Letter from Louise Cox on the Issue of Israel's illegal projects

UIA International Union of Architects

Louise Cox  AM, President

Tour Maine-Montparnasse

General Secretariat

33, Avenue du Maine-BP 158

75755 Paris cedex 15, France

uia@uia-architectes.org

12^th August 2009

Mr Abe Hayeem RIBA

Chair, Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine

United Kingdom

Dear Mr Hayeem

RE: WHY ISRAELI POLICY ON PALESTINE IS AN ARCHITECTURAL ISSUE FOR ALL PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTES

Thank you for your letter to me as President of UIA, of 22nd June 2009. I understand that you also sent it to all members of the UIA Council.

The Council at its meeting in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil on 31^st July 2009 noted your letter and its attachment. It asked me to let you and your organization know of our existing Policy regarding this sort of matter.

UIA has a policy on this issue that was made as Resolution 13 at the UIA Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey from 8^th to 10^th July 2005. It reads as follows:

“The UIA Council condemns development projects and the construction of buildings on land that has been ethnically purified or illegally appropriated, and projects based on regulations that are ethnically or culturally discriminatory, and similarly it condemns all action contravening the fourth Geneva Convention”

The Council also asked that the UIA Secretariat send a letter to every UIA Member Section reminding them of this policy, which we have done today.

Yours Sincerely

Louise Cox  AM

UIA President