contingent to the transitional period of social transformation in Egypt. Some attribute the phenomenon to the breakdown of the, allegedly, dominant pattern of social values due to the impacts of cultural penetration (from the oil producing countries); others ascribe it to the breakup of the traditional edification institutions (the family, the school and the religious establishment).

The Egyptian Center for Housing Rights organized a workshop on 4 October 2004 under the title "Towards Reforming the Housing Policy in Egypt" in cooperation with the Land and Housing Rights Network – Habitat International Coalition with support from Friedrich Naumann Stiftung on the occasion of celebrating Habitat World Day. The workshop was attended by a number of specialists in the field of housing, law, human rights, sociology, as well as a number of journalists and activists concerned with the housing field.

HTML clipboard Informal areas have become a major problem for governments, not only in Egypt, but also in several countries throughout the world. Even in countries, which have achieved high levels of development, there exists a wide gap between demand and supply of housing units. This is apparently evident from the rising cost of units and the increasing numbers of people living in shantytowns and informal areas on the periphery of big cities.

In cohesion with the ECHR intervention in Abo Doma Ground case, the M.P Hamdeen Sabbahy has thankfully submitted an urgent request of information to the Prime Minister concerning the latter`s decision to expropriate the properties behind Abo Doma ground for the public good, and under the claim that they could collapse and they deface the landscape, aiming to flatten the area and give the lands to some investors.