The Centre on Housing Rights (COHRE) undertakes a wide variety of activities supporting the full realization of the human right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere. At the same time, COHRE actively campaigns against forced evictions wherever they occur or are planned. In addition to COHRE’s Global Programme, it carries out six specific programmes including: COHRE’s Housing Rights Training Programme undertakes regular on-site training sessions throughout the world; COHRE’s Refugee and IDP Housing and Property Restitution Programme promotes housing and property rights of returnees to their countries of origin; COHRE’s Women’s and Housing Rights Programme (WHRP) addresses land, property and housing issues linked specifically to women; The COHRE Asian & Pacific Programme focuses on the Solomon Islands, East Timor and resistance strategies to eviction; COHRE Africa (CA) provides legal advice and assistance to African NGOs on housing rights issues and monitors evictions throughout the region; while COHRE’s Americas Programme (CAP) provides similar legal assistance, as well as engaging in human rights training and educational activities in Latin America and the Caribbean promoting compliance with the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
COHRE’S main objectives
• • •
Housing Rights for
Promoting the full enjoyment of the human right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere. Preventing forced evictions and securing restitution or compensation where evictions cannot be prevented. Protecting the housing rights of vulnerable, disadvantaged and threatened groups and communities
Everyone, Everywhere
throughout the world.
• •
Fostering tolerance, social justice, equality and mutual respect for all. Strengthening popular education and awareness of international housing rights standards and the role these can and should play at the local and national levels.
83 Rue de Montbrillant, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland t/f: 41.22.7341028, E-mail: sleckie@attglobal.net
w w w. c o h r e . o r g
CENTRE ON HOUSING RIGHTS AND EVICTIONS
COHRE Activity Report • July 1998 - December 1999
CENTRE ON HOUSING RIGHTS AND EVICTIONS
Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere COHRE Activity Report July 1998 - December 1999
t r o p e R y t i v i t c A
Design: Suggestie & illusie, The Netherlands
2
Print: Primavera, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mission Statement
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an independent international non-governmental human rights organization committed to ensuring the full enjoyment of the human right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere. COHRE pursues this objective through reliance upon the full spectrum of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Established in 1992, COHRE consistently and comprehensively applies international human rights law to housing and living conditions throughout the world with a view to redressing violations of housing rights, promoting compliance with international standards and preventing future infringements of human rights. COHRE is committed to local and national capacity-building in the area of economic, social and cultural rights and places particular emphasis on securing respect for the housing rights of traditionally disadvantaged groups, including women, children and ethnic or other minorities. COHRE undertakes a wide variety of activities supporting housing rights and actively monitors and campaigns against forced evictions wherever they occur or are planned. COHRE is committed to a professional and direct partnership with a continually expanding network of non-governmental, community-based and grassroots organizations in all regions throughout the world.
J u l y
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
9 9
COHRE seeks practical solutions to the problems of homelessness, inadequate housing and living conditions and related violations of the right to housing by providing legal advice and assistance; preparing and widely distributing regular publications, books and manuals designed to provide popular awareness of relevant human rights law; providing in-depth training programmes on enforcing and implementing housing rights; advocacy and standard-setting work at the United Nations and other bodies concerned with human rights; and by working directly with national and local organizations to increase awareness of international housing rights standards and how these can be constructively utilized at local and national levels.
3
• Message from the COHRE Chairperson
5
• Letter from the COHRE Executive Director
6
• The COHRE Board and Advisory Board
8
• COHRE Supporters
10
• COHRE Programmes
11
• COHRE Consultants
11
• COHRE Associates and Interns
12
• Consultative Status with the United Nations
12
• COHRE’s New Website
12
• Highlights of COHRE’s Work Between July 1998 and December 1999
13
• Asia & Pacific Programme
17
• Americas Programme
21
• Africa Programme
22
• Women’s Housing Rights Programme
23
• Refugee and IDP Housing and Property Restitution Programme
24
• Housing Rights Training Programme
26
• Resistance to Eviction Conference
27
• Publications and Research
29
• Efforts at the United Nations
30
• Monitoring Forced Evictions
33
• Plans for 2000 - 2001
34
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
Contents
4
Message from the COHRE Chairperson It is once again a pleasure to write a message introducing COHRE’s most recent Activity Report that chronicles COHRE’s work and achievements for the eighteen-month period covering July 1998 to December 1999. COHRE has continued to expand and consolidate during this year and a half and has devoted renewed energy to addressing the human rights problems of homelessness and forced evictions around the world. In addition to COHRE’s daily work on these areas of chief concern, I am also happy to be able to announce COHRE’s new programmes on housing and property restitution for refugees and internally displaced persons, women and housing rights and the increasingly effective work of the organisation in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Americas. It is also a source of inspiration that over 30 people worked with COHRE in one capacity or another in the past year and a half, each of whom made important contributions to the organisation and who deserve our special thanks. I am particularly pleased to report that the COHRE Board of Directors has added two new members, Virginia Dandan and Sandy Liebenberg and that our Advisory Board now has five equally wellrespected members. These are very favourable institutional developments which will surely assist in helping COHRE achieve the organisation’s main aims and purposes.
9 9
The COHRE Board of Directors gives its full backing to COHRE’s work over the past couple of years and as ardently supports the plan of action for the next two years. All of us very much hope that the future will continue to result in positive advances in the areas of housing rights and forced evictions and that COHRE will continue to play an important role in helping such steps forward take shape.
J u l y
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
While all of us responsible for COHRE are all too aware of the still massive scale of housing rights violations and the undermining of hard-fought for legal protections for the world’s poorest citizens, we are at the same time hopeful that the continuing work of COHRE, under the able guidance of our Executive Director, will preserve housing rights where they already exist, prevent violations of these rights when they are threatened and assist in playing our part in the international human rights movement of the 21st century. Professor Cees Flinterman Chairperson, COHRE Board of Directors
5
Letter From the COHRE Executive Director The past 18 months have been a busy and productive time for COHRE and all the people associated with it. Throughout that period we continued our work on housing rights and eviction issues, and expanded our attention to related areas of housing and property restitution for refugees and internally displaced persons and women and housing rights. We also devoted particular attention to the human rights problems affecting Australia, Bhutan, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Nepal, Nigeria, Mexico, Solomon Islands, South Korea, the US and many other areas.
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
Among many of the highlights of the past year and a half, in June 1999 we convened COHRE’s first international conference and brought together 20 people from as many countries to discuss strategies and techniques to successfully resist forced evictions. A report on this meeting and the broader theme of eviction resistance is currently under preparation by COHRE’s Asia & Pacific Programme Coordinator and will be released in mid-2000.
6
COHRE was also granted official consultative status with the United Nations in 1999. This will allow us to continue our many years of work within the UN human rights programme in support of new housing rights standards and also to provide a direct pathway for local community-based groups to access the UN. We are very happy to announce the addition of two highly respected human rights advocates to our Board, both of whom - like the rest of the Board - serve COHRE in their personal capacities and on a pro bono basis. Prof. Virginia Dandan from the Philippines, who is also the Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Ms. Sandy Liebenberg from South Africa and the Community Law Centre have both agreed to join the COHRE Board, which is cause for considerable inspiration. COHRE is equally pleased to announce the establishment of its Advisory Board, now comprised of Philip Alston, Geoff Budlender, Virginia Leary, Fr. Joseph Maier and Enrique Ortiz.
We are also happy to announce our new website which provides comprehensive information on housing rights and eviction issues for everyone who visits www.cohre.org. We are currently upgrading the site and hope to have an augmented site up and running in the first part of 2000. In 1998-1999 COHRE carried out fact-finding missions to the Solomon Islands and Latvia and produced seven publications and a set of promotional stickers. The upcoming months will see the release of a further seven COHRE reports dealing with a variety of topics such as strategies against eviction and a detailed year-by-year chronology outlining exactly what the United Nations has done on housing rights since 1945. Over the past 18 months, COHRE continued our longstanding practice of promoting the establishment of new international human rights standards, remedial institutions and new housing rights programmes. Among others, COHRE led the charge securing
In the year 2000 and beyond, COHRE plans to continue implementing its varied plan of
D e c e m b e r
9 9
I hope very much to be able to continue consolidating the work of COHRE in the years to come and to assist in whatever way possible in increasing that portion of humanity who lives in an adequate home, protected from forced evictions and other violations of housing rights.
-
Finally, and on a more personal note, I would like to thank COHRE’s funders, the COHRE Board of Directors and Advisory Board and the entire team of COHRE consultants throughout the world for their invaluable contributions to COHRE and ultimately to the objective we all embrace; that of creating a world where everyone, every-
where has the right to adequate housing in law and in fact. A special thanks goes to Harshini Ratwatte for her work at COHRE in 1998 and 1999. We wish her well with her new life in Bangkok.
Scott Leckie Executive Director Geneva, 29 February 2000
9 8
COHRE continued to diversify its funding base, thanks to the generous support of several new funding institutions. In terms of office space, we nearly doubled the size of our Geneva offices directly across the street from the UN, so that 5 or more people can now comfortably work at our main office.
action and to explore new areas of human rights work. Besides augmenting our ongoing work for housing rights and against evictions, we plan to expand our attention to housing restitution and compensation issues in post-conflict societies, the housing rights of women, natural disasters and human rights and housing rights training programmes in developing countries.
J u l y
the adoption of UN resolutions on housing restitution for refugees and women and housing rights, designing the blueprint of the UN Housing and Property Directorate in Kosovo and the plan of action for the United Nations Housing Rights Programme.
7
This activity report outlines the activities, programmes and structures of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) from July 1998 through December 1999. During the past 18 months, COHRE has continued to build a more solid institutional basis and expanded the scale and type of activities it undertakes in pursuit of its mission to ensure the right to housing for everyone, everywhere. Organizational linkages and formal partnerships with national and local NGOs, as well as various United Nations agencies, have expanded considerably during this period.
COHRE Board Members Aart Hendriks, Cees Flinterman and John Packer.
The COHRE Board and Advisory Board
p
o
r
t
The COHRE Board of Directors is now comprised of five persons: Prof. Cees Flinterman, John Packer, Aart Hendriks, Virginia Dandan and Sandy Liebenberg. COHRE is very happy to announce that Prof. Virginia Dandan and Ms. Sandy Liebenberg joined the Board in early 2000. All Board members represent COHRE in their personal capacities, and contribute their time and energy on a pro bono basis.
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
Prof. Cees Flinterman (COHRE Chairperson) is Professor of International Human Rights Law. He is also the Director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) in Utrecht, Netherlands and a member of the Parliamentary Advice Commission on International Relations. He has published widely on international human rights issues and worked formerly for the University of Maastricht. He served as an alternate member of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities from 1986-1990.
8
Prof. Virginia Dandan is the Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, of which she has been a member for 6 years. She is also Professor of Theory at the University of Manila, Philippines and an internationally renowned painter and sculptor.
Ms. Sandy Liebenberg is a human rights lawyer who heads the Socio-Economic Rights Project of the Community Law Centre based at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. She is editor of the Economic & Social Rights Review, a leading journal on these rights. She was intensively involved in the drafting of the Bill of Rights in the South African Constitution. She currently serves as chairperson of the Women’s Legal Centre Trust.
The COHRE Advisory Board
9 9
The COHRE Advisory Board is now comprised of five persons with recognized expertise in the areas where COHRE works. In addition to support and guidance provided by the COHRE Board, the Advisory Board assists COHRE in developing new programmes and implementing existing ones. The five current members of the COHRE Advisory Board are:
-
D e c e m b e r
Prof. Philip Alston (Florence, Italy) is Professor of International Law at the European University Institute in Florence, Editor of the European Journal of International Law, and Co-Director of the Academy of European Law. He is also a Visiting Global Law Professor at New York University and chaired the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for eight years (1991-1998).
9 8
Dr. Aart Hendriks (COHRE Secretary) works as a staff lawyer with the Health Research and Development Council (ZON) in The Hague. He is advisor to the Netherlands Council of People
with Disabilities and edits the European Journal of Health Law and the NJCM Bulletin. He has published extensively on health and disability law, economic and social rights and equality rights. He serves as regular advisor to the World Health Organisation and the European Commission of the European Community.
Mr. Geoff Budlender (Johannesburg, South Africa) is a prominent human rights advocate and the Director of the Constitutional Litigation Unit of the Legal Resource Centre in Johannesburg. He is the former Director-General of the South African Department of
J u l y
Mr. John Packer (COHRE Treasurer) is the Director of the Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities in The Hague, Netherlands. He has also worked with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Labour Organisation and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and is currently an Associate Editor of the Human Rights Law Journal.
9
Land Affairs, which coordinated the land restitution programme of the first post-apartheid government. He has published widely in areas such as land and housing, forced removals, administrative law, citizenship and social welfare benefits. He is also visiting professor at the School of Law of the University of Witwatersrand. Prof. Virginia Leary (San Francisco, US) is the Alfred and Hanna Fromm Professor of International and Comparative Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She is a member of the Board of Human Rights Watch/Asia and of the Interna-
tional Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She has written extensively on human rights issues with a concentration on labour and health rights. She is Professor Emeritus of Law, State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law.
and only AIDS hospice in Bangkok. He has received numerous awards in recognition of his work with street children and community development, including the Citizen of the Year Award and the Kamon Keemtong Award.
Fr. Joseph Maier (Bangkok, Thailand) has been a Catholic Priest in the Slaughterhouse Slum in Klong Tuey, Bangkok, Thailand for 35 years. Father Maier is the Executive Director of the Human Development Centre (HDC), which has built dozens of slum kindergartens and homes in the slums of Bangkok. HDC cares for street children and maintains the first
Mr. Enrique Ortiz (Mexico City, Mexico), architect and former Secretary-General of Habitat International Coalition for eleven years (1988-1999). He initiated the Mexican government’s Popular Housing Fund (FONAPO), widely hailed as one of the most effective such programmes anywhere in the world.
Board Meetings
During the period covered in this report, the COHRE Board met four times on 30 October 1999 (The Hague), 24 April 1999 (Geneva), 19 December 1998 (The Hague) and 10 October 1998 (The Hague).
COHRE Supporters
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
COHRE is deeply appreciative of the support given by the following institutions that provided COHRE with financing to carry out the 1998-1999 plan of action: Ford Foundation, The Department for International Development (DFID), Misereor, EZE and the Elisabeth and Ruben Rausing Trust. Several funding agencies have recently begun to support COHRE in the implementation of its 2000-2001 plan of action, including the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women (UNIFEM) and the Swedish NGO Human Rights Foundation. COHRE is very grateful to these institutions for their generous support.
10
COHRE Consultants
COHRE has considerably increased its team of regular consultants over the past 18 months, and now a diverse group of people work regularly with the COHRE team.
Pr
CO HR og E Ho ra mm usin gR e
igh
ts c Pa
ific
Pr
sia EA HR e O C mm ra og
an
d
COHRE Ho
u
Pr
COHRE Africa Programme
's en om e E W mm R H ra CO rog P ts h g Ri
g sin og
CO H ra RE A mm me ric e
as
Mr. Grahame Russell (Coordinator COHRE Americas Programme) has been closely associated with COHRE for several years, carrying out various activities in the Americas. He now heads the Rights Action, an NGO with which COHRE is closely affiliated.
-
ng
9 8
ini
Mr. Ken Fernandes (Coordinator COHRE Asia & Pacific Programme) began working recently with COHRE and has responsibility for COHRE activities in Asia and the Pacific. He has worked for many years in his native Pakistan for housing rights and for the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights in Cambodia.
J u l y
Tra
COHRE International Secretariat
While COHRE remains officially registered in the Netherlands as Stichting No. 41186752 (a not-for-profit foundation) under Dutch law, most of COHRE’s activities are organised from the International Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland where COHRE has a cozy office space directly across the street from the United Nations Offices. The main COHRE office also administers the six COHRE programmes and ensures the linkages between these various components correspond with COHRE’s overall Global Programme. The COHRE Refugee and IDP Housing and Property Restitution Programme and the COHRE Housing Rights Training Programme are coordinated from the Geneva offices. The Women and Housing Rights Programme (WHRP) is now coordinated from Toronto, Canada, having moved from Melbourne, Australia in early 2000. The COHRE Americas Programme (CAP) will also shortly be coordinated from Toronto, by the NGO Rights Action. The COHRE Africa Programme (CA) has begun work and is organized by the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) in Lagos, Nigeria. The COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP) is run from Melbourne, Australia.
Mr. Scott Leckie (Executive Director) is responsible for the overall coordination of COHRE. He has many years of experience in the human rights field and has written on a range of issues including housing rights, economic, social and cultural rights, forced evictions, the right to return for refugees and internally displaced persons and other human rights themes.
9 9
COHRE Programmes
D e c e m b e r
Anna Pomykala, Harshini Ratwatte, Leilani Farha and Dinah Towle
11
Mr. Felix Morka (Coordinator COHRE Africa Programme) is the Executive Director of the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) in Lagos, Nigeria and has been a long-time advisor and friend of COHRE. Ms. Leilani Farha (Women’s Housing Rights Programme Coordinator and Legal Advisor) provides COHRE with extensive experience in the fields of housing law, women’s rights and human rights and has expanded the reach and effectiveness of the WHRP. COHRE is also assisted by the important efforts of Ms. Dinah Towle (Administrator, New Zealand), Mr. Rob Lichtman (Technical Expert, US), Ms. Dominique Johnson (Editor and Translator, France) and Mr. Addison Holmes (Media and Communications, Australia).
COHRE Associates and Interns COHRE is grateful to its various associates including: Ms. Anja Pleit and Ms. Renske Das (Graphic Designers); Mr. Robert Zoells (Lawyer); and Ms. Thea Rolffs (Accountant), all of whom make extremely important contributions to the work of COHRE. Mr. Andy Scherer (Director, Legal Services of New York City) joined the COHRE fact-finding mission to Latvia in October 1999. Mr. David Wiseman (Monash University) and Ms. Kirsten Young participated in the COHRE fact-finding mission to the Solomon Islands in January 1999. Ms. Anna Pomykala worked as an intern with COHRE from August - December 1999. Mr. Bret Thiele (US) and Nene Lawani (Nigeria) joined the COHRE delegation to the 1999 UN Commission on Human Rights.
One of the most important aspects of COHRE’s work is information dissemination. People around the world cannot claim housing rights if they do not know that housing rights exist in law and what they mean in different contexts. To facilitate the dissemination of information on housing rights COHRE recently established a colourful, userfriendly website containing basic information about COHRE; housing rights and forced evictions issues; electronic versions of our publications; access to relevant international and other legal standards pertaining to the right to housing and other human rights; and links to organizations working in related fields.
r
t
Consultative Status with the United Nations
C O H R E ’s N e w We b s i t e : w w w. c o h r e . o r g
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
COHRE was granted Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in July 1999. COHRE has designated several people to act as COHRE delegates at meetings of human rights and other legal bodies at both the UN offices in Geneva and New York. COHRE’s Consultative Status with the UN allows it to continue to have direct access to all important human rights decision-making bodies within the UN and to provide a means for our partner organizations in the developing world themselves to have direct access to these bodies, thus enabling them to testify directly about the human rights situation in their own countries.
12
COHRE will be considerably expanding its website in 2000, to further facilitate popular access to information on housing rights and forced evictions, how these standards can be used by ordinary citizens and what can be done to prevent future violations of these rights.
H i g h l i g h t s o f C O H R E ’s w o r k b e t w e e n J u l y 1 9 9 8 a n d D e c e m b e r 1 9 9 9
Riverside slum, Kathmandu, Nepal
July 1998
COHRE issues Home Is Where the Hurt Is: An Economic and Social Rights Perspective on Violence Against Women, prepared for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy.
August 1998
D e c e m b e r
9 9
At COHRE’s urging, the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities approves resolutions on ‘Women and the right to land, property and adequate housing’ (1998/15) and ‘Housing and property restitution for refugees and internally displaced persons in the context of return’ (1998/26).
September 1998
9 8
-
COHRE releases its seventh compilation of past and pending cases of forced evictions, Global Survey on Forced Evictions No. 7.
J u l y
COHRE Americas carries out a fact-finding mission to Chiapas, Mexico, resulting in the publication of ESC Rights Violations in Chiapas, Mexico in the Context of Counter-Insurgency Low Intensity Warfare Against Mainly Mayan Sectors of the Population.
13
October 1998
COHRE provides international legal training to members of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights’ Eviction Watch Asia Network in Bangkok, Thailand. The COHRE Executive Director presents a paper and speech at the UNDP-sponsored conference on Human Development and Human Rights in Oslo, Norway. The COHRE Legal Advisor gives keynote speech at the Housing Rights Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
November 1998
R
e
p
o
r
t
The COHRE Executive Director carries out an intensive threecountry mission in Asia, where he visited six Bhutanese Refugee Camps in eastern Nepal, convened several housing rights training sessions in Kathmandu, provided a keynote address to a housing rights conference in Seoul, South Korea, met with South Korean President Kim DaeJung, and followed up on COHRE’s earlier fact-finding mission to Kobe, Japan.
y
December 1998
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
COHRE actively participates in the 19th session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva, assisting NGOs from Canada and Palestine.
14
Auki, Melata, Solomon Islands
January 1999
A COHRE delegation carries out the first-ever human rights factfinding mission to the Solomon Islands, resulting in the report Moving Forward and Maintaining the Past: The Status of Economic and Social Rights in the Solomon Islands: A Fact-Finding Mission Report Prepared for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
February 1999
The COHRE Executive Director finalises the draft United Nations Housing Rights Programme (UNHRP), a joint programme undertaken by the UN Centre on Human Settlements and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. COHRE releases Social and Economic Rights Information Kit for Australian NGOs.
March 1999
Two COHRE representatives attend the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on developing the United Nations Housing Rights Programme (UNHRP) in Geneva. The COHRE Executive Director acts as Rapporteur of the Meeting. A COHRE delegation comprised of delegates from Canada, Nigeria and the US, participates in the 56th session Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
April 1999
A COHRE delegation actively participates in the 20th session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, focusing on the human rights situation in the Solomon Islands.
May 1999
COHRE releases the second edition of Sources No. 3 Forced Evictions and Human Rights: A Manual for Action. The COHRE Executive Director provides training on the application of economic, social and cultural rights by NGOs in Antipolo, Philippines. The COHRE Executive Director carries out two one-day training sessions with the Urban Resource Unit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and gives a keynote address to the Malaysian Bar Association.
June 1999
COHRE convenes a four-day ‘Resistance to Evictions Conference’ in Bangkok, Thailand involving the participation of people who had resisted evictions in countries such as Burma, Brazil, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey and Zambia. The COHRE Legal Advisor gives two lectures in Melbourne and Canberra, Australia to government officials and NGOs on COHRE’s activities at the 56th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
July 1999
D e c e m b e r
9 9
COHRE is officially accredited with Special Consultative Status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The COHRE Executive Director begins an assignment in Kosovo as head of the United Nations Housing and Property Task Force.
9 8
-
With 50 NGOs across Australia, COHRE’s Legal Advisor establishes the Australian Social and Economic Rights Project.
J u l y
The COHRE Legal Advisor carries out a mission to Aboriginal Communities in Western Australia to examine discrimination in public housing.
15
Latvia
August 1999
At COHRE’s urging, the UN Sub-Commission on Protection and Promotion of Human Rights adopts Decision 1999/108 on ‘Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons’ and a resolution on ‘Women and Development’. COHRE hosts visit of the Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in her personal capacity to Melbourne, Australia. November 1999 September 1999
COHRE provides a one-day training session to 50 members of the Japan Housing Council in Lausanne, Switzerland.
t
The COHRE Executive Director completes the report for the United Nations entitled Housing and Property in Kosovo: Rights, Law and Justice: Proposals for a Comprehensive Plan of Action for the Promotion and Protection of Housing and Property Rights in Kosovo.
o
r
October 1999
R
e
p
A three-person delegation carries out a COHRE fact-finding mission in Latvia, resulting in the report Housing Rights in Latvia.
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
The COHRE Women’s Programme Coordinator completes a report on behalf of the UN Centre on Human Settlements on Women’s Rights to Land, Property and Housing During Situations of Conflict and Reconstruction.
16
COHRE attends the 21st session of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva, working together with NGO representatives from Rentwatchers of Australia and the Development Services Exchange of the Solomon Islands.
December 1999
The COHRE Legal Advisor and Asia Programme Coordinator carry out a one-day training session on social and economic rights for 20 members of the Australian Social and Economic Rights Project.
Bhutanese Refugee, Jhapa, Nepal
Asia & Pacific Programme
Australia
Bhutan
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
9 9
COHRE continued its efforts in support of the 100,000 Bhutanese refugees currently living in camps in eastern Nepal to return to their original homes and lands in Bhutan. In this light, the COHRE Executive Director paid a three-day visit to six Bhutanese Refugee Camps in Jhapa, Nepal in November 1998. During these visits, he met with many of the displaced persons to discern their views on return. Every refugee with whom he spoke indicated a very strong desire
J u l y
Australia’s periodic report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) was submitted in June 1998 for consideration by the Committee in November 2000. In response to this, COHRE - in conjunction with the Sydney-based Australian Council for Human Rights - initiated the Australian Social and Economic Rights Project (ASERP) in mid-1999. The project is focused on economic, social and cultural rights education, training and information dissemination for local NGOs. To this end, in August 1999, COHRE hosted the visit of the Chairperson of the CESCR - in her personal capacity - to Melbourne where she attended two community forums to discuss Committee procedures and to learn more about the status of economic, social and cultural rights in Australia. ASERP has also established cross-sector NGO working groups in states across Australia that are drafting a national parallel report to that submitted to the CESCR by the Government. Representatives from these working groups hope to attend the CESCR when Australia is reviewed. COHRE was able to bring one representative of the ASERP to the Committee’s session in Geneva in November 1999 to provide testimony on forced evictions carried out in conjunction with planning for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
17
The COHRE Executive Director with Lajana Manandhar and colleague, Kathmandu, Nepal
Japan
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
to return to their homes and lands before they become arbitrarily occupied by secondary occupants in Bhutan. Following this mission, the COHRE Executive Director published several articles on the situation in the camps and intervened whenever possible to push for the return of the refugees. COHRE also assisted in the preparation of a project proposal on behalf of AHURA-Bhutan on ‘Land, Housing and Property Restitution in Bhutan: An Analysis of the Current Status of Land, Housing and Property in Bhutan Belonging to Bhutanese Refugees Presently Residing in Nepal’. The project was eventually supported by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund and involves a programme controlled entirely by the refugees themselves to determine the precise status of housing, land and property left behind in Bhutan as a means of promoting the prospects of return.
18
COHRE continued to work together with various NGOs and community-based groups in Japan, both to follow-up on COHRE’s earlier fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations resulting from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and to expand training and other efforts to increase attention to economic, social and cultural rights in the country. In November 1998, the COHRE Executive Director paid a five-day visit to Japan, carrying out training sessions, working together with communities threatened with eviction including the Utoro Dwellers Association and gave several speeches, including a well-attended keynote address to the Osaka Bar Association.
Malaysia
In May 1999 the COHRE Executive Director presented and ran two housing rights training sessions for various audiences together with the Urban Resource Unit in Kuala Lumpur. He also gave a keynote address on economic, social and cultural rights to barristers, solicitors and other members of the Malaysian Bar Council.
Nepal
The COHRE Executive Director gave several lectures, talks and training sessions to NGO and grassroots representatives in Kathmandu, Nepal in October and November 1998. These events were organized by the local NGO Lumanti, an organization established and run by Lajana Manandhar, to continue the work and memory of her husband and COHRE friend Ramesh Manandhar, who died tragically in an air crash in 1992.
Philippines
The COHRE Executive Director visited the Philippines for the fourth time in May 1999 to participate in a three-day training session organized by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Canadian Human Rights Foundation. The participants of the training session were representatives from 12 Asian countries with active or planned National Human Rights Institutions. He also had several meetings with the Urban Poor Associates, the Quezon City Garbage Pickers Union, the Community Organisers Programme and other grassroots groups working in support of housing rights in the Philippines.
Ken Fernandes, COHRE’s Asia & Pacific Programme Coordinator
Solomon Islands
J u l y
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
9 9
In January 1999 COHRE carried out the first-ever economic, social and cultural rights fact-finding mission to the Solomon Islands. The aim of the intensive, five-day mission was to gather and document, first-hand, accurate information on the status of economic, social and cultural rights in Solomon Islands, with a view to assisting the Committee in assessing the Government’s compliance with the Covenant. The four-person mission was hosted by Mr. Casper Fa’asala, Secretary-General of the Development Services Exchange (DSE), an NGO headquartered in the capital city of Honiara. DSE is a national umbrella organization for approximately 60 NGOs throughout the country. The COHRE mission travelled to the two most populous islands, Guadalcanal and Malaita, and visited both rural and urban communities and attended meetings with local residents, NGOs, representatives from women’s organiza-
19
Bhutanese refugee children, Jhapa, Nepal
tions, teachers/principals, and government officials from a range of ministries including Foreign Affairs, and National Planning and Development. As a result, COHRE submitted to the CESCR a 47 page report documenting the status of economic, social and cultural rights in Solomons and which provides a host of recommendations to the Government of Solomon Islands and the CESCR as to how these rights might be better respected, protected and fulfilled. DSE was provided with a number of reports that it has been using in its activities to improve the lives of Solomon Islanders. COHRE continues to work closely with the DSE and other local NGOs and hopes to assist in the DSE with the establishment of a Melanesian Human Rights Institute.
South Korea
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
The COHRE Executive Director gave a keynote address on ‘Housing Rights in Europe: Possible Applications in South Korea’ to the International Forum on Housing Rights in Korea on 6 November 1998 in Seoul, organized by the Urban Poor Pastoral Committee of the Seoul Archdiocese of the Catholic Church, KOCER, CCEJ, PSPD and the Korean Coalition for Housing Rights. He also gave advice to various NGOs on the development of a Korean Housing Rights Act and had the honour of meeting with South Korean President Mr. Kim Dae Jung for thirty minutes, during which the President made several important commitments to rid South Korea of the practice of forced evictions. The COHRE Executive Director also had the privilege of meeting on several occasions with Cardinal Kim.
20
Thailand
The COHRE Executive Director and COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme Coordinator attended a three-day meeting of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) Eviction Watch Meeting in October 1998, Bangkok, Thailand. The two representatives carried out a training session on the use and application of international laws by local and national grassroots groups and NGOs in defence of the rights of the poor. COHRE also took the opportunity of using the mission to Bangkok to begin planning with the Human Development Centre, for the convening of the Conference on Resistance to Forced Evictions, which was held some 8 months later.
Americas Programme Brazil
COHRE continued to expand its activities with the Brazilian NGO, Sao Paulo-based Polis, one of the leading national groups working for housing rights and urban reform. In addition to providing occasional international legal advice, a representative of Polis was invited to and attended COHRE’s Resistance to Eviction Conference, presenting an excellent paper on eviction prevention strategies in Brazil. Throughout 1999, COHRE and Polis continued the planning of two housing rights training sessions, which will take place in Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre in April 2000.
COHRE Americas Programme Coordinator, Grahame Russell
Ecuador
9 9 D e c e m b e r -
COHRE Americas Coordinator, Grahame Russell, prepared a COHRE statement on Hurricane Mitch and Human Rights in November 1998, immediately following the devastating storm that wreaked havoc on the poor in Central America, especially Honduras. The document was submitted to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for further action.
The COHRE Americas Coordinator carried out a mission to Chiapas, Mexico in September 1998, resulting in the COHRE report ESC Rights Violations in Chiapas, Mexico in the Context of Counter-Insurgency Low Intensity Warfare Against Mainly Mayan Sectors of the Population. The report was issued in November 1998, and presented to members of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
9 8
Honduras
Mexico
J u l y
COHRE was represented by Grahame Russell at the Latin American Conference on the Promotion of Economic and Social Rights held in Quito, Ecuador in July 1998. Organised by COHRE’s close friend the Centre on Economic and Social Rights, the Conference resulted in the adoption of the Quito Declaration on the Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean.
21
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
COHRE continued to work to strengthen working relations with the St. Vincent and Grenadines Human Rights Association (SVGHRA) and to follow-up on COHRE 1997 fact-finding mission to the country. Plans are now well underway for COHRE to carry out an intensive housing rights and ESC rights training session with the SVGHRA in April 2000, and at which representatives from 6 Caribbean countries will take part. COHRE will use the opportunity to monitor the degree to which the SVG Government has implemented the UN’s concluding observations on ESC rights in SVG issued in December 1997.
United States
The COHRE Executive Director presented two lectures to the American University Law School and Yale Law School in April 1999 outlining possible strategies on the application of economic, social and cultural rights in the United States. COHRE also continued to work with the Director of the Legal Support Unit of Legal Services of New York City, Mr. Andy Scherer. Mr. Scherer attended COHRE’s Resistance to Eviction Conference in Bangkok, Thailand and joined the COHRE fact-finding mission to Latvia in October 1999.
Canada
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
The COHRE Legal Advisor presented a paper to the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s 10th Anniversary International Human Rights Conference on the Use of Housing Rights by Palestinian NGOs in their struggle for Statehood.
A
COHRE Africa Programme Coordinator, Felix Morka
22
Africa Programme
Nigeria
COHRE continued to solidify its very close working relations with the Lagos-based Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC), in particular with SERAC’s Executive Director, Mr. Felix Morka, who is also the COHRE Africa Programme Coordinator. Mr. Morka participated actively in COHRE’s Resistance to Eviction Conference in Bangkok and visited the COHRE offices in Geneva on several occasions to plan the COHRE Africa Programme. SERAC also sent a representative to join the COHRE delegation at the UN Commission on Human Rights in March - April 1999. The COHRE Executive Director published a lead article in SERAC’s journal Access in 1999 and the SERAC Executive Director will join the COHRE Training Team during upcoming housing rights and ESC rights training sessions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Both COHRE and SERAC are continuing to seek full funding for the Africa Programme, in order to expand attention to housing rights and eviction issues throughout the continent.
W o m e n ’s H o u s i n g R i g h t s P r o g r a m m e
The COHRE Women’s Housing Rights Programme (WHRP) has undertaken various activities to further develop a gender perspective on housing rights, and is currently coordinated by Ms. Leilani Farha. In July 1998 the WHRP submitted a report entitled, Home is Where the Hurt Is: An Economic and Social Rights Perspective on Violence Against Women to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women for consideration in her work on the relationship between violence against women and economic and social policies. Sources 5: Women’s Housing Rights has just been completed and is a practical, user-friendly guide to international human rights documents pertaining to women and housing. COHRE will publish and distribute this publication in 2000. Over the last 18 months the WHRP also undertook standard-setting activities at the United Nations – working to have the first-ever resolution on women’s rights to land, property and adequate housing adopted at the Commission on Human Rights and encouraging the Sub-Commission on Human Rights to continue to adopt resolutions on this same theme.
9 9
Ms. Leilani Farha
J u l y
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
Utilising funding recently provided to COHRE for women’s rights activities from UNIFEM and the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the WHRP will be undertaking a number of exciting projects in the upcoming year, including working with NGOs in Nigeria, India and Palestine/Israel to conduct research on the impact of forced eviction on women. At the end of 2000, the WHRP will be working with NGOs in Zimbabwe to prepare a dossier on women’s rights to land, property and inheritance to be submitted to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as follow-up to the review of Zimbabwe in 1997.
23
Refugee and IDP Housing and Property Restitution Programme
rights of these potential returnees. COHRE initiated a new Refugee and IDP Housing and Property Restitution Programme in 1998, and it now hopes to expand this further into the future. This programme signals a major expansion in both the types of issues COHRE is working on and the countries where it is focusing its energies.
COHRE’s programme design has been based on the organisation’s growing experiences in this area of work. In addition to several legal and conceptual activities on these issues, between July 1998 and December 1999 COHRE carried out activities on housing and property restitution in Bhutan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo and Latvia.
o
r
t
Throughout the world the housing and property dilemmas and disputes facing returning refugees and internally displaced persons are increasingly recognized as one of the key impediments to refugees and IDP’s exercising their right to return to their homes in their countries of origin. Whether concerning Bosnia & Herzegovina, Palestine, Georgia, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Rwanda, Bhutan or many other nations, millions of refugees who desperately want to return to their original homes are unable or impeded from doing so due to serious housing and property disputes and other legal, political and economic problems negatively affecting the housing and property
e
p
War damage, Pristina, Kosovo
R
Bhutan
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
As mentioned above, the COHRE Executive Director visited several Bhutanese refugee camps in eastern Nepal in November 1998, to gauge the sentiments of the 100,000 refugees concerning the eventual return to Bhutan. In addition to the activities described above, a photo essay of the camps was published in the widely read Human Rights Tribune.
24
Bosnia & Herzegovina
The COHRE Executive Director spent several days in Bosnia and Herzegovina in June 1999 to examine unresolved housing and property restitution issues which still effect up to one million refugees and IDP’s in the region. Among others, he held meetings in Sarajevo with representatives of the Commission on Real Property Claims (CRPC), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office of the High Representative (OHR).
Georgia
9 9 D e c e m b e r
In addition to these countryspecific activities, the COHRE Executive Director also provided assistance to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), preparing a compre-
-
The COHRE Executive Director worked with the United Nations Centre on Human Settlements (Habitat) in Pristina, Kosovo from July - September 1999 on housing and property restitution issues and to develop UN policy on these concerns. In addition to heading the United Nations Mission in Kosovo’s (UNMIK) Task Force on Housing and Property, he prepared a detailed 70 page report Housing and Property in Kosovo: Rights, Law & Justice: Proposals for a Comprehensive Plan of Action for the Promotion and Protection of Housing and Property Rights in Kosovo. Among other things, the paper proposed the repeal of several pieces of discriminatory legislation and the establishment of a UN Housing and Property Directorate (HPD), both of which were approved by UNMIK in late 1999.
As noted above, COHRE carried out a three-person factfinding mission to Latvia from 21-24 October 1999. The restitution of housing and property to persons who faced the uncompensated confiscation of their homes after World War II and prior to Latvian independence in 1991 is a key housing issue in the country. Though many of the housing disputes have been resolved, and housing restored to many original owners, the restitution process has unintentionally resulted in the creation of a very difficult housing situation in the country as a whole. The COHRE report Housing Rights in Latvia outlines some of these obstacles facing Latvian society.
9 8
Kosovo
Latvia
J u l y
In 1998 the COHRE Executive Director visited the Republic of Georgia and South Ossetia, after which he prepared a detailed legal analysis and recommendations on housing and restitution issues for refugees wishing to return home in Georgia and South Ossetia for UNHCR entitled: Housing and Property Restitution Issues in the Context of Return to and within Georgia: An International Legal Perspective. COHRE hosted a follow-up meeting at its Geneva offices with Georgian officials in December 1998 and continued to remain in contact with NGOs and UNHCR in Georgia throughout 1999.
25
hensive study on Housing and Property Restitution and Refugee Repatriation: Key Issues for Policy Development and Practice by UNHCR. This paper, designed to guide the development of UNHCR policy on this subject was analysed at a two-day expert seminar organized by UNHCR in November 1999. COHRE plans to publish a thorough compilation of legal resources relating to these issues in its Sources Series, while the COHRE Executive Director will continue efforts to promote housing and property restitution for refugees and IDP’s by editing two editions of journals devoted to these themes, the Forced Migration Review and the Refugee Survey Quarterly.
Participants at a COHRE Housing Rights Training Programme, Kathmandu, Nepal
H o u s i n g R i g h t s Tr a i n i n g P r o g r a m m e
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
In addition to the day-to-day training that is carried out with NGOs and CBOs utilizing the United Nations human rights machinery and with interns, COHRE has expanded its focus on educational activities in the form of intensive housing rights training programmes. COHRE refined the Training Programme on International Law and the Human Right to Adequate Housing for use in its various training sessions, which is now accompanied by detailed lecture notes, reading lists and materials, video information and other training aides. COHRE is working closely with the Canadian Human Rights Foundation in Montreal, which is currently preparing COHRE’s Housing Rights Training Manual. The ten-part Manual will be used in upcoming training programmes and will be published in mid2000.
26
COHRE Training Programme, Honiara, Solomon Islands
September 1999), Prishtina, Kosovo (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, September 1999), Liepaja, Latvia (Liepaja Tenants Association, October 1999), Stockholm, Sweden (Swedish Red Cross, November 1999), Melbourne, Australia (Australian Social and Economic Rights Project, December 1999). Several training sessions are already scheduled in 2000, including sessions to be convened in Brazil (organized by Polis, a housing NGO in Sao
Paulo), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Caribbeanwide)(organized by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association), the United States (organized by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty), Philippines (organized by the Canadian Human Rights Foundation) and Japan (organised by the Osaka Bar Association). The Brazil and St. Vincent programmes were kindly funded by the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights.
Resistance to Eviction Conference
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
9 9
For the first time, COHRE hosted an international conference on resistance to eviction in Bangkok, Thailand from 24 - 27 June 1999. Working with the Human Development Centre (HDC), a Bangkokbased NGO providing housing, health, education and other services for street children and slum dwellers, COHRE invited 20 activists from every region of the world to spend 3 days exchanging ideas on effective strategies to prevent forced evictions to discern which strategies work and why. Each participant provided a background paper on strategies that had been employed to prevent forced eviction in their country or region and then presented their paper in an interactive environment, fielding questions from the floor. COHRE/HDC ‘Resist Forced Eviction’ tee shirts and publications were provided to all the participants.
J u l y
During July 1998 - December 1999 COHRE carried out a variety of training sessions and lectures throughout the world. In chronological order, COHRE provided training in the following countries and groups Bangkok, Thailand (Eviction Watch Asia, October 1998), Honiara, Solomon Islands (Development Services Exchange, January 1999), Washington DC, United States (April 1999), New Haven, United States (Yale University Law School, April 1999), Manila, Philippines (Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights & the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, May 1999), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Urban Resource Unit, May 1999), Stockholm, Sweden (Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights, May 1999), Geneva, Switzerland (International Human Rights Policy Council, June 1999), Lausanne, Switzerland (Japan Housing Council,
27
Fr. Joe Maier and colleagues during the COHRE Resistance to Forced Evictions Conference, Bangkok, Thailand
R
e
p
o
r
t
Highlights of the meeting included a slide show on the impact of the Olympics on Aboriginal residents of Sydney, Australia; an inspiring personal story by the Zambian anti-eviction activist Grace Mushinge, describing how she stood in front of a bulldozer by herself and then confronted a local mayor in order to successfully halt a forced eviction; a dramatic elaboration of the eviction situations in Nigeria, Burma and Turkish Kurdistan; a pictorial and oral presentation on the new anti-eviction laws in South Africa by Nicky Taylor; an eye-opening account of the scale of forced evictions in New York City and ways and means by which they are sometimes prevented and a motivating presentation by a local activist on ways in which communities threatened with forced eviction can be empowered. Participants also visited a local “success story”, Ban Krua, a Muslim community in Bangkok, which collectively saved their 200-year-old community from being demolished by the construction of a highway.
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
The meeting closed with a constructive discussion on how participants could continue to learn from each other in the future and COHRE’s role in facilitating such interaction. Using the papers written for this meeting, and a variety of new papers commissioned by COHRE, an innovative 200 page publication on Strategies to Resist Forced Eviction is being coordinated by the COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme Coordinator and will be published by COHRE in 2000.
28
H O U S I N G
R I G H T S
I N
M I S S I O N
R
E
P
O
R
T
L A T V I A
C O H R E
Publications and Research
S
3
E
FORCED EVICTIONS m a n u a l
f o r
a c t i o n
AND HUMAN RIGHTS
R
C
a
COHRE has continued its research and publication activities over the past 18 months. The following lists publications resulting from research, fact-finding and NGO support activities carried out by COHRE consultants:
O
U
• Housing Rights in Latvia, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (December 1999), 26p.
S
COHRE May 1999
• Australian Social and Economic Rights Project: Information Kit, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (September 1999),160p.
• Sources No. 3 Forced Evictions and Human Rights: A Manual The Status of Social and Economic Rights in the
for Action (2nd Ed.), Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (May 1999), 108p.
O
R
T
S o l o m o n i s l a n d s
M I S S I O N
R
E
P
• Moving Forward and Maintaining the Past: The Status of Moving Forward and maintaining the Past
C O H R E
Economic and Social Rights in the Solomon Islands: A Fact-Finding Mission Report Prepared for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (April 1999), 47p.
9 9
• ESC Rights Violations in Chiapas, Mexico in the Context of
FORCED EVICTIONS
D e c e m b e r
Counter-Insurgency Low Intensity Warfare Against Mainly Mayan Sectors of the Population, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (November 1998), 18p.
• Forced Evictions: Violations of Human Rights No. 7, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (September 1998), 86p.
Violations
• Home Is Where the Hurt Is: An Economic and Social Rights
9 8
7
Perspective on Violence Against Women (Working Paper Submitted to the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy), Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (July 1998), 65p.
J u l y
COHRE September 1998
-
of Human Rights
29
Efforts at the United Nations COHRE continues to actively participate in and seeks to influence the outcome of relevant United Nations human rights meetings. Throughout the past 18 months, COHRE worked with the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-Commission on Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In addition, COHRE continued to expand its relations with various United Nations agencies including, the UN Centre on Human Settlements (Habitat), the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
COHRE Executive Director working as Rapporteur to the UN Expert Seminar on Housing Rights, Geneva, Switzerland
Commission on Human Rights
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
COHRE attended the 55th session of the Commission on Human Rights (22 March - 30 April 1999). Two advocates, Ms. Nene Lawani of the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre, Nigeria and Mr. Bret Thiele, a law student at the University of Minnesota assisted COHRE at the Commission. The COHRE delegation made several oral presentations to the Commission and spoke one-onone with over 40 Governmental representatives. These initiatives generated substantial interest by both States and NGOs from every region of the world. In turn, COHRE further developed its network of contacts and laid a solid foundation for next year’s Commission. In addition, COHRE provided a detailed submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Foreign Debt and Human Rights during the session of the Commission.
30
Sub-Commission on Protection and Promotion of Human Rights
COHRE intensified its longstanding project of standard-setting initiatives relating to housing rights and forced eviction issues, as well as more general activities relating to economic, social and cultural rights at the Sub-Commission. The key standards which COHRE initiated or influenced include: Resolution 1998/26 on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons; Resolution 1998/9 on Forced Evictions; Resolution 1998/19 on Women and the Right to Adequate Housing and to Land and Property; Decision 1999/108 on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, and a resolution on Women and Development.
Mr. Casper Fa’asala addressing the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
J u l y
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
9 9
COHRE continued to be the most active NGO working with the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in both 1998 and 1999. At the 19th session of the Committee in December 1998, COHRE worked closely with NGOs from Canada and Israel/Palestine to achieve an accurate analysis of the human rights situation in those two countries. During the Committee’s 20th Session in May 1999 COHRE focused attention on the human rights situation in the Solomon Islands. It presented and distributed its report, Moving Forward and Maintaining the Past: The Status of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Solomon Islands and provided Committee members with a 20 minute slide show depicting economic, social and cultural aspects of Solomon society. Because no representative from the government of the Solomon Islands attended this review session, the Committee asked the COHRE Executive Director to attend the oral review of Solomon Islands, to answer questions and provide clarification where necessary. At the end of the Session, the Committee released the Concluding Observations on the Solomon Islands that were based extensively on the findings in COHRE’s mission report.
31
At the Committee’s 21st session in December 1999 COHRE’s activities focused on Australia, Solomon Islands and Mexico. As part of COHRE’s Australian Social and Economic Rights Project, COHRE assisted a representative of Redfern Legal Centre, an Australian based NGO, to heighten awareness about the impact on housing rights of the 2000 Olympic Games. These will be hosted in Sydney, Australia, and are already having an effect on local residents, such as an Aboriginal community that is currently threatened with forced eviction. COHRE also invited Mr. Casper Fa’asala of Development Services Exchange to attend this session of the CESCR to participate in the special session on Solomon Islands. DSE made an oral presentation to the Committee highlighting those issues that the Committee had not fully addressed in its Concluding Observations and provided the Committee with extensive written comments on the shortcomings of a recently submitted draft Country report. As a result of these efforts, COHRE expects that the CESCR in conjunction with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will undertake a number of initiatives aimed at promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights such as the convening of a National Summit on the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
UN Expert Seminar on Housing Rights
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
p
o
r
t
COHRE played a central role in a UN Expert Seminar on the Right to Adequate Housing, jointly organized in March 1999 by UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Both the COHRE Executive Director and Women and Housing Rights Programme Coordinator attended the meeting. The COHRE Executive Director prepared the 70 page official background paper for the meeting entitled Practical Contributions Towards the Realization of the Human Right to Adequate Housing and which provides the proposed design for the United Nations Housing Rights Programme (UNHRP), and acted as Rapporteur for the Seminar. COHRE plans to closely work with both Habitat and OHCHR to ensure the successful implementation of the UNHRP.
32
UNDP
COHRE also continued to occasionally assist the Human Development Office of UNDP in its ongoing efforts to incorporate human rights issues firmly into the field of human development. In this light, the COHRE Executive Director attended a UNDP-sponsored meeting on Human Development and Human Rights in Oslo, Norway in October 1998 and presented a paper entitled Strengthening Housing Rights by Advancing a Ten-Point International Agenda on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The COHRE Executive Director also made a substantive contribution to UNDP’s Human Development Report for the year 2000.
Monitoring Forced Evictions
9 8
-
D e c e m b e r
9 9
During July 1998 - December 1999 COHRE continued to actively monitor forced evictions throughout all regions of the world and intervened with many governments in order to prevent planned evictions or to express concerns following evictions that appear to constitute violations of human rights. In September 1998, COHRE released the 86 page Forced Evictions: Violations of Human Rights No. 7, which covers eviction cases between 1994-1997 in 31 countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Japan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, US and Zimbabwe.
J u l y
In addition to these cases, the report asserts that at least 14 million people were directly threatened by planned forced evictions as of September 1998.
33
C O H R E ’s P l a n s f o r 2 0 0 0 - 2 0 0 1 COHRE has an elaborate plan of action for the next two years. In 2000-2001 the organization will continue to strengthen the activities it has undertaken since its inception, in particular working with local and national grassroots groups to promote housing rights, issuing original publications on economic, social and cultural rights, being active within various United Nations human rights bodies and providing legal advocacy and services in support of human rights. COHRE hopes to publish several publications in the next two years including:
• Sources No. 6: International Events and Forced Evictions • Sources No. 7: Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and IDP’s
• Global Survey on Forced Evictions (No. 8) • How NGOs and CBOs Can Use the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• How To Use International Law Against Forced Evictions
Over the next two years COHRE intends to spotlight the housing rights and eviction situation in Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, East Timor, Kosovo, Nigeria, Mongolia, Solomon Islands, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
p
o
r
t
We plan to considerably expand our programme on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons and work towards strengthening these rights for returnees.
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
R
e
COHRE also anticipates playing a key role in the implementation of the United Nations Housing Rights Programme and in the work of the UN human rights treaty bodies under its UN Housing Rights Initiative. COHRE will attempt to secure the adoption of several new international human rights standards on housing rights and eviction themes and promote the adoption of National Housing Rights Acts in all countries.
34
In terms of original research, COHRE plans to examine and issue publications on:
• The Relationship Between Natural Disasters and Human Rights • Housing Rights Under the European Convention on Human Rights
• The Feasibility of Developing a Global Housing and Property Data-Base as a Tool Against Ethnic Cleansing and as an Element of Conflict Prevention
• How Compensation for Housing Rights Violations Works in Practice
• The Impact of Forced Evictions on Women • Housing Rights Case Law Around the World
COHRE plans to convene an expert group meeting on violations of economic, social and cultural rights and another intended to result in the drafting of a model National Housing Rights Act. The COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme will continue to apply gender perspectives throughout COHRE’s work and convene a meeting of its international working group on violence against women and the right to adequate housing, land and property.
D e c e m b e r
9 9
As part of its Housing Rights Training Programme, COHRE already has scheduled a variety of training sessions in various countries including Brazil, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Nigeria, the United States and Japan.
J u l y
9 8
-
This rough sketch of COHRE’s plan of action for the next two years will, of course, change should the housing rights and eviction circumstances in countries where we work so warrant. If COHRE is able to access the financial resources required to implement these and many other planned activities, it is committed making a meaningful contribution to the enjoyment of housing and related rights throughout the world in the next two years, and in the years to come.
35
COHRE International Secretariat
Mr. Scott Leckie 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva Switzerland tel/fax: 41.22.7341028 E-mail: sleckie@attglobal.net
COHRE Asia & Pacific
Mr. Ken Fernandes 8 City Road Ringwood, VIC 3134 Australia tel/fax: 61.3.98702206 E-mail: kennora@alphalink.com.au
COHRE Americas
COHRE Africa
Mr. Grahame Russell 1760 Euclid St.,NW #406 Washington DC, 20009 USA tel: 1.202.783.1123/fax: 1.202.483.6730 E-mail: manos@igc.apc.org
Mr. Felix Morka c/o The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) 16 Awori Crescent, Off Coker Rd./Obokun St. Ilupeju-Lagos PO Box 13616, Ikeja-Lagos Nigeria tel: 234.1.4968605, fax: 234.1.4968606 E-mail: serac@linkserve.com.ng
CO H R E Wo m e n’s H o u s i n g R i g h t s P ro g r a m m e
e
p
o
r
t
Ms. Leilani Farha PO Box 31001, 725 College St. Toronto, Ontario M6G 4A7 Canada tel/fax: 1.416.968.2823 E-mail: farwise@attglobal.net
R
COHRE Board of Directors
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
Prof. Cees Flinterman, Chairperson Janskerkhof 3 3512 BK Utrecht Netherlands tel: 31.30.2538033/ fax: 31.30.2537168 E-mail: C.Flinterman@law.uu.nl
36