COHRE Activity Report 2000-2002 by The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)

centre on housing rights and evictions (cohre) The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an independent, international, non-governmental human rights organisation committed to ensuring the full enjoyment of the human right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere. For over ten years, COHRE has sought practical solutions to the problems of homelessness, inadequate housing and living conditions, and related violations of the right to housing by: (1) providing legal advice and assistance; (2) publishing and widely distributing regular books, reports, manuals and multi-media productions designed to create and raise popular awareness of relevant human rights law; (3) providing in-depth training programmes on enforcing and implementing housing rights; (4) engaging in advocacy and standard-setting work at the United Nations and other bodies concerned with human rights; and (5) working directly with national and local organisations to increase awareness of international housing rights standards and how these can be constructively utilised at local and national levels.

cohre women & housing rights programme (whrp) 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: women@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: cohre@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

cohre housing & property restitution programme (hprp) 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: scott@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

Brazil headquarters (visitors address) Rua DemĂŠtrio Ribeiro 990/conj 305 90010-313 Porto Alegre, RS BRAZIL tel/fax: +55.51.3212.1904 e-mail: cohreamericas@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.733.1126 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: litigation@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

US Office: Suite 208 Temple Building 8 N. 2nd Avenue East Duluth, MN 55802, USA tel/fax: +1.218.733.1370 e-mail (English): bret_thiele@yahoo.com e-mail (Spanish): gomez_mayra@yahoo.com web: www.cohre.org

cohre right to water programme(rwp)

cohre asia & pacific programme(capp)

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.733.1126 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: water@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

(postal address) PO Box 1160, Collingwood, Vic. 3066 (visitors address) 124 Napier Street, Fitzroy, Vic. 3065, AUSTRALIA tel: +61.3.9417.7505 fax: +61.3.9416.2746 e-mail: cohreasia@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

cohre esc rights litigation programme (lp) cohre international secretariat

cohre americas programme(cap)

cohre global forced evictions project (gfep)

cohre africa programme(ca)

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: evictions@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

c/o 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: cohreafrica@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

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cohre activity report 2000-2002

protecting housing rights preventing evictions

cohre activity report 2000-2002

ÂŠ Copyright 2003 Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) COHRE Activity Report 2000-2002 All Rights Reserved ISBN 92-95004-26-4 The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions is registered in the Netherlands as a not-for-profit organisation Copies are available from: cohre international secretariat 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva, Switzerland tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: cohre@cohre.org website: www.cohre.org Graphic design: Ontwerpburo Suggestie & illusie, Utrecht Print: Primavera, Amsterdam, The Netherlands All photographs by COHRE Drawing on back cover by Anna du Plessis

cohre’s aims cohre’s aims and objectives and objectives Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world live in health-threatening and even lifethreatening conditions in slums, shacks and polluted and often dangerous communities. None of these people enjoy housing rights. In addition, millions of people are violently forced from their homes every year, generally without legal recourse, relocation or compensation. The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) works on behalf of such groups – people who are deprived of their rights – to create a world where everyone, everywhere can enjoy the right to adequate housing and the right not to be evicted, as guaranteed under human rights law. Established in 1994, COHRE is an independent, international, non-governmental human rights organisation that is committed to ensuring the full enjoyment of housing rights for everyone, everywhere. COHRE pursues this objective through an integrated approach to human rights that incorporates the full spectrum of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. COHRE consistently and comprehensively applies international human rights law to housing and living conditions throughout the world. In this way it aims to redress violations of housing rights, to promote compliance with international standards, and to prevent future infringements of human rights. COHRE is committed to local and national capacity-building in the area of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. It places particu-

lar emphasis on securing respect for the housing rights of groups that have traditionally been disadvantaged, including women, children and ethnic or other minorities. COHRE engages in a wide variety of activities supporting housing rights. It actively monitors and campaigns against forced evictions whereever they occur or are planned. COHRE is committed to professional and direct partnerships with a continually expanding network of non-governmental, community-based and grassroots organisations in all regions of the world. COHRE seeks practical solutions to the problems of homelessness, inadequate housing and living conditions, and related violations of the right to housing. It does this in five ways: (1) by providing legal advice and assistance; (2) by preparing and widely distributing books, reports, manuals and multi-media productions, all designed to increase popular awareness of relevant human rights law; (3) by providing in-depth training programmes on advocacy, enforcement and implementation of housing rights; (4) by standard-setting work at the United Nations and other bodies concerned with human rights; and (5) by working directly with national and local organisations to raise awareness of international housing rights standards and how these can be constructively utilised at local and national levels.

contents

from the cohre chairperson

cohre asia and pacific programme (capp)

from the cohre executive director

asia

introduction

programmes and activities

Bangladesh

Burma (Myanmar)

Cambodia

China, Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Republic of

East Timor

India

Indonesia

Indonesia - West Papua

cohre global programme

Malaysia

protecting housing rights

Nepal

Publications

Pakistan

Research

Philippines

Making the Law

Sri Lanka

Training and Education

Legal Assistance

pacific

Working with the United Nations

Fiji

Working with Human Rights Bodies

Papua New Guinea - Bougainville

Funding Assistance for Community-Based Organisations

Solomon Islands

preventing evictions

australia

Evictions Monitoring

Housing Rights Advocacy in a Wealthy Nation

Direct Assistance to Threatened Communities

cohre americas programme (cap)

multi-media activities

Publications

COHRE films on housing rights themes

Brazil

COHRE Online

Colombia

Promotional Materials

Dominican Republic

Grenada

Guatemala

awards â&#x20AC;&#x201C; giving, receiving and nominating

Honduras

The COHRE Housing Rights Violator / Protector Awards

Nicaragua

The UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The 2002 Shelter Victoria Big Mouth Award

United States of America

The Body Shop Human Rights Award

cohre africa programme (ca)

cohre right to water programme (rwp)

Angola

Advocacy for the Right to Water

Ethiopia

International Standard-Setting

Gambia

Publications

Ghana

Training

Morocco

Monitoring

Nigeria

Senegal

Sierra Leone

organ isation

Zimbabwe

board of directors

advisory board

cohre’s financial supporters

the cohre team

the cohre structure

financial accounts 2000 -2002

cohre women and housing rights programme (whrp)

Networking

Publications

Women’s Inheritance Rights

Women’s Economic Equality

United Nations Commission on Human Rights

cohre housing and property restitution programme (hprp)

Publications

Albania

Israel

Palestine

Serbia & Montenegro

Sri Lanka

Other Countries

Training Programmes, Speeches and Workshops

Standard-Setting

cohre esc rights litigation programme (lp)

Publications

Legal Advice and Assistance

Test Cases

Information and Training

ESCR-Net

from the cohre chairperson

meeting the housing rights challenge It gives me great pleasure to introduce the latest COHRE Activity Report. This edition outlines the broad range of activities carried out by the rapidly growing COHRE team in the period 2000-2002. In the past three years the organisation has developed into one of the leading international NGOs focusing on housing rights, and on broader issues linking the enjoyment of those rights to the eradication of poverty and other forms of human deprivation. This report illustrates COHRE’s vital role in drawing world attention to housing rights. In playing this role, COHRE has proved that working for economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights need not be in vain, and that these rights can have a real impact. Even though the eternal divide between norm and fact may have grown even more pronounced in recent years, this is no reason for those working on ESC rights to give up. If anything, it is an imperative to work harder to close the gap, rather than to sit back and watch it grow. COHRE is now widely known as one of the most successful driving forces behind the creation of new human rights standards and institutions at the international level. Among the recent accomplishments that attest to COHRE’s key role in this area are the initiating of United Nations resolutions on women and housing

introduction

rights and on housing and property restitution for refugees, as well as General Comment No. 15 on the Right to Water. Nonetheless, we must not delude ourselves that standards alone will automatically lead to ‘the full realisation of human rights’ so forcefully asserted by international human rights law. Creating standards is but a first step, which is why COHRE’s work with some of the world’s most marginalised groups, in the world’s slums, in countries experiencing the immediate aftermath of armed conflict, has also expanded so significantly in the period 2000-2002. This enmeshing of the legal with the practical, the combining of work at the international, regional, national and local levels, may well be COHRE’s strongest attribute. I know that all my fellow-members of COHRE’s Board of Directors will agree with me that COHRE is now a central player in the global human rights community. This is entirely due to the dedication of those working for COHRE, and to the courage and creativity of the many communities and groups with whom COHRE has had the privilege to form alliances in the struggle for housing rights for everyone, everywhere. Prof. Cees Flinterman, Chairperson of the COHRE Board of Directors Maastricht, 10 January 2003

from the cohre executive director

from the cohre executive director the message remains the same: housing rights for everyone, everywhere Of the ten years in which I have been associated with COHRE, the past three have clearly been the most productive and invigorating. COHRE has grown exponentially during this period, and is now home to many of the world’s leading housing rights advocates. The guidance provided by our Board of Directors and Advisory Board, combined with the work of COHRE’s excellent and diverse staff (we currently have people from 18 different countries working with us), has helped create what is now one of the oldest and largest international human rights organisations focusing on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. COHRE’s expansion over the past several years has enabled it to become more effective in preventing planned evictions and in giving housing rights the attention they deserve. With more than 40 staff, interns and regular consultants, and offices in seven locations around the world, COHRE can now much more effectively and directly assist local communities and others to assert, claim and enforce their housing rights. These offices, and the respective programmes and projects co-ordinated from them, allow COHRE to be closer to the ground, on a more sustained basis, than ever before, thus enabling us to be of greater assistance to the hundreds of millions of people who have yet to see their housing rights fulfilled. The past three years have also witnessed some important accomplishments for COHRE, including: helping to prevent evictions that would have rendered many thousands of dwellers homeless;

training some three thousand persons on housing rights issues; creating new standards on water rights; and making films and other multimedia productions that document the plight of victims of housing rights violations. On behalf of everyone at COHRE, I would again like to express our gratitude to our donors, both past and present, for the vital support they provide to enable us to bring closer to fruition the dream of housing rights for everyone,everywhere. I would also like to thank all those closely connected with COHRE for helping to make the organisation what it is today. Special thanks go to the Board of Directors and the Advisory Board, and to all those working with COHRE, for their intense commitment and hard work for social justice with a human rights face. Although everyone at COHRE is alarmed at the current state of our planet, the world’s problems and the injustices that create them will only inspire us to work even harder in the coming years. The aim of all of our efforts is to bring an end to the worldwide epidemic of forced evictions and displacement, and to create a world where everyone can truly say that they have a decent, secure and healthy place to call home. Scott Leckie, COHRE Executive Director Geneva, 18 January 2003

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

introduction

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) was officially established in the Netherlands on 23 March 1994 to undertake a wide variety of activities in support of housing rights for everyone, everywhere. COHRE was formed to fill a vacuum – no international human rights organisation had dedicated itself exclusively to tackling the immensely challenging global issues of massive and widespread homelessness, deplorable housing conditions and brutal forced evictions. Almost a decade later, COHRE remains the only international human rights organisation that consistently focuses on the legal dimensions of the right to adequate housing under international law, that systematically monitors the practice of forced evictions and seeks to prevent them wherever they occur or are planned. COHRE continues to be devoted to the struggle of finding creative solutions to all housingrelated problems, using human rights laws as its main instrument. Even though COHRE has had many victories, minor and major, its work remains as essential as ever.

COHRE is registered in the Netherlands as a stichting, a not-for-profit foundation, and in the United States as a 501(c) not-for-profit organisation. COHRE’s legal registration is currently proceeding in Australia, Brazil and Ghana. COHRE now has official consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (UN), the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the African Union (AU). Similar status is currently under consideration within the Council of Europe and the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). COHRE has its headquarters in Geneva, with additional offices in Australia, Brazil, Ghana, the Netherlands, Thailand and the United States. COHRE’s implementation strategy is both multipronged and multi-levelled. It is multi-pronged in that it employs legal, social and political means to achieve its aims. It is multi-levelled in that it involves local, national, regional and international actions. COHRE’s capacities have

“In preparing a chapter on the right to housing I found that the intellectual underpinnings and the coherence of the scope of the right have been almost exclusively developed by Scott Leckie and the organisation COHRE. Even when one turns to international decisions concerning the core obligations which correlate to the right - one is simply referred back to COHRE documents (pun intended). Away from the conceptual, one does not have to look far for instances where the activities of this NGO have led to concrete protection for individuals facing eviction or denial of rights. COHRE is rare in that it combines a fact-finding, field-based approach with conceptual work.” Andrew Clapham, Professor of Public International Law Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

introduction

expanded so much in recent years that the organisation is now able to act simultaneously within several countries and a variety of institutions to address any given housing rights issue. COHRE works in all regions of the world, drawing on a global network of housing rights practitioners. COHRE’s network now spans more than 100 countries and 3,000 individuals, groups, communities and institutions. These include governments, national human rights organisations, civil society groups and private sector institutions supporting housing rights and opposing forced evictions. Many organisations monitor human rights abuses, draw attention to them and point the finger at those responsible. Uniquely, COHRE goes a step further in seeking to redress violations of internationally recognised human rights and developing realistic and workable policies, programmes and laws to prevent future abuses. In this respect, COHRE has a wealth of experience in: ■

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assisting States in complying with treaty obligations bringing national laws into line with international legal obligations assisting in legal reform and policy development on housing rights developing comprehensive housing rights strategies carrying out needs-assessments on housing rights and eviction issues identifying ways of expanding security of tenure finding alternatives to evictions or other forms of displacement designing housing and property restitution mechanisms.

“If it wasn’t for the unending determination and obstinacy of COHRE and its crew, I am convinced that the Habitat Agenda would not have finally placed housing as a human right.” Catalina Hinchey Trujillo, UN-Habitat, ROLAC, Co-ordinator of the Habitat Women and Habitat Global Programme.

Every year, COHRE engages in extensive legal advocacy and training programmes with hundreds of grassroots and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and communitybased organisations (CBOs). It assists them with domestic and international human rights advocacy, legal drafting and critiques of existing laws, the formation of housing rights movements, and strategies and intensive training programmes designed to stimulate independent actions in support of housing rights. In addition, COHRE systematically monitors forced evictions and closely co-operates with threatened communities and concerned local NGOs. This work includes participating in resistance strategies, providing legal assistance, writing protest letters and issuing public statements that propose practical alternatives to planned evictions.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

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Members of the COHRE team after a Co-ordinators’ meeting in Geneva

COHRE has organised all its activities into eight programmes, which together constitute the COHRE movement for housing rights and against forced evictions. These are the COHRE Global Programme, the three COHRE regional programmes – on Asia & the Pacific, the Americas and Africa – and four COHRE thematic programmes – on housing and property restitution, women and housing rights, economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights litigation, and the right to water.

cohre global cohre global programme programme From the Geneva headquarters, COHRE’s International Secretariat manages the COHRE Global Programme and the regional and thematic programmes. Roughly one-fifth of COHRE’s staff work out of the Geneva offices, and it is from there that the COHRE programmes and projects receive full guidance, support and administrative backing. As Geneva is so central in the political map of the world, COHRE is ideally placed to act as a global player and to coordinate the wide range of actions in support of housing rights and in opposition to forced evictions. Furthermore, being so close to the United Nations, COHRE is able to interact on a daily

basis with a number of key UN agencies and to meet with virtually any government, as so many countries have diplomatic representation in Geneva. COHRE’s Global Programme strives to protect housing rights and prevent evictions through a number of activities including: research and publication; training; legal assistance; working with the United Nations and various human rights bodies; monitoring and preventing evictions; multi-media productions; and the COHRE Housing Rights Awards.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

protecting housing rights

protecting housing rights publications In the period 2000-2002, COHRE published a wide range of new documents for use by housing rights practitioners everywhere. COHRE now maintains several publication series, including: ■

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Global Surveys on Forced Evictions – comprehensive, periodical updates of forced evictions around the world Country Reports – the results of on-the-spot COHRE fact-finding missions to selected countries Sources – detailed information on diverse subjects of interest to housing rights advocates and practitioners Enforcing Housing Rights – indispensable references for advocates, practitioners and all others interested in housing rights enforcement COHRE Books and Reports – specialised series addressing key housing rights and eviction themes.

A complete list of COHRE publications is available on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org. Copies can be downloaded free of charge from the site, or ordered in hard copy for a minimal charge. COHRE publications are regularly distributed to a strategically selected group of community-based organisations, NGOs, lawyers, research and policy institutes, government and UN officials, and academics. The period 20002002 saw many new publications and actionresearch projects, all produced in conjunction with COHRE’s regional and thematic programmes. These are outlined elsewhere in this report, in their respective sections.

programmes and activities

Publications on display at the library of the COHRE Secretariat, Geneva

In this period, COHRE also produced the following publications as part of its Sources series: Sources 4: Legal Resources for Housing Rights: International and National Standards (2nd edition) – includes all legal sources of housing rights under international and regional human rights law. Published in 2000, Sources 4 has proven to be an invaluable reference document on housing rights worldwide and is used by grassroots groups, communities, campaigns, NGOs, lawyers, researchers and others seeking to enforce these rights.

“I have found COHRE to be one of the strongest human rights NGOs in terms of producing focused, reliable and intellectually challenging materials on economic and social rights.”

Sources 2: Selected Bibliography on Housing Rights and Evictions (2nd edition) – this resource, re-issued in 2001 due to considerable demand, contains extensive bibliographic information on: the right to adequate housing; forced evictions and displacement; housing and property restitution; women’s rights to adequate housing; implementing and enforcing housing rights; and economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. The Human Right to Adequate Housing 1945 to 1999: A Chronology of United Nations Activity – this resource, published in 2000, provides an overview of fifty years of UN action on housing rights. The authors use a range of examples to show how the UN has progressively developed legal provisions for the right to a place to live in peace and dignity. They also outline how UN human rights bodies have employed legal standards to take steps against countries that have violated the housing rights of communities. The Global Programme also publishes a quarterly COHRE Online Newsletter. Initiated in 2000, the newsletter is now distributed to several thousand readers. The newsletter provides up-to-date information on all major developments on housing rights and forced eviction issues. Eight editions of the Online Newsletter were published in the period 2000-2002 and proved very popular, with over 100 new subscribers registering each month. All editions of the Online Newsletter are permanently available on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org.

Prof. Martin Scheinin, Executive Director of the Åbo Akademi University Institute for Human Rights, Åbo/Turku, Finland and Member of the UN Human Rights Committee

research In recognition of COHRE’s expertise in many different areas, the organisation is frequently requested to carry out specialised research for a variety of UN and other institutions. The period 2000-2002 was no exception. Housing Rights Legislation COHRE prepared an extensive legal document on behalf of the UN Housing Rights Programme (UNHRP). The UNHRP, originally conceived of by COHRE, is carried out jointly by the UN-Habitat Programme and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The first UNHRP publication, Housing Rights Legislation, published in 2002, provides a comprehensive overview of housing rights as embodied in international and regional covenants and conventions, as well as in national constitutional clauses and legislation. It also examines practical means by which governments, civil society, housing rights advocates and others have utilised those texts to enforce and further entrench housing rights. It thereby offers valuable lessons to others on how best to utilise existing housing, land and property rights, and highlights where further standard-setting is needed. COHRE and the UNHRP are convinced that this document will play a major role in drawing increased attention to housing rights, and will also prove to be a useful and valuable tool for housing rights advocates.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

Housing Rights Composite Index Also upon the request of the UN Housing Rights Programme, COHRE prepared a detailed report entitled Global Housing Rights Challenge: Development of a Housing Rights Composite Index (2002). COHRE has been a long-time advocate of developing such an index as a tool to monitor and draw attention to housing rights. The report examines some of the key elements that should be incorporated in the Housing Rights Composite Index and includes a discussion of possible indicators for their measurement. The report also explores some of the more practical and methodological aspects of the Index, the means by which data on the various indicators can be collected, and the usefulness of the Index for monitoring implementation of, and compliance with, international legal instruments. Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and IDPs COHRE, in an advisory capacity, works closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on all aspects of housing and property restitution, including research. COHRE contributed several background papers that formed the basis of a new UNHCR memorandum on Voluntary Repatriation and the Right to Adequate Housing. The memorandum lays out UNHCR policy on the relationship between housing rights and the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their original homes – a policy milestone for the UNHCR. In addition, COHRE carried out original comparative research on the restitution provisions of peace treaties and voluntary repatriation agreements. COHRE is currently drafting a report entitled Improving Measures for Housing and Property Restitution in Post-Conflict Situations, which is designed to assist governments and international agencies in determining the most effective manner to address restitution issues in post-conflict environments. This report is based on extensive on-site research into actual restitution experiences.

programmes and activities

Land Rights Because of COHRE’s broad-based experience in addressing land rights issues in countries including Albania, East Timor, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the organisation was requested by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to assist it in developing an effective and innovative policy on land rights and development. The policy – which, hopefully, will be approved during 2003 – is to include numerous references to the UNDP’s potential role in placing greater emphasis on housing rights and eviction issues; this within the broader context of land policy and reform. The policy is also intended to set the tone and parameters of action on land rights issues by one of the largest and most influential UN agencies. The Land, Housing and Property Rights of the Roma: Current Struggles and Strategies for Change In March 2001, COHRE produced a substantial report addressing the land, housing and property rights of Europe’s Roma minority from the perspective of international human rights law. The report provides specific examples of how these rights of the Roma have been violated, both through deliberate State actions and due to omissions and negligence on the part of States and State authorities. In addition, the report examines the key housing rights issues affecting the Roma in Europe, summarises applicable legal standards and principles, and makes recommendations for policy initiatives and research strategies in this area. Furthermore, the report provides substantial supporting documentation in the form of annexes, and a bibliography of resources pertaining to the land, housing and property rights of the Roma.

Using the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights This detailed action-oriented manual provides non-governmental and community-based organisations and other advocates with a detailed explanation of exactly how the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights works and how to utilise this important body as effectively as possibly. Building on COHRE’s many years of working with the Committee, the manual outlines how to tailor a strategy to successfully access this body, including how to select the right issues to raise and how to work directly with individual members. Besides the wealth of important information on working with the Committee, the manual looks at travelling to/from and staying in Geneva. It is available on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org. Enforcing Housing Rights within the European Human Rights System This report is the second in a series of COHRE practitioner’s guides meant to inform the activities of housing rights advocates pursuing legal claims within regional human rights systems. The report includes an overview of the major institutions that comprise the European human rights system, presents the relevant human rights law protecting housing rights, and summarises relevant jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights. Housing Rights Jurisprudence Over the past three years, COHRE has completed its database of the available housing rights jurisprudence developed under some of the world’s most important human rights treaties

and human rights bodies. Key UN bodies in this respect are the Human Rights Committee and the Committees: on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination; on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; on the Rights of the Child; and Against Torture. Other key bodies are: the European Court on Human Rights; the Inter-American Court and Commission on Human Rights; and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. In addition, COHRE has carried out detailed research on housing rights case law within numerous domestic courts. Furthermore, COHRE has identified and summarised the 50 most significant cases on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. This database is updated monthly and is available on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org.

making the law – cohre’s unique role in international standardsetting and institution-building COHRE has always emphasised how important standard-setting and institution-building are in strengthening the protection of housing rights and the prevention of forced evictions. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE again initiated a range of projects that culminated in the adoption of new standards and institutions. This work was founded on nearly a decade of experience in achieving the adoption of new housing rights norms, including a variety of general comments, resolutions, guidelines and remedial mechanisms. The Right to Water COHRE was the driving force behind the adoption by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the first major international standard on the right to water, General Comment No. 15 on the Right to Water. The COHRE Right to Water Programme assisted the Committee in obtaining comments on the

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

first draft from all stakeholders and providing expert advice on international human rights and water law. General Comment No. 15 was adopted in December 2002 and has already been utilised by water rights groups and other human rights agencies. It has also been frequently cited in recent and continuing debates and global strategies on water issues. In one of its more far-reaching clauses, General Comment No. 15 asserts that: The human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, reduce the risk of water-related disease and provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements. Women’s Rights to Land, Property and Housing The COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme (WHRP) has successfully lobbied for the UN Commission on Human Rights’ adoption of three important resolutions addressing women’s equal ownership of, access to and control over land, as well as their equal rights to own property and to adequate housing. These resolutions were approved at Commission sessions in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The WHRP has consistently focused on standard-setting in relation to the issue of women and inheritance rights. This is reflected in resolution 2001/34, which encourages governments to: … support the transformation of customs and traditions that discriminate against women and deny women security of tenure and equal ownership of, access to and control over land and equal rights to own property and to adequate housing.

programmes and activities

Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and IDPs COHRE has been active on restitution issues at the UN Sub-Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights since 1998, when it successfully achieved the adoption of resolution 1998/26 on housing and property restitution for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). In 2001, COHRE persuaded the SubCommission to request one of its members to prepare a working paper on this issue. The working paper (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2002/17) on the return of refugees’ or IDPs’ property was considered by the UN Sub-Commission in August 2002. On the basis of the debate on the paper, the Sub-Commission decided to request the UN Commission on Human Rights to appoint a UN Special Rapporteur on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons. Once formally approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights in April 2003, this new UN institution will draw considerable new attention to the issues of housing and property restitution. Housing Rights Since its establishment, COHRE has been the leading NGO active on housing rights issues at the United Nations. The fact that housing rights issues are now so high on the human rights agenda within the UN and beyond is widely attributed to COHRE’s determined efforts. COHRE was instrumental in the UN Commission on Human Rights’ decision to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Housing Rights in 2000.

training and education In the period 2000-2002, COHRE continued to emphasise its global training and education work. The main focus was on its long-established and well-received housing rights training programmes, conducted by COHRE legal and research officers. Over 3,000 people attended COHRE training programmes in that period. The programmes, which are often presented in collaboration with local groups, are designed to enable individuals and communities to work effectively with international housing rights laws. COHRE training sessions cover topics including: the essential features of housing rights, violations of housing rights, monitoring such violations, national laws, and taking action. Participatory methodologies are combined with more formal tuition techniques. Teaching aids and resources include: detailed lecture notes, reading materials and informative videos.

Banner welcoming local community representatives to housing rights training - Manila, Philippines, August-September 2002

In the past three years, COHRE has carried out training programmes in the following countries: Brazil (Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre, April 2000), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (April 2000), East Timor (May 2000), Malta (November 2000), New York (July 2001), Australia (September 2001), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, July 2002; Chapecó, JulyAugust 2002; and São Luis Gonzaga, September 2002), Grenada (March 2002), France (May 2002), Malaysia (July 2002), Cambodia (July 2002), India (July 2002), Gambia (August 2002), Senegal (August 2002), Philippines (August 2002) and Sierra Leone (October 2002).

“The training program was well designed. It improved my awareness and gave me a determination to do more.” “The seminar was an eye-opener for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the three days of information, education, conviviality and social setting. It was a compact course but with ample scope to further educate oneself by the aid of the printed material.” “Housing rights are not seen as priority human rights in the Caribbean; however, this seminar brought them into sharp focus as they impact on social and economic issues.” “Keep up the good work and continue to involve and serve the Caribbean even more.” “I thank COHRE for its vision and for inviting Trinidad and Tobago to this conference. COHRE can be assured that information learned at the training will be shared with government, NGOs and legal aid in an effort to heighten the awareness of human rights, and especially housing rights, of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.” Evaluation comments by participants in COHRE Training Programme, Grenada, Caribbean, March 2002

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

In addition to formal training programmes, COHRE staff regularly give public talks, lectures and speeches on a variety of housing rights and eviction issues. Several COHRE staff teach human rights courses at universities and law schools; others have given lessons on housing and water rights at primary and secondary schools. Submissions to UN Human Rights Bodies – COHRE maintains its longstanding policy of pressing for action within the UN by directly submitting to UN decision-making bodies key information on housing rights and forced evictions. In the past three years, COHRE has made several dozen written and oral submissions of this kind, relating to countries as diverse as Pakistan, Ghana, Sweden and Slovakia, bringing the victims’ voices as close as possible to the seemingly remote UN.

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legal assistance COHRE has continued to provide free legal assistance to individuals, families, communities and NGOs throughout the world, and has continued to expand its working relations with national and international lawyers seeking to enforce housing rights provisions and other laws regulating the practice of forced evictions. In keeping with COHRE’s multi-pronged, multilevel strategy on housing rights, its free legal assistance takes various forms, including: ■ Amicus Curiae Briefs – In the period 20002002, COHRE continued to assist local housing rights advocates and practitioners by submitting several amicus curiae briefs to national, regional and international judicial bodies. These briefs, relating to housing rights issues in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Ghana, are available for review on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org.

Bringing Victims of Housing Rights Violations to the United Nations – COHRE firmly believes that, if at all possible, victims of housing rights violations should be allowed to address the UN directly and on their own terms. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE supported and co-ordinated visits to the UN by representatives of a range of such victims. COHRE facilitated the direct participation at the UN of groups from countries as diverse as Australia, Brazil, Japan, Nigeria and the Solomon Islands. ■

programmes and activities

Legal Aid Database – In May 2002, COHRE created a database of US and Canadian legal aid agencies working on housing and eviction issues. This database is used for referral purposes when COHRE receives requests for legal intervention in these countries. A Legal Aid Database for the UK is currently under preparation. COHRE ultimately aims to have similar databases available for all countries.

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Written Legal Opinions – As COHRE’s legal capacity and the work of its ESC Rights Litigation Programme have expanded, the organisation has received an ever-increasing number of requests for legal opinions on a wide variety of issues. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE prepared written legal opinions on diverse themes, ranging from the coverage of housing rights issues within voluntary repatriation agreements, through the position of the European Convention on Human Rights with respect to housing rights and eviction issues, to the role of the South African judiciary in interpreting the right to health.

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■ Case Law Database – Throughout the period 2000-2002, COHRE monitored and summarised all decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and United Nations treaty-monitoring bodies that were relevant to the right to adequate housing. This information, regularly updated and stored in separate databases, one for each institution, is available on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org. COHRE also provided extensive research and design assistance for the ESCR-Net Case Law Database on ESC Rights.

Individual Eviction Cases – The bulk of COHRE’s work to prevent forced evictions focuses on cases of mass eviction, sometimes threatening as many as 100,000 people at a time. However, COHRE also receives an ever-growing number of requests from individuals (over 200 in 2002 alone) for legal advice on past and pending cases of forced eviction. COHRE responds to these individual cases as often and as thoroughly as possible, offering specific international legal advice. Frequently, in the best interests of such individuals, COHRE refers them to locally-based and licensed legal practitioners and agencies which offer free or lowcost assistance.

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Legal Memoranda – COHRE has also continued its practice of preparing legal memoranda as requested by partner organisations engaged in specific housing rights struggles. COHRE prepared several such legal memoranda in the period 2000-2002, including one for the European Roma Rights Centre regarding the possible use of UN mechanisms to combat planned forced evictions in Belgrade, Serbia. ■

The provision of free, high-quality, effective legal advice and assistance to actual or potential victims of housing rights violations throughout the world remains a central COHRE activity. Indeed, the organisation plans to expand this activity further in the future, placing greater emphasis on systematically and strategically filing petitions and invoking human rights remedies throughout the international and regional human rights systems. COHRE will also seek to instil a sense of the importance of housing rights issues within institutions not traditionally associated with these rights, such as the International Criminal Court and the International Law Commission. Within three years, COHRE hopes to have become directly involved with, or to have invoked, procedures in all human rights adjudicating bodies. In this way, COHRE will actively participate in expanding the rapidly growing body of positive jurisprudence supporting housing rights and opposing forced evictions.

working with the united nations COHRE has continued to enjoy close working relations with various United Nations human rights bodies and agencies, in particular the UN-Habitat Programme, the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The UN-Habitat Programme COHRE has continued to work closely and expand its relations with sections of the UNHabitat Programme, urging them to give greater attention to housing rights issues. COHRE has been a key supporter of UN-Habitat’s Global Campaign for Secure Tenure, which it helped to launch in Paris in September 2000. In early 2001, COHRE chaired a workshop on housing and property restitution at the UN-Habitat Programme Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

In addition, COHRE has become a member of the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, a formal body initiated under the auspices of UNHabitat, but comprised of UN staff, NGOs, experts and local government officials. The Advisory Group seeks to halt planned evictions through a common worldwide effort locally and internationally by supporters of threatened communities. At another level, COHRE has continued to closely advise the UN Housing Rights Programme on various aspects of its work. In November 2001, COHRE participated in the Expert Group Meeting on Good Urban Policies and Enabling Legislation convened by UN-Habitat in Brasilia, Brazil. COHRE presented a paper: The Right to Adequate Housing: A Key Component of Effective Urban Policies and Legislation.

COHRE also participated in the Experts Group Meeting on Urban Indicators convened in Nairobi in October 2002, to develop measurement indicators for Cities without Slums, Target 11 of Millennium Development Goal 7 – ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’. COHRE’s report Global Housing Rights Challenge: Development of a Housing Rights Composite Index was one of the key reference documents distributed at this meeting. COHRE successfully argued for a clear, uncomplicated definition of tenure security to be used as part of a composite measurement indicator of the improvement of slum-dwellers’ living conditions.

“As the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure was entering its second year, I saw this as the recognition of the efforts of many actors, COHRE being one of the most prominent, who have acted relentlessly, for several years, to fight for the rights of the urban poor: their right to the city, their right to a dignified life, their right to have a say in their future and the decisions that affect them, their right to have access to basic services, employment, education and health. “Indeed, COHRE has actively contributed to the work of UN-HABITAT within the area of housing rights since 1994 and it has become not only a reference for its substantive capacities, but also a relentless champion of the cause of the urban poor, paving the way, many times, to other institutions in the fulfilment of their mission. “In particular, it has provided essential inputs towards the development of the United Nations Housing Rights Programme (UNHRP) – which was jointly established by the UN-HABITAT and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2002. During the last two years, COHRE has provided the major substantive inputs to one forthcoming and four already published reports of the UNHRP. “Recently, I had the pleasure of seeing how the activities of COHRE and UN-HABITAT are converging: while preparing the launch of the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure in Brazil, this campaign received unexpected (and most appreciated) support when the Brazilian Government was given by COHRE, on 9 April, an award as a recognition for its support of housing rights. One day earlier, I had the opportunity to witness the rightness of such a choice when President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva chaired a ceremony granting right of tenure to one million slum dwellers of Sao Paulo!” Farouk Tebbal, Chief Shelter Branch, UN-HABITAT and Manager of the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure

programmes and activities

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) COHRE has continued to work closely with the UNHCR on a range of issues, most notably in giving practical advice on housing and property restitution issues that affect refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who return home once armed conflicts have been concluded. COHRE has prepared a variety of documents for UNHCR on these issues and has continued to raise the profile of housing rights issues within the UN refugee agency. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) COHRE has continued to expand its extensive relations with the OHCHR. In the period 20002002, COHRE regularly providing the Office with timely information on housing rights, eviction, and broader economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights issues. In addition, COHRE staff prepared several publications for the OHCHR. This work included the co-drafting of a lengthy Manual on National Human Rights Institutions and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and a new update of all major housing rights developments, entitled Housing as a Human Right. UN Development Programme (UNDP) COHRE has continued to work closely with the UNDP’s Hurist Programme on a variety of land rights issues. As noted, COHRE has been commissioned to prepare a draft Land Rights and Development policy for UNDP offices throughout the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) COHRE’s work with the WHO has grown with the recognition of COHRE’s growing leadership in the area of water rights. COHRE worked very closely with the WHO in the effort that led to the adoption of General Comment No. 15 on the Right to Water. The organisations recently coauthored a publication on rights to water that is to be presented at the World Water Forum in Kyoto in 2003.

UN World Conferences COHRE was active at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the Overall Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the Habitat Agenda (Istanbul + 5), which took place in New York City in June 2001. COHRE participated in the Panel Discussion on The Right to Adequate Housing: A Major Commitment of the Habitat Agenda. COHRE was also present at the World Conference Against Racism which met in Durban, South Africa in September 2001. COHRE contributed to the Voices of Victims programme, which brought a personal account of South Africa’s problems regarding the security of land tenure and forced eviction to the attention of government delegations to the conference.

working with human rights bodies The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is the premier United Nations human rights body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The Committee considers whether States Parties to the Covenant are meeting their legal obligations under international human rights. Since its establishment in 1994, COHRE has been actively involved in every session of the Committee and has become a trusted partner to many Committee members in efforts to achieve full compliance by States with the norms of the Covenant. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE worked together with groups from Angola, Australia, Japan, the Solomon Islands and Zimbabwe in pursuit of strong decisions by the Committee. To cite but one concrete outcome of these activities, COHRE presented detailed information on a

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

Children from the Agbogbloshie community in Accra, Ghana. COHRE has assisted the community to resist their eviction.

planned eviction in Luanda, Angola, which was set to force some 50,000 people from their homes. With arguments based on information and requests provided by the Angola office of the NGO Development Workshop, COHRE was able to convince the Committee of the seriousness of the planned eviction. The Committee made direct contact with the Government of Angola, as a result of which the eviction plans were put on hold. For many years, COHRE has successfully worked together with the Committee in preventing such large-scale planned evictions. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) In 2002, COHRE was awarded consultative status by the Organisation of American States (OAS). COHRE immediately began to use this status, particularly with respect to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to promote and protect housing rights throughout the Americas. To this end, COHRE has continued to submit directly to the OAS pertinent information on housing rights and forced eviction in many of the region’s States. In addition, COHRE has submitted a number of amicus curiae briefs and housing rights reports to the Inter-American Commission concerning the application of the American Convention on Human Rights.

programmes and activities

African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) In April 2001, COHRE for the first time sent a delegation to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the pre-session NGO Forum, held in Tripoli, Libya. This direct participation enabled COHRE to view first-hand the limited manner in which the Commission deals with economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights, including housing rights. Based on these experiences, the COHRE Africa Programme is determining how best to use regional mechanisms in Africa to promote and protect ESC rights throughout the continent. A first step in COHRE’s strategy is to build and strengthen local advocacy groups, including NGOs and community-based groups, in their efforts to promote and protect ESC rights within those mechanisms.

fundraising assistance for community-based organisations COHRE has continued to assist numerous grassroots housing rights organisations in raising funds for their programmes and activities. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE assisted groups based in Brazil, Burundi, East Timor, Ghana, India, Philippines, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Zambia in accessing donors and other sources of funds to carry out creative and effective housing rights projects in these countries.

preventing preventing evictions evictions In the period 2000-2002, COHRE greatly expanded its central activity of providing legal and other assistance to groups worldwide in their attempts to resist forced evictions. In 2002, the organisation established the COHRE Global Forced Evictions Project, building upon nearly a decade of experience in campaigning against planned evictions and monitoring those that could not be prevented. The Project puts COHRE in an even better position to help local communities, community-based organisations and NGOs to stop forced evictions, or failing this, to secure compensation for the victims. In addition, the Project will soon enable COHRE to provide monthly (and, later, even weekly) global updates of evictions and, in conjunction with regional programmes and offices, to carry out daily preventive activities. In the period 2000-2002, with a view to preventing planned evictions, COHRE directly intervened with the Governments of Angola, Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States.

evictions monitoring COHRE remains the only organisation that systematically monitors the practice of forced eviction throughout the world. Many of the monitored evictions are described in COHRE’s Global Surveys on Forced Evictions series – regular compilations of information on recent and planned forced evictions that COHRE receives from other organisations and news sources around the world. The Global Surveys highlight the appalling extent and severity of this inexcusable violation of human rights. Whether

read together or individually, these volumes are invaluable resources for every individual or organisation concerned with the right to adequate housing. In 2002, COHRE published Forced Evictions: Violations of Human Rights – Global Survey No. 8, covering evictions carried out between January 1998 and December 2000. This volume documents how over 4.2 million persons were forced out of their homes, many as a result of deliberate government policy. Global Survey No. 8 reveals that the way in which these evictions were carried out often violated international human rights law and basic principles of justice, not to mention humanity. The evictions are thus potentially subject to consideration by the newly established International Criminal Court. Global Survey No. 8 estimated that an additional 3.6 million persons were facing imminent forced eviction. These worst fears have since been confirmed by the research for Global Survey No. 9, which covers the period 2001-2002 and is to be published in the first half of 2003. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE directly monitored forced evictions in more than 60 countries, including: Asia, Pacific and Middle East – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Japan, Malaysia,

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

Sign erected by victims of November 2001 evictions. Fort Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines

Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Thailand; Africa – Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe; The Americas – Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, United States and Venezuela; Europe – Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Serbia & Montenegro. At its Geneva headquarters, COHRE maintains what may well be the world’s largest and most regularly updated document library on forced eviction. It covers many thousands of cases of eviction carried out in the period 1990-2002. COHRE is in the process of making all this information available for worldwide access on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org.

programmes and activities

direct assistance to threatened communities Even more important than the evictions monitoring work are COHRE’s continuing activities to prevent forced evictions from being carried out at all. These activities include: (1) working closely with local communities, communitybased organisations and NGOs; (2) submitting amicus curiae briefs in support of victims of – often violent – forced eviction and displacement; (3) preparing legal analyses of forced evictions for national, regional and international human rights bodies; and (4) protesting directly to governments that intend to evict people from their homes. COHRE has achieved press coverage of planned evictions in many countries and has facilitated the direct participation of members of threatened communities at the United Nations. In the period 20002002, COHRE intervened in over 50 cases where governments were planning large-scale forced evictions.

multi-media multi-media activities activities As part of COHRE’s continuing efforts to raise awareness of housing rights and eviction issues among the widest possible global public, the organisation regularly carries out a range of multi-media activities, including the production of documentary films, various online activities, and the production and distribution of promotional materials.

cohre films on housing rights themes COHRE has already produced and distributed one video/VCD (Video CD) film; four others are in production and nearing completion. The first film, Vuka Vrcevica – A Housing Rights Violation, was filmed in Serbia and portrays several Roma refugee families who live on a Belgrade garbage dump. They all long to return to their homes in Macedonia and Kosovo. The seven-minute film was shot during a joint visit to the Roma settlement in Belgrade by COHRE and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It has been distributed throughout the COHRE network to increase awareness of the dire housing and living conditions experienced by the Roma. The second film, Land Rights in East Timor, examines the land and housing issue in newly independent East Timor. It also seeks to identify both the successes and failures of the interna-

tional community’s role in governing East Timor from 1999 to 2002. The film is to be released in early 2003 for distribution within East Timor and to a broader international audience. The third film, Throwing Away History, explores the case of the Pommahakan community in central Bangkok, Thailand. This 150-year-old community is struggling against its planned forced eviction. The short film captures the residents’ determination to resist being removed from their homes. The fourth film, The Seven Elements of Housing Rights, will use footage shot in some twenty countries (including Cambodia, East Timor, Thailand, Serbia and South Africa) to explain the meaning and intent of housing rights. International human rights law declares that, for the right to adequate housing to be fully enjoyed, seven criteria must be satisfied: security of tenure, affordability, accessibility, habitability, services, location and cultural adequacy. The fifth and most ambitious film will be entitled Going Home. It will highlight the experiences of four families, from Bhutan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Palestine (Israeli-Occupied Territories) and South Africa, each of them struggling to exercise their rights to housing and property restitution and return to their original homes. Talks are currently underway with major production companies in the UK and Australia in order to obtain backing for the film.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

cohre online The COHRE Website, www.cohre.org, has continued to play an increasingly important role in informing the global public of the organisation’s work, as well as broader housing rights and eviction developments. The site is an easy resource for anyone with internet access – not only those seeking to educate themselves on housing rights, but also those needing key information to support their own local housing rights claims. The COHRE Website, now fully interactive and visited by thousands of people each week, is the Internet’s largest database and library of documentation on housing rights and eviction.

its poignant message, Seasons Greetings – Be Thankful for a House, the poster drew the attention of thousands of Geneva residents to the plight of the world’s homeless and inadequately housed millions. Another large poster, this time equating the destruction of civilian homes during armed conflict with war crimes, was later placed in full view of passers-by. Smaller versions of this poster were distributed throughout the COHRE global network and are available on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org.

promotional materials In the period 2000-2002, COHRE produced and distributed a range of promotional materials. In addition to developing a new brochure describing COHRE’s work and reach, a multi-media brochure was placed on the COHRE Website, www.cohre.org, allowing visitors to see in a more interactive manner where, how and for whom COHRE works throughout the world. COHRE produces posters for regular distribution to its global network. The first COHRE poster was designed to promote understanding of the right to housing as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The broader housing rights community has reacted very positively to this initiative, with requests for hundreds of extra posters. During the December 2002 holiday season, a huge poster measuring 60 sq. ft. (5.6 m 2) was prominently displayed in the ground-floor window of COHRE’s Geneva headquarters. With its image of a slum-dweller in the Philippines and

programmes and activities

T-shirts printed with the message Housing is a Human Right were produced free of charge and sent out to COHRE contacts throughout the world. These T-shirts are also available through the COHRE Website, www.cohre.org, in exchange for a donation to the organisation’s work. Pens advertising the COHRE Website have also been produced and distributed en masse, as has a series of stickers bearing housing rights messages.

awards -giving receiving and nominating awards – giving, receiving and nominating

In the period 2000-2002, COHRE was involved in a variety of housing rights awards.

the cohre housing rights violator / protector awards On 10 December 2002, COHRE exposed the infamous and acknowledged the famous with the launch of its Housing Rights Violator and Housing Rights Protector Awards. The COHRE Housing Rights Violator Award 2002 went to ten countries around the world that have distinguished themselves in showing extraordinary disdain for housing rights: Burma (Myanmar), Colombia, Croatia, Guatemala, India, Israel, Nigeria, Pakistan, the USA and Zimbabwe. Letters were sent to the embassies of each of these countries detailing specific breaches of law with regard to violations of housing rights. These awards received extensive press coverage and, in several cases, led to dialogue between COHRE and violator countries. The COHRE Housing Rights Protector Award 2002, which recognises outstanding performance in the area of housing rights, was given to three countries which dealt pro-actively and positively with housing rights challenges in the period 2000-2002. The winners were the Governments of Brazil, East Timor and South Africa. All three have proven that, despite severe economic and political difficulties, housing rights

Mr. Olivio Dutra, Minister of the City, Federal Government of Brazil, accepts the COHRE Housing Rights Protector Award 2002 in Brasilia

can still be prioritised, protected and even promoted. Brazil was recognised for its adoption of the world’s most progressive housing rights law, the Statute of the City. East Timor received an award for its inclusion of housing rights within its new Constitution, and South Africa was honoured for a pioneering judicial decision by its Constitutional Court. The winners exemplify what can be done when the political will of governments is directed at protecting human rights and safeguarding human dignity. Emerging from violent and repressive histories, all three winners have taken notable steps in redressing the human rights abuses of the past. COHRE hopes that other countries around the world will look to the housing rights achievements of Brazil, East Timor and South Africa and will follow their lead in developing their own progressive housing rights policies.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

the 2002 shelter victoria big mouth award

Ken Fernandes receives the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour on behalf of COHRE – Fukuoka, Japan, 1 October 2001

the un-habitat scroll of honour In 2001, COHRE was privileged to receive the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement’s Habitat Scroll of Honour Award. COHRE was selected “for advocating a human rights approach as a basis for alleviating homelessness, inadequate housing and combating arbitrary forced evictions”. COHRE was also cited as one of UN-Habitat’s most active partners in promoting housing rights. The 2001 award ceremony was held in Fukuoka, Japan, on 1 October – World Habitat Day. That day is for people around the globe to reflect on the living conditions of other human beings, and for actions to be taken to address the shortcomings of those conditions. The annual Scroll of Honour was first presented in 1986, and is given to individuals, organisations or projects for their outstanding contribution to the development of human settlements. At the 2001 award ceremony, Ken Fernandes, Co-ordinator of the COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP), accepted the award on behalf of COHRE.

programmes and activities

The 2002 Shelter Victoria Big Mouth Award (an initiative of Shelter Victoria, Australia) was given to Ken Fernandes, Co-ordinator of the COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP), and Kellie Nagle of the Collingwood Community Information & Drop-In Centre (CCIDIC). Shelter Victoria first presented its Big Mouth Award in 2001, in recognition of an individual’s consistent efforts to keep housing issues on the agenda. Ken was given this award for talking, negotiating, writing, planning, scheming and collaborating with others, in order to keep housing issues on the agenda of governments, communities, policymakers, activists and the general public.

the body shop human rights award The Body Shop Human Rights Award is the only international human rights award that focuses exclusively on issues of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. In 2002, the award was dedicated to the issue of housing rights, and for more than a year COHRE was closely involved with The Body Shop in the run-up to the presentation. COHRE Executive Director Scott Leckie provided extensive advice to The Body Shop during this process, identifying a global expert nominations panel and assisting in various other capacities. In October 2002, he delivered a keynote speech during the awards ceremony, held in the Globe Theatre, London. More than 45 grassroots housing rights organisations had been nominated for the 2002 award. The winners were Romani Bhat (Bulgaria), Ilishe Trust (Kenya), Society for the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel (Israel) and COPINH (Honduras).

cohre asia cohre asia and pacific and pacific programme programme(capp) p r o g r a m m e c o - o r d i n ato r – k e n f e r n a n d e s

The COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP), now with offices in Melbourne and Bangkok, has continued to provide innovative leadership on housing rights issues throughout many Asian countries, as well as the often-neglected nations of the Pacific. In the period 2000-2002, CAPP carried out activities in and/or concerning: Australia, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, East Timor, Fiji, India, Indonesia - West Papua, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea - Bougainville, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Sri Lanka.

asia bangladesh – violations of housing rights In response to reports of massive forced evictions in the Bangladeshi capital, affecting tens of thousands of slum dwellers, CAPP organised an August 2000 fact-finding mission to Dhaka in collaboration with the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). The team had a hectic schedule, meeting members of evicted communities and those under threat of eviction, NGOs, lawyers, Government officials and ministers. In the process, CAPP uncovered the appalling fact that more than 100,000 people had been forcibly evicted in Dhaka – and this in a period of only 12 months prior to the mission. The media gave the CAPP mission and the mass evictions issue considerable coverage. Many newspapers ran editorials characterising these evictions as gross violations of human rights.

Following the mission, COHRE published We Didn’t Stand a Chance: Forced Evictions and Housing Rights Abuse in Dhaka, Bangladesh (May 2001). More than 1 500 copies of this report were distributed in Bangladesh and throughout the COHRE global network. The report finds that neither a resettlement plan nor compensation was offered to those evicted from their homes and that some evictions had been carried out with less than twenty-four hours’ notice. Furthermore, while carrying out the evictions, Government forces reportedly used unwarranted and unprovoked violence against men, women and children. The report asserts that these actions were in direct contravention of the Bangladesh Constitution, which is explicit in obliging the State to protect the right of all residents to be safe and secure in their homes. The report also asserts that the Government violated the right to adequate housing as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The report makes a number of key recommendations that include: involving stakeholders in rehabilitation schemes; extending access to land by the urban poor; and implementing employment schemes for slumdwellers through rural development. In addition, the Government of Bangladesh is urged to abide by its international legal obligations.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

including recommendations for these groups to support CUP in combating evictions and promoting housing rights. COHRE has continued to maintain contact with Ain-o-Salish-Kendro (ASK), a legal centre supporting the Dhaka squatters, and has proposed that the centre act as CAPP’s South Asian hub for legal action on land and housing rights issues. Typical informal settlement along railway in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 2000

COHRE has maintained contact with the groups that the team met during the fact-finding mission. To provide a concrete basis for finding alternatives to eviction, COHRE supplied the Coalition of the Urban Poor (CUP) with case studies of successful community-based rehabilitation and relocation programmes in other Asian countries, with a view to seeing them implemented in Dhaka as well. CAPP also proposed that CUP should support the Federation of Squatters in conducting a survey to ascertain the number of squatters in Dhaka, and in mobilising the squatters to develop alternative housing solutions. Following up on the August 2000 mission, CAPP Co-ordinator Ken Fernandes returned to Bangladesh to chart progress and, at the request of Dutch funding agency Cordaid, to review CUP strategy for combating evictions and promoting housing rights of the urban poor. He visited Dhaka and Chittagong from 26 August to 7 September 2001 and worked intensely with the CUP staff and the different groups in the coalition to clarify their goals and methodology. He contributed to the report entitled Review of CUP: A Networking Agency Aiming to Promote the Rights of the Urban Poor,

programmes and activities

burma (myanmar) – calculating losses, planning for the future The current military regime in Burma (now officially named ‘Myanmar’) is widely considered to have one of the world’s poorest human rights records. For this reason, Burmese Government actions are annually condemned by the United Nations. Since the annulment of the 1990 elections, which were won overwhelmingly by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the Government – which ironically calls itself the State Peace and Democracy Council (SPDC) – has forcibly evicted thousands of families from their lands and homes. Further thousands of families have fled their lands to escape the military regime’s repressive measures, ending up as internally displaced persons (IDPs), or as refugees in neighbouring Thailand. While many human rights groups have addressed the displacement issue in Burma, COHRE is seeking to make a unique contribution by calculating the total monetary value of the land, housing and property lost to those people who were forcibly evicted or fled the military’s repression since 1988. COHRE’s Burma project will be one of the first attempts to systematically measure, document and publicise the extent of housing rights violations in that troubled country – an essential step in the campaign to halt violations, restore housing and land to the victims, and provide fair compensation in cases where restitution is no longer possible.

cambodia – a long way to go This process began in September 2001 when CAPP met with various groups and individuals involved with human rights issues in Burma. All these meetings were held in neighbouring Thailand: in Bangkok, Kanchanaburi and Chiang Mai. As a result of these consultations, it was decided that CAPP’s Burma project will provide new ways of looking at displacement – by viewing the process as one involving not only violations of housing and/or personal integrity rights, but also violations of rights to immovable and movable property. In addition, COHRE’s work on Burma will facilitate the process of transition to democracy by instilling in the democratic opposition an understanding of the vital nature of housing and land issues. This should enable them to develop appropriate housing and land policies prior to the actual transition. COHRE has many years of experience working with peoples that eventually achieved democratic self-rule (for example in South Africa and East Timor) or are still seeking selfdetermination (in Bougainville, Palestine and other occupied territories). This experience has highlighted the danger that land, housing and property issues may be sidelined if they are not put firmly on the agenda at an early stage. If neglected, these issues – rather than being the elements of positive change that they should rightly be – can even end up creating tensions and disputes that endanger an emergent nation’s peace, stability and prosperity In connection with eviction and displacement issues in Burma, COHRE has made a series of follow-up visits to Thailand. In July 2002, the organisation sponsored a consultation meeting in Bangkok with a range of groups in order to develop plans to implement the COHRE Burma project. The meeting established a Project Reference Group of Burmese NGOs and individuals working in human rights and related fields. A second consultative workshop was also planned for the first quarter of 2003.

Cambodia continues to grapple with severe housing and eviction problems, which are still prevalent more than a decade after the UNbrokered peace agreement. COHRE, responding to requests for assistance from local NGOs, sent a fact-finding mission to Cambodia in July 2002 to investigate land and housing rights. The team visited and consulted with communities living in the slum settlements of Bassac, Boeng Salang, Borie Keila and Bloc Tampa, as well as the miserable relocation sites in Anlong Kangan. They held meetings with the Governor of Phnom Penh, the Minister of Land, and various United Nations officials. Issues discussed included: housing conditions; livelihood programmes; savings and credit; land-grabbing; eviction; voluntary relocation; and the implementation of the new Land Law. The COHRE team also provided an intensive housing rights training programme to some 40 participants.

people’s republic of china – evictions and the olympic games In its work on the People’s Republic of China, CAPP has been devoted to collecting background information on the forced evictions carried out and planned in Beijing in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The development frenzy now playing itself out in the Chinese capital has resulted in the demolition of numerous 100-year-old hutong (traditional courtyard houses), old neighbourhoods and communal toilets. At the same time, many low-cost houses are being converted to flats, hotels and hostels for use during the summer of 2008. For this reason, many public housing tenants – who pay monthly rents of only 25 yuan (US $30) – are being evicted. CAPP has contacted several analysts in Beijing, each of whom confirms that large-scale evictions are indeed taking place in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics. CAPP plans a more systematic inves-

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

COHRE surveys a damaged building in Dili, East Timor, May 2000

tigation of this issue, which it has discussed with the Eviction Watch Programme and the Community Organising Programme of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). CAPP and ACHR are exploring possibilities for a joint eviction-monitoring project. ACHR was instrumental in exposing the massive scale of forced evictions – affecting 700,000 people – in Seoul, South Korea, prior to the 1988 Olympic Games.

east timor – a new nation with old problems East Timor’s celebrated transition from occupied territory to a newly independent country has not come without difficulties. While the inclusion of the right to housing in East Timor’s Constitution (2002) was a cause for celebration (which resulted in the Government being presented with the COHRE Housing Rights Protector Award 2002), huge policy and implementation issues faced and still face this emergent nation. Mistakes made during the period 19992002, when East Timor was administered by the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET), laid a problematical foundation for practical realisation of the right to housing.

programmes and activities

A high-priority issue during the transition period – as is always the case in situations following conflict and occupation – was how to address the land, housing and property problems plaguing the new nation. In the course of 2000, it became clear that the administration was struggling to take effective, concrete action, so local grassroots groups began to take an increasing interest in the role they could play. Following extensive meetings with COHRE and other organisations, many local groups expressed great interest in using a housing rights framework in their work, particularly in respect of the problem of forced evictions. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE visited East Timor on several occasions, seeking to understand the situation, to assess how the various groups and institutions were (or were not) responding to it, and to make practical recommendations for initiating a popular housing policy. A COHRE report entitled Housing Rights in East Timor: Better Late Than Never was published in September 2000. This report was motivated by the lack of an official housing-delivery policy in the aftermath of the destruction of 80 per cent of East Timor’s housing stock by Indonesian-backed militias. Despite efforts to convince UNTAET to deal swiftly with the burning land and housing issues, little had been done to resolve them. The COHRE report urged the transitional authority and the Timorese political institutions to formulate and implement a national housing policy, or jeopardise the long-term economic and social recovery of the country. The report offered a detailed list of recommendations for the formulation of such a housing policy, and argued against some of the urban policies that had previously been proposed for East Timor.

Reconstruction in an atmosphere of uncertainty. Dili, East Timor, February 2001

As an initial follow-up to this report, CAPP Coordinator Ken Fernandes visited East Timor in March 2001 to conduct training sessions on housing and land rights issues with some 30 local community-based organisations and NGOs. He also shared with them much-appreciated information on housing rights experiences in other Asian countries. Intensifying COHRE’s involvement following the successful conclusion of the training sessions, and on the request of several local groups, COHRE formulated draft housing rights clauses for the Constitution of East Timor, and started to develop a popular housing policy. COHRE’s draft constitutional submissions were translated, distributed and widely discussed throughout the country. Eventually, and largely due to COHRE’s efforts, housing rights were included in the final Constitution (2002). In September-October 2002, CAPP Legal Assistant Dan Nicholson travelled to East Timor to collect and collate material on housing, land and

property rights in the country. He communicated with various East Timorese local NGOs, Government officials, Members of Parliament, and international experts in this field. A report of this mission is available from cohreasia@cohre.org on request. COHRE has continued to consolidate its partnership with the Kadalak Sulimutuk Institute (KSI), an East Timorese NGO. This partnership is at the heart of much of the work on land and housing issues in the capital, Dili, and in the other districts of East Timor. KSI and COHRE have agreed in principle to conduct a training workshop on housing rights in the first half of 2003. CAPP has also been developing plans for further work in the period 2003-2006 that will focus on working together with local groups and the Government to achieve the eventual adoption of an East Timor National Housing Rights Act. CAPP is also producing short video/VCD documentaries outlining housing and land issues in East Timor.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

indonesia – peasant displacement

india – dams, the environment and evictions In 2002 CAPP assisted the Indian National Forum for Housing Rights in publishing Eviction Watch India – A Report on Evictions in India’s Major Cities. This report describes and analyses the problems of inadequate housing, forced evictions and homelessness affecting the urban poor in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay) and New Delhi. The report also critically appraises new trends in policies and laws on housing and in the drafting of master plans for Indian cities. CAPP has placed increasing attention on the housing rights situation in India. In July 2002, a COHRE team visited Mumbai and Indore. In Mumbai, the team met with the India Centre for Human Rights (ICHR), the Committee for Housing Rights (CHR), the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), Jagriti Kendra, Awaz-e-Niswaan (a Muslim women’s group), and the Youth for Unity and Voluntary Association (YUVA). The team visited slum settlements: (1) in Dyanash Nagar, where a total of 4,000 people (mostly Punjabi gypsies or banjara) were facing evictions; (2) near the international airport, where communities were facing eviction due to runway extension; and (3) in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, where, due to environmental public interest litigation, 24,000 adivasi (tribal) families were facing eviction and relocation to a site 50 km away. The team also visited Dhar in Indore, where 12 villages were facing forceful eviction and submergence due to the construction of the Maan Dam on the Narmada River. In Dhar, the team met with Deenbandhu, a small housing rights group struggling against great odds to resist eviction.

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CAPP has been monitoring evictions in Indonesia for many years. In the period 2000-2002, the focus was on events in Banten Province in November 2001 following a local police raid in the village of Cibaliung, Pandeglang Regency, which left 67 houses burned down, crops destroyed and 49 peasants arrested. The peasants’ land had been claimed by the State Forestry Company, Perum Perhutani. Over the past 20 years, Perum Perhutani had been edging the peasants off their own land and was now finally trying to take over the whole village.

indonesia - west papua CAPP has also been devoting increasing attention to the housing rights situation in West Papua, recognising the need for greater global awareness of the West Papuan struggle for selfdetermination. The West Papuans are struggling in the face of continuing human rights abuses, a refugee crisis, and the immense environmental destruction caused by large mining concerns. CAPP is a member of the West Papua Refugee Working Group. In this capacity, CAPP has become aware of the situation in resettlement sites in the Timika lowlands, to which oil companies have relocated hundreds of villagers from the highlands of Bintuni Bay. CAPP is establishing contacts with local groups to monitor the situation, and to determine how best to assist in improving housing rights in the future.

malaysia – development at a price The COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP) has continued its long relationship with various Malaysian NGOs involved in resisting forced

“COHRE’s contribution in Malaysia was very welcome and in many ways a good motivation for many activists working on housing and urban issues.” Cynthia Gabriel, SUARAM, Malaysia Human Rights Group

evictions and other housing rights violations. In recent years, forced evictions have been commonplace in many parts of the country, including districts of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. To raise awareness of the evictions issue in Malaysia, CAPP organised and supported a workshop on Understanding Housing Rights from a Community Perspective, together with Daya Guaman Rakyat (human rights lawyers), SUARAM (a human rights organisation), the Urban Resource Unit (an NGO for research and documentation) and PERMAS (a communitybased federation). Held from 12 to 14 July 2002 at Kuala Selangor in Malaysia, this workshop formed part of CAPP’s efforts in several Asian countries to bring together human rights lawyers, community activists and groups working on human settlement issues. The main purpose of the workshop was to hear and reflect on the poor people’s perspective on housing rights. Some 31 participants attended, and concluded the workshop by forming a Coalition on Housing Rights and a network of young lawyers. This Coalition has subsequently met and decided to provide legal support to lowincome communities on housing and other issues. It has also prepared a plan of action which supplements the existing plan of the Congress on People Before Profit. In Malaysia, CAPP also met with the founders of the Urban Pioneers, who work with squatters and plantation workers. The Urban Pioneers send CAPP regular updates on forced evictions. In turn, CAPP has put them in touch with the

Institute for Social Development (ISD), Sri Lanka, so that the two groups can exchange information on their respective work with plantation workers.

nepal – campaigning for housing rights CAPP continues to research housing legislation in Nepal. CAPP’s partner, the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), has provided information regarding laws and legislation and the role of the country’s National Human Rights Commission. The NGO Lumanti-Shelter for Action has informed CAPP of communities threatened with planned eviction in the historical neighbourhood of Pashupati. CAPP is discussing with Lumanti how best to support a local training programme and housing rights campaign. Lumanti is currently developing a housing rights charter in consultation with NGOs, communities and Government officials.

pakistan – mass forced evictions COHRE’s work in Pakistan focuses on monitoring forced evictions, supporting the Urban Resource Centre (URC) in Karachi, and assisting the URC with the development of a housing rights programme. In May 2001, CAPP Co-ordinator Ken Fernandes visited Karachi to investigate the eviction situation there. As a result of the visit, COHRE has committed itself to supporting three URC research activities: (1) collecting data

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

on settlements and communities threatened with forced eviction; (2) compiling all laws and High Court or Supreme Court judgements that uphold the right to housing; and (3) translating relevant COHRE publications into local languages. In January 2002, COHRE received reports that the Government of Pakistan and Karachi City Government had undertaken massive bulldozing operations to clear slum-dwelling communities along the Lyari Nadi (River), Karachi, to make way for construction of the controversial Lyari Expressway. COHRE learned that the authorities had bulldozed a large number of community structures and facilities, and that a further 25,000 homes were scheduled for demolition in the near future. This operation has continued sporadically since early 2002, despite strong popular resistance as well as repeated stay orders issued by the High Court. As a result, thousands of homes have been bulldozed in 46 low-income settlements along both banks of the Lyari Nadi. The operation has left thousands of families homeless in the depths of winter, and has destroyed assets worth millions of rupees. The Karachi Government has failed to compensate these families adequately or to offer them appropriate alternative accommodation or land. CAPP has assisted and supported the URCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign against the Lyari evictions by circulating letters of appeal against the evictions and keeping groups throughout the world updated on this issue. COHRE received a reply from the Government, stating that it was not violating any human rights, but was intending to compensate those affected by paying them Rs 50,000 (approx. US$ 830) and providing them with 80 sq. yards (67 m 2 ) of land. This compensation proposal was investigated by CAPPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s local partners and found to be fraught with potential difficulties; in particular, the risks associated with corruption. COHRE responded to the letter after consulting with URC.

programmes and activities

Yet another family made homeless. Lyari Expressway eviction, Karachi, Pakistan, 2002

The URC has continued to monitor developments in Karachi and pass key information on to CAPP. In early July 2002, CAPP received news that, despite the appeals to the Government of Pakistan to halt the evictions, to review the project and to dialogue with the community representatives, the Government had again begun evicting people on 27 June 2002. Protests against the Lyari Expressway continued; undeterred, the President announced in early September that the project and the evictions would proceed. COHRE again protested, both to the office of the President and to the Pakistan Mission in Geneva, but received no reply. In May 2002, CAPP visited Pakistani Kashmir, focusing on a project to increase the height of the Mangla Dam and its anticipated impacts on villagers in Azad Kashmir, including their displacement. This visit resulted in a report entitled Damned Once Again â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Kashmiris to be displaced by Mangla Dam. CAPP met with local activists, lawyers, a former Supreme Court judge, Government officials, and community members threatened with eviction. Letters were also written to the national Government. In July 2002, CAPP received a detailed but unsatisfactory response.

Local Government units. In October 2001, a para-legal training was held for these leaders on international and domestic housing laws and legislation. PASCRES was also engaged in the campaign for the passing of the Local Housing Board Ordinance for Urban Poor Representation in Local Government Structures. This Ordinance was subsequently passed and approved by the Quezon City Government. CAPP also assisted the Urban Resource Centre (URC) in Karachi, Pakistan, in publishing the URC 2001-2002 report entitled Evictions, which outlines eviction cases and provides a legal analysis of Pakistani law and how it relates to the practice of forced eviction. URC also provided CAPP with information on evictions in the cities of Islamabad, Multan and Okara. URC has also worked closely with CAPP on plans for more comprehensive evictions-monitoring in Pakistan and the broader region, as part of the COHRE Global Forced Evictions Project.

the philippines – cohre partners resisting evictions COHRE has been active in the Philippines for many years, working against forced evictions and supporting local NGOs in expanding their housing rights programmes. CAPP has close links with two groups: the People’s Alternative Study Centre for Research and Education in Social Development (PASCRES) and the Grassroots Women’s Empowerment Centre, Inc. (GWEC). PASCRES continues to provide advice and assistance to the housing rights campaign of residents’ groups in the Barangay Payatas. [The Barangay, meaning ‘community’ or ‘village’, is the smallest political unit in the Philippines; ‘Payatas’ is the name of the community.] With assistance from COHRE, PASCRES has been consolidating and strengthening the local Barangay federations by forming and training a core group of leaders, and has been linking and integrating housing rights issues and concerns with the development trusts and priorities of

In March 2002, CAPP conducted a fact-finding mission in the Philippines together with the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) and the Urban Poor Associates (UPA). This resulted in a joint report entitled Forced Evictions along C-5 Road in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Republic of Philippines, which was distributed in the Philippines and throughout the region. The report describes how, on the morning of 20 November 2001, an estimated 800 police, soldiers and Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) guards, many armed with high-powered guns, descended on unarmed residents living along the C-5 road in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. This massive show of force so intimidated the targeted families that they were unable to resist; they watched helplessly as their homes were reduced to rubble by hundreds of demolition crews. Over 150 families (about 900 people) lost their homes as a result of this operation. Most of the affected families had lived in the location for between two and three years, not the shorter periods claimed by the authorities. Many families had operated informal businesses such as street vending or small shop-keeping, thus making an effective contribution to the economic and social life of the community in which they lived and to the broader society and economy. In this mass demolition raid, most families lost some or all of their personal belongings and business stock, either through the demolition itself or through confiscation, theft or loss after the raid. In spite of the brutal demolitions of November 2001, the people returned to the land and started rebuilding their homes.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

COHRE returned to the Philippines in July and August 2002, when a joint mission by CAPP and the COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme (WHRP) met with numerous NGOs and visited squatter communities in Quezon City, Taguig and Baseco, as well as the relocation sites in Cavite, Towerville and Bitungol. The team also met with the Director of the Relocation and Proclamation Department at the Housing and Urban Development Co-ordinating Committee (HUDCC â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the main Philippines housing body). The joint mission also visited the C-5 Road community in Taguig City for a firsthand update on the situation there. The team discovered that the community had faced repeated harassment and attempted evictions. In fact, their inquiries revealed that the authorities had subjected the community to a staggering 31 partial or complete demolitions between 2001 and 2002. Each time, the community members had refused to leave and had rebuilt their homes. COHRE has presented a forceful letter of appeal to the President of the Philippines, imploring her to protect this community from further attempts at forced eviction.

sri lanka â&#x20AC;&#x201C; plantation workers in jeopardy In Sri Lanka, CAPP works closely with the Sevanatha Urban Resource Centre and the Institute for Social Development (ISD). The ISD was formed in 1991 by a group among the Tamil teaplantation community, and has carried out various activities with plantation workers to raise their awareness and to organise them. CAPP responded to a request from the ISD to support the translation of COHRE publications and other material into Tamil and to provide housing rights training for the tea-plantation workers. Key objectives of this initiative are: (1) to empower the plantation community through education on housing rights; (2) to stimulate the community to work together in order to secure and defend their right to adequate housing; and (3) to raise awareness among trade unions, politicians and decision-makers in the plantation community so that they can effectively support the community on the housing rights issue. ISD has continued to collect and collate the existing Sri Lankan and international laws and legislation regarding the right to housing. With the help of CAPP, ISD initiated an education and awareness campaign that used street drama, leaflets and grassroots workshops to get its message across. CAPP has also supplied the ISD with information on plantation housing issues in other countries, including Malaysia, and has put groups of this kind in various countries in touch with each other so that they can explore the possibility and advantages of joint activities.

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pacific Land and housing issues are generally very complicated in the Pacific region, often contributing to conflicts and a range of other problems. As most of the development agencies active in the region pay little attention to land and housing issues, COHRE has developed a background paper on these issues in the Pacific, focusing on West Papua, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Bougainville and Fiji. COHRE has gathered extensive information on customary land tenure, as well as on laws and legislation relating to land and housing. COHRE has also identified and contacted groups involved in these issues in the region in order to discuss with them the possibility of organising a workshop on land and housing rights in the Pacific.

fiji – land and housing rights The COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP) visited Fiji from 1 to 10 September 2001 on a factfinding mission facilitated by the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS). The team visited areas around the cities of Suva (the Fijian capital), Labasa and Nadi, meeting with individuals and families who had been evicted from their land, a wide variety of NGOs, and Government agencies including the Native Title Land Board. The issues in Fiji are unique in that many members of the Indian community – the descendants of contracted labourers shipped to Fiji from India over a century ago by British colonialists – have very limited rights to land. As a result of the changing economic situation and land being viewed increasingly as a commodity, farmland in and around the cities of Suva and Nadi is gradually being converted to commercial ventures such as hotels or plazas. The Indians are being evicted, often have nowhere to go, and may end up occupying any vacant land they can find. Not only people of Indian origin have housing problems, however; the CAPP team also met indigenous groups living in squatter settlements.

Citizen’s Constitutional Forum Workshop. Fiji, September 2002

As a follow-up to the CAPP visit to Fiji, the Citizens Constitutional Forum (CCF) requested that CAPP support a September 2002 workshop on Evictions, Squatter Settlements and Housing Rights. The Minister for Housing and Local Government inaugurated the workshop and CAPP Co-ordinator Ken Fernandes delivered a keynote address on Squatters, Evictions and Housing Rights. Participants in this well-attended workshop included: the Director of Housing, Squatter Settlement and Environment; officials from the Native Land Title Board and the Housing Ministry; academics; lawyers; NGO workers; and members of community-based groups. During the workshop, it emerged that insecurity of land tenure remains a huge and emotive issue in Fiji. Nearly 15 per cent of the population live in squatter settlements due to rural-urban migration, expiring land leases, the breakdown of extended families, and unemployment. The workshop was covered in the local media and will provide a springboard for further CAPP efforts in the country to assist in resolving the land and housing rights crisis. COHRE also maintains close contact with the Citizens Constitutional Committee and has endorsed a proposal to the Finnish Foundation for Human Rights to promote human rights in Fiji.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

papua new guinea (bougainville) – building peace and stability by resolving land disputes After more than a decade of violent conflict, a peace agreement was signed in 2002 between the Government of Papua New Guinea and the people of Bougainville. The agreement committed the parties to holding a referendum on independence between ten and fifteen years after the agreement. Because none of the key players in Bougainville – neither the Government, NGOs, UN nor international agencies – focus on land and housing issues, COHRE decided to implement a project looking at these key issues. As a contribution to the process towards full independence, CAPP plans to establish consultative processes with the following objectives: (1) proposals for a fair and just land rights determination-and-recording system acceptable to all Bougainvilleans; (2) proposals for a land-dispute resolution mechanism; (3) plans for resettlement of displaced persons; (4) programmes for village rehabilitation; (5) identification of groups actively involved in development issues; (6) identification of sources of support to the above plans and programmes; (7) participatory and consultative decisionmaking processes; and (8) close partnership with a local group with expertise in land issues.

solomon islands – human rights and aid COHRE has continued to maintain contacts with the Development Service Exchange (DSE), which facilitated the COHRE fact-finding mission to the Solomon Islands in January 1999, when COHRE first started work in the country. CAPP has distributed throughout the Asia and Pacific region the COHRE report entitled The Status of Social and Economic Rights in the Solomon Islands: Moving Forward and

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Maintaining the Past. CAPP has held several discussions on how a human rights approach to development could be advanced in the Solomon Islands. A follow-up visit to the country was planned for early 2001, but was postponed due to the fragile law-and-order situation there, which persisted throughout 2001 and 2002. Together with the Australian Human Rights Council and in consultation with DSE, COHRE made a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Aid and Human Rights. The submission entitled The Six Human Rights Principles and The Solomon Islands, was drawn from the COHRE Solomon Islands report referred to above. The Committee of Inquiry accepted the submission and included it in its Inquiry Report, published in August 2001.

australia housing rights advocacy in a wealthy nation CAPP has also been increasingly active in housing rights issues in Australia and is working closely with groups and networks including: the Human Rights Alliance in Victoria; the Shelter Victoria Co-ordinating Committee; the Australian Federation of Homelessness Organisations (AFHO); the National Coalition Against Poverty; and the advisory group of the Human Rights Register of the Catholic Commission on Justice, Peace and Development. In addition to active participation in these groups and networks, CAPP works with the Council for Homelessness Persons (CHP) to develop the potentially large role they could play in holding the Government of Australia accountable to protecting and respecting the international right to adequate housing.

CAPP, Shelter Victoria and the Victorian Council for Social Services prepared a joint proposal for a project on Housing as a Human Right, which has received funding from the Meyer Foundation. The ultimate aim of the project is to produce a draft charter of housing rights. To this end, there will be broad-based, grassroots-level consultations with people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless (including those in rooming houses and caravan parks) and people living in public housing. Workers and agencies in the housing sector will also be involved in the consultations. The charter, once endorsed, will be reproduced in poster format and accompanied by an information booklet detailing the housing rights and how they can best be realised and protected. CAPP has also prepared a proposal to research tenancy, the private rental market, evictions and Australia’s international housing rights obligations. This study will be conducted jointly with the Australian Federation of Homelessness Organisations and the National Association of Tenants’ Organisations. CAPP has continued to work closely with the Homeless People’s Association (HPA) and meets with them regularly to discuss housing issues and plan strategies to resolve them, insofar as this is possible. CAPP was involved in writing a proposal with HPA representatives and Yarra Community Housing for a new 36-unit community housing development in North Fitzroy, Melbourne, which will cost 5.5 million Australian dollars. St. Mary’s House of Welcome, a drop-incentre providing meals and recreational activities for the homeless and the poor, is located in the same neighbourhood of Melbourne as the co-ordinating office of the COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP). In addition to regular visits, CAPP has facilitated discussion sessions on housing issues and remedial strategies with St. Mary’s House of Welcome.

The Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) is the umbrella organisation of Australian NGOs working in developing countries. COHRE is a member of the ACFOA sub-committee on human rights and advocates strongly for the inclusion of social, economic and cultural (ESC) rights, particularly housing, in the development agenda. In November 2000, CAPP Coordinator Ken Fernandes conducted workshops for Sydney-based groups on the need to develop an ESC rights approach to development, using housing rights as an example. CAPP is also an active member of the Australian Social and Economic Rights Project (ASERP). ASERP is a network of community-sector organisations and interested individuals throughout Australia. The network developed an alternative report for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights entitled Community Perspectives: Australia’s Compliance with the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The report cited significant evidence of the failure of both the Commonwealth and State Governments to fulfil their obligations under the Covenant. COHRE is keen for agencies that are part of ASERP to begin looking at their work from a human rights perspective. Some of the groups taking part in ASERP, including COHRE, joined forces to form the National Coalition Against Poverty (NCAP). The Coalition, made up of community-based groups, welfare and church groups, and trade unions, focuses on the right to an adequate standard of living. CAPP’s participation in ASERP has provided a unique opportunity to get to know groups involved in poverty and homelessness issues. It has also given COHRE an opportunity to disseminate its perspective on human rights – especially social, economic and cultural (ESC) rights – and to develop some innovative approaches in the Australian context.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

cohre america programme

cohre americas programme (cap) p r o g r a m m e c o - o r d i n ato r – l e t i c i a m a r q u e s o s o r i o

In the period 2000-2002, the COHRE Americas Programme (CAP) grew from a small COHRE activity into a fully-fledged regional programme with a permanent staff and fully functioning office in Porto Alegre, Brazil, enabling it to greatly expand its reach throughout the region. CAP is now involved in activities in over 12 countries in South, Central and North America and the Caribbean. CAP employs staff and consultants from Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and the United States.

allow COHRE to participate even more directly in OAS activities. This official status will further COHRE’s work to promote and protect human rights throughout the Americas. It will provide the organisation with an official input channel to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in its consideration of country situations, and will assist victims of human rights violations to access the Commission through the complaints mechanism for individuals.

All countries of the Americas face considerable housing rights and eviction problems, and CAP is well placed to address these in a strategic and structured manner. In the period 2000-2002, CAP concentrated its activities on: (1) preventing and monitoring forced evictions throughout the region; (2) providing hands-on housing rights training in various countries in the region; (3) sending fact-finding missions to various countries in the region; and (4) generally strengthening regional advocacy networks and raising the profile of housing rights within the Americas. CAP also developed an innovative Housing Rights Board Game, which has been successfully used as a training tool to promote increased understanding of housing rights and their implications.

publications

On 13 March 2002, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) accredited COHRE with consultative status. This will

programmes and activities

One of the major accomplishments of the COHRE Americas Programme in 2002 was the development of a detailed practitioners’ guide entitled Housing Rights in the Americas: Pursuing Housing Rights Claims within the Inter-American System of Human Rights. This 137-page report summarises the relevant regional mechanisms, human rights instruments and jurisprudence available for the promotion and protection of housing rights within the western hemisphere, and contains several useful annexes. The report is designed as a practical guide for use by human rights lawyers and other advocates, as well as the layperson, and informs practitioners within the region on how to successfully present and argue housing rights claims before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

CAP has also launched a multi-language translation project, commencing with a Portuguese version of this practical guide. The translation project will provide widespread information on housing rights to groups in the Americas in their mother tongue. A fact-finding report on Nicaragua is also planned – in both English and Spanish (see the Nicaragua sub-section below). The COHRE Americas Programme has also produced a comprehensive report examining the state of housing rights in Brazil, primarily for use by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The report, entitled Housing Rights in Brazil: Gross Inequalities and Inconsistencies, includes an overview of the status of housing rights in Brazil, and examines key issues including: inadequate housing conditions; security of tenure; discrimination in the housing sphere; national legal protection; and the housing rights of marginalised groups including women, indigenous persons and peoples, Afro-Brazilians, and other minorities. The report was based on a nation-wide series of fact-finding missions.

brazil – making the city statute a reality Although inadequate housing conditions and related housing rights violations remain a common feature of Brazil’s urban and rural landscapes, the recent adoption of the national City

Statute provides an extremely good foundation for expanding the protection of housing rights throughout the country. The COHRE Americas Programme has been intimately involved not only in the multi-level processes leading up to the promulgation of the City Statute, but also in attempts to have the new law enforced. In one such effort, CAP participated in the Second World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, as well as the associated Conference on the Right to a City Free from Discrimination and Inequality. CAP was subsequently invited to join the committee charged with drafting a Charter on Human Rights in the City. In May 2002, CAP Co-ordinator Leticia Marques Osorio attended the Workshop on the Right to the City in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which explored the justiciability of this important right at the local, national and international levels, and highlighted legal approaches for its protection. The participants discussed how to build a Global Charter on the Right to the City, providing a definition that considers this right to be freestanding and autonomous under international human rights law. In August 2002, the CAP Coordinator participated in a housing rights training programme on Housing Rights and the Land Regularization Process in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This was part of a two-day training course on national housing legislation, carried out in partnership with the POLIS Institute, the Federação de Orgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE), and the National Movement of Housing Struggle. Some 80 people attended: representatives of grassroots organisations, as well as

“The COHRE Americas Programme brought international attention to the São Pedro Residences project by bringing community claims to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The community’s statements are mentioned in the country report published by COHRE this year, which provides an overview of the status of housing rights in our favela in Porto Alegre, Brazil.” Mr. Ancelmo Selvino Machado, President of the Association of São Pedro Dwellers.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

Inadequate housing conditions remain a pressing problem in Brazil. Vila Dique, Porto Alegre, 2002

leaders from the National Movement of Housing Struggle and other national housing movements in 18 different Brazilian States. In August 2002, the CAP Co-ordinator travelled to Belém to investigate housing rights violations and evaluate projects designed to protect housing rights. COHRE was invited by ABONG, the Brazilian Association of NGOs, to give a lecture at the conference Democratic Participation on Urban Issues.

In May 2002, the CAP Co-ordinator organised a six-day training programme in Chapecó, Santa Catarina State, Brazil, in partnership with the POLIS Institute and the University of Santa Catarina West. The training covered housing rights and urban development issues and was attended by 53 people: lawyers, architects, students, teachers, City Hall representatives, members of various associations, and leaders of grassroots community-based organisations. In July 2002 COHRE and the National Forum of Urban Reform (FNRU) presented a highly successful training course aimed at building the capacity of urban reform campaigners to use the Statute of the City. In October 2002, CAP started a ‘training of trainers’ programme with a group of 20 law, architecture and sociology student-volunteers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. The programme focused on housing rights and land regularisation. In June 2003, this group is due to conduct their first community training project, entitled Sheltering Citizenship, and start dealing with the housing rights of the mentally handicapped.

“For many years urban popular movements in Brazil have struggled for a national law that would regulate urban relations, regarding both the usage of urban land and the dynamic between the cities and their respective citizens. Finally the Statute of the City was passed in 2002. This was a major victory for the people of Brazil. “However, due to the technical complexity of the Statute, the social movement realized it would be very difficult to use this law without hard study and dedication. In order to fill this knowledge gap, COHRE and the FNRU presented a two-day training course in July 2002. “Legal issues have historically been a major impediment in the struggle for urban land. Using their expertise in international housing rights law and some innovative training techniques, COHRE and FNRU have helped us to prepare the participants for more effective interaction and negotiation with the stakeholders involved. As a direct result of this training session, MNLM (National Movement on Struggling for Housing) has held popular education and training sessions throughout Brazil.” Marcelo Soares, member of the National Board of MNLM, Brazil

programmes and activities

dominican republic – capturing the history of the urban struggle

colombia – legal assistance for the internally displaced COHRE’s work on Colombia has mainly focused on: (1) assisting local lawyers with cases pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; and (2) planning for an extensive fact-finding mission, a country programme, training and publications, all to be initiated in 2003. Colombia is torn by continually escalating political violence and has one of the world’s largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs). For these two reasons, securing housing rights in the country is a major challenge facing CAP in the next few years. In 2002, COHRE drafted a detailed report on forced evictions in Colombia, which it submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the context of the Commission’s Special Country-Report on Colombia. In July 2002, COHRE filed an amicus curiae brief with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the Ituango and El Aro communities in Colombia. This brief alleged that the Government of Colombia was responsible for forced evictions and housing demolitions in the Ituango and El Aro communities, which were carried out by right-wing paramilitaries working with the complicity of Colombian military forces. The case is still pending before the Commission. The COHRE Americas Programme is currently participating in a Brazilian support network to the World Thematic Social Forum, which is due to be held in Cartagena das Indias, Colombia, in June 2003. CAP, in partnership with local NGOs in Colombia, is designing housing and property restitution policies in support of displaced persons for presentation to various Local Governments in the country.

COHRE has long been active in the Dominican Republic, particularly in its campaigning to prevent large-scale planned evictions. CAP is currently finalising a detailed report on the creative urban struggles of the 1980s and early 1990s, which were effective in resisting dozens of eviction plans in the Dominican Republic. This report will focus on the role of civil society organisations in working for social change and justice, especially with regard to reducing poverty and improving the quality of life. The report will be a valuable resource for community -based organisations, municipal authorities and the public at large.

grenada – initiating the caribbean coalition for human rights In March 2002, CAP sponsored a pan-Caribbean housing rights training programme held in St. Georges, Grenada. The training covered the right to adequate housing as well as the prevention of, and remedies for, forced evictions. It was attended by sixteen participants from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The participants included representatives of human rights organisations, legal aid lawyers and counsellors, an Assistant Attorney-General with the Antiguan Government, and other human rights and social justice advocates. As a direct result of this COHREsponsored training programme, the Caribbean Coalition on Human Rights (CCHR) was formed, an umbrella organisation linking the various regional organisations that were present. The CCHR appointed an interim Governing Council. The CCHR agreed to meet in March 2003 for its inaugural meeting, where it will elect a permanent governing council.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

A survivor discusses community needs with COHRE at the site of the Rio Negro massacre and evictions

guatemala – chixoy dam restitution campaign For several years, the COHRE Americas Programme has been exploring the legal issues involved in securing the payment of reparations that two major financial institutions promised to victims of the Chixoy Dam project in Guatemala. It is widely believed that this controversial dam, built during the 1980s with World Bank (WB) and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) funding and supervision, created the conditions that resulted in the massacre of over 450 persons – half the population of Rio Negro village – and the forced relocation of the survivors. They were promised compen-

sation by the WB and IADB, but are still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled. The affected people have been living in extreme poverty ever since being displaced from their fertile ancestral lands, which are now submerged as a result of the dam. The COHRE Americas Programme, in partnership with Rights Action, a Toronto-based NGO, is seeking just and satisfactory compensation for those affected by the Chixoy Dam. COHRE is preparing a comprehensive report that calculates the reparations owed to the victims and lays out the legal liabilities of the various actors involved in the massacre and displacement. This report will be used to put pressure on those entities responsible for the human rights violations against the Rio Negro community. The report will also form the basis of various litigation strategies in Guatemala and, if necessary, at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

“Rights Action is privileged to work with COHRE on the Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign. Working with the forcibly displaced and abused Maya Achi people of the village of Rio Negro in Guatemala, COHRE brings its considerable experience and expertise in international human rights law in aid of efforts to hold accountable not only the Guatemalan Government, but also the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, for the Chixoy Hydro-electric Dam project that left over 450 Rio Negro villagers massacred and the survivors forcibly displaced from their home community of more than 700 years.” Grahame Russell, Executive Director of Rights Action

programmes and activities

honduras – human rights and natural disasters In Honduras, CAP has been actively researching the connection between the country’s housing rights law and the conditions in which the majority of Hondurans live, and the link between natural disasters and human rights. A CAP consultant travelled to Honduras in 2001 to collect legal materials for COHRE relating to the status of housing rights in the country. Although the Honduran Constitution is admirable in wholly recognising housing rights, the poor can only dream of ever seeing these rights enforced. CAP’s research includes an examination of the destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch, how the Honduran Government dealt with this meteorological catastrophe, and how this can help us understand the related human rights issues. COHRE firmly believes that a human rights approach to housing can contribute to minimising the effects of such natural disasters.

nicaragua – working together for housing rights In September 2002, COHRE carried out an extensive fact-finding mission in Nicaragua to determine the extent to which housing rights provisions in law were actually in place in the broader society. The project resulted in the preparation of a detailed final report on The Status of Housing and Property Rights in Nicaragua, with key recommendations to all relevant actors within the country. The report – in English and Spanish – is to be published in the second half of 2003. COHRE conducted this project in collaboration with the CENIDH (Centro Nicaraguense de Derechos Humanos), and the WCCN (Wisconsin Co-ordinating Council on Nicaragua). The project is intended as the initial stage in a longer-term effort by CAP to increase housing rights enjoyment in the country.

st. vincent and the grenadines – housing rights training In April 2000, CAP carried out an intensive economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights training session just outside Kingstown, capital of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Organised by COHRE’s long-time partner, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association, this training was attended by over 50 people and was inaugurated by the country’s Attorney General. The training session received extensive media attention and laid the foundations for an expansion of ESC rights activities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the coming years.

united states of america – housing rights for all? COHRE’s activities in the United States are coordinated from the US Office of the COHRE Americas Programme, situated in Duluth, Minnesota. The US Office, a pivotal element of the broader Programme, focuses extensively on legal and research issues for COHRE. Within the United States, CAP has initiated a variety of training programmes, legal advice and assistance activities, and political lobbying critical of the continuing US position denying the validity – even the very existence – of housing rights under international human rights law. CAP is planning a massive United States of America housing rights project, to be implemented in collaboration with the Centre for Economic and Social Rights and a number of grassroots housing rights organisations. The project’s aims are: (1) to critically examine the extent to which housing rights are denied in one of the world’s wealthiest countries; (2) to describe, as a key example, the extent of homelessness and the lack of affordable housing within New York City; and (3) to propose local, national and international strategies to remedy the housing rights situation throughout the country.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The United States has one of the highest per capita incomes but an extremely inequitable distribution of wealth, giving it one of the lowest human development indicators in the industrialized world. US laws, including our eighteenth century constitution, protect no one from extreme poverty. Americans were astonished when the Bush administration proposed health care coverage for Iraqis that we do not have within the United States. As the U.S. government drains existing social programs and diverts funds to the military, domestic advocates are increasingly looking to international standards for a different vision. COHRE supports U.S. advocates for the poor with training, legal advice and publications, and also by furthering our efforts at the U.N. and in regional human rights bodies. The opportunity to work with COHRE gave me the tools to invoke international law on behalf of poor and disenfranchised people in the United States. I am now representing a coalition of U.S. migrant worker rights organizations to establish good law at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. COHRE's publications keep me apprised of my government's efforts to undermine international economic and social rights standards at the UN, information to which I often refer in my teaching and scholarship. Most Americans do not know how their own government's hostility toward international human rights law is intensifying global poverty.â&#x20AC;? Beth Lyon, Assistant Professor of Law and founding Director, Villanova University Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic

The USA housing rights project will be complemented by a series of training programmes in the country. The first such programme will be presented in conjunction with the National Law Centre on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP), based in Washington DC. COHRE and NLCHP plan to train lawyers and other advocates who work to promote and protect housing rights in the United States. The sessions will include training for housing service providers, the homeless and the potentially homeless. Together, COHRE and NLCHP will be able to provide comprehensive training in the area of housing rights, covering both international and domestic legal procedures, frameworks and strategies. The Washington training programme will be one of the first in the United States to cover housing rights from a human rights perspective.

programmes and activities

cohre africac programme (ca) programme

cohre africa

i n t e r i m c o - o r d i n ato r – j e a n d u p l e s s i s

Africa is plagued by some of the world’s most severe housing problems. In the slums that dominate most African cities, living conditions are extremely poor, often appalling. Many African Governments continue to sanction and carry out massive forced evictions. In addition to these huge challenges, the enjoyment of housing rights in Africa is impeded by: land tenure insecurity, which is spreading and becoming more acute in many rural areas; armed conflict; and persistent discrimination against women. While some Governments – notably that of South Africa – have begun to take housing rights seriously, very few others have adopted the legislative, policy and other measures needed to address Africa’s housing crisis. The COHRE Africa Programme therefore aims to raise the profile of housing rights throughout the African continent. To achieve this aim, the Programme seeks to identify patterns of housing rights practices and abuses in African countries, in order to develop common strategies so that the housing rights situation on the continent can be addressed more systematically. Through training events, fact-finding missions, monitoring of forced evictions and other technical support, the Programme is engaged in strengthening the capacity of local organisations to defend the right to housing and prevent forced evictions. Over the past three years, the Programme has continued to expand and develop its activities. For several years, the Pro-

gramme operated from the offices of its close colleagues at SERAC in Lagos, Nigeria. However, in the second half of 2003 a formal office of the COHRE Africa Programme is to be opened in Accra, Ghana. In 2000, the COHRE Africa Programme concentrated on the housing and land crisis affecting Zimbabwe. In 2001, the Programme initiated a more ambitious and comprehensive project focused on five West African nations and devoted to Making the Right to Adequate Housing a Reality in Africa; National and Regional Strategies for Change. This project aims to: (1) provide education on and raise awareness of the right to adequate housing and the prevention of forced eviction; (2) provide legal support and technical assistance to groups, communities and NGOs in aid of housing rights and antieviction struggles; (3) continually build and expand the African housing rights network to incorporate housing rights concerns into the existing human rights and human settlement structure; (4) develop an effective regional response to planned forced evictions as well as the capacity to systematically and regularly collect and collate information on forced evictions throughout Africa; and (5) ensure that housing rights concerns are included in national reconstruction efforts following armed conflict, in policy-making regarding the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and in overall development objectives.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

ethiopia – protesting evictions In 2002, the main activity of the COHRE Africa Programme was a series of fact-finding missions and training events in selected West African countries. Information gathered by factfinding missions in The Gambia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone is being collated into a single report, entitled Housing Rights in West Africa, due for publication as a single volume in mid-2003. This report will examine the legal framework for the protection and promotion of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights, in particular the right to housing. It will also assess the respective Governments’ compliance with their international obligations to ensure the right to housing. This work is complemented by the continuing general monitoring of evictions and housing rights violations across the continent and particularly in Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

angola – using the un to prevent planned evictions While the COHRE Africa Programme has not yet been able to visit Angola, it has been intensively involved in seeking to prevent the eviction of 50,000 urban poor dwellers from the Boa Vista community in the capital, Luanda. The land is earmarked for the construction of a luxury housing development. The COHRE Africa Programme has been working with local groups to resist the Boa Vista eviction and has obtained a strong denunciation from the United Nations, which urges the Government of Angola to find an alternative to evicting this longstanding community.

programmes and activities

In response to the reported clearance of 1,000 hectares of informal settlements in Addis Ababa, on the grounds that settlement in these areas is not part of the approved master plan for the city, the COHRE Africa Programme appealed directly to Government authorities to cease any further such actions. COHRE is now establishing contacts with local housing and human rights groups to determine what can be done next to end forced evictions in Ethiopia.

the gambia – poor slum conditions getting worse The COHRE Africa Programme also visited The Gambia in 2002 to meet with local human rights groups and to gauge interest in pursuing housing rights strategies. Like many similar communities, the people of Kottu Sillo in Banjul continue to struggle to survive in such poor conditions that these constitute an implicit denial of the right to adequate housing and the recently confirmed right to adequate water. The settlement, whose residents live in structures of corrugated iron and bamboo, is located dangerously close to high-voltage power lines. On a few occasions, the Government has warned the community of the danger of staying on this site but has made no effort to provide an alternative. There are no schools, health centres, wastedisposal or sanitary systems within the community. Similar situations were found in a number of other informal settlements in The Gambia. The COHRE Africa Programme plans to return to The Gambia in the near future to work with local groups to find ways to improve housing conditions for the poorest of the poor.

“The Centre on Public Interest Law (CEPIL), a community-based non-profit legal aid organisation in Accra, Ghana, has had the opportunity to work closely with COHRE over the past year. We feel that our relationship with COHRE is a model for successful partnerships between organisations working at the domestic and international levels. Throughout 2002, COHRE has partnered with us to put on an extensive housing rights training programme for persons throughout West Africa and is presently offering indispensable advice to our programme involving housing rights training to the Ghanaian judiciary. Additionally, using advice from COHRE, CEPIL recently prevented the forced eviction of some 8 000 people in east-central Ghana and we continue to work closely with the COHRE Global Forced Eviction Project in an effort to prevent the forced eviction of over 30 000 persons from a settlement in Accra.” Charles Ayamdoo, acting Executive Director CEPIL, Accra, Ghana.

ghana – working to stop planned evictions In order to test a methodology for providing more concrete and intensive support in particular cases in West Africa, COHRE has worked very closely with the Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL) in Accra on promoting housing rights and resisting forced evictions in Ghana. In the case of the planned eviction of over 30,000 persons from the Agbogbloshie settlement near Accra, protest letters were jointly drafted, an amicus curiae brief was prepared by the COHRE Africa Programme, and legal action was supported. To make future interventions of this kind more effective, COHRE and CEPIL are planning to convene a housing rights training programme in Ghana for community representatives, NGOs, lawyers, civil servants and judges. The COHRE Africa Programme has assisted CEPIL in raising funds for this programme and will design the training course and provide a team of trainers. As an additional supportive intervention, the COHRE Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Litigation Programme is also exploring the possibility of running an ESC rights test case in Ghana.

COHRE is establishing an office in Accra to serve as a base for the COHRE Africa Programme, which is currently co-ordinated from the International Secretariat in Geneva. Discussions have been held with a number of NGOs in Accra. Ibis, the Danish Solidarity and Development Organisation, which has been operating in Ghana for two years, has agreed to advise COHRE during this process. Discussions have also been held with the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), an umbrella organisation active in many parts of Ghana which has a network of contacts throughout West Africa. ISODEC has welcomed the initiative to establish a COHRE presence in Ghana. In addition, CEPIL has indicated its wish to form a close alliance with COHRE, which may include the sharing of accommodation and facilities. Arrangements are being made for two key CEPIL staff members, one of them the Executive Director, to visit COHRE as interns during 2003.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

morocco – housing rights in the maghreb In December 2002, the COHRE Africa Programme visited several Moroccan cities to examine the housing rights situation and meet with local housing groups to discuss possibilities of pursuing housing rights activities in the country. This joint mission was carried out by the COHRE Africa Programme and the COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme (WHRP), and will pave the way for greater attention by the COHRE Africa Programme to housing rights issues in Morocco and throughout the Maghreb region.

Appalling living conditions. Badiya Slum, Nigeria, July 2002

nigeria – massive forced evictions in a crisis-stricken country In 2002, a COHRE Africa Programme fact-finding mission visited three Nigerian states and the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) to carry out onsite investigations of forced evictions. In Lagos State, the team investigated the 1990 Maroko community evictions which, in a matter of days, had resulted in the violent eviction of some 300,000 inhabitants, two-thirds of whom are still waiting for redress more than a dozen years later. The team also examined the situation of victims of the 1982 and 1986 Badiya evictions, who still await permanent solutions to their housing problems. In Rivers State, the team looked into the now infamous Rainbow Town evictions of 2000, which left a staggering 1.2 million people homeless. In the Federal Capital Territory, the COHRE Africa Programme investigated housing rights in the Kado community, where 200 houses were demolished in July and August 2000, and the Durumi community, where a number of villages were razed in September and October 2000. The information gathered during this COHRE Africa Programme mission, combined with the team’s background research, confirms in grim detail that Nigeria is one of the world’s worst violators of the right to adequate housing.

programmes and activities

In February 2002, the COHRE Africa Programme’s Legal Officer, Yousif Ahmed, participated in two workshops organised by the University of Lagos and the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC). During the workshop at the University of Lagos, he discussed housing rights and evictions issues with a broad audience, and continued building contacts with other NGOs and human rights activists from the region. In the second workshop, at SERAC, discussions were held on Steps to Resettlement and Resolution in Maroko. The stakeholders involved with issues relating to the Maroko eviction were given the opportunity to discuss the problems and seek practical solutions for this long-neglected tragedy, which has dragged on due to Lagos State’s almost total indifference. The COHRE Africa Programme also discussed the possibility of bringing the leaders of the Maroko evictees before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, so that they can give first-hand accounts of this unlawful mass eviction.

Government bulldozers demolishing Capatage slum. Dakar, Senegal, September 2002

senegal – eviction without compensation or resettlement In September 2002, the COHRE Africa Programme undertook a fact-finding mission to Senegal and visited the informal settlers of the Capatage community in Dakar, which had recently been evicted by the Municipality of Dakar. Municipal forces, equipped with bulldozers and security apparatus, had demolished the community’s structures and properties. There had been no prior consultation, and no alternative land, housing or compensation was subsequently provided to the evictees. The COHRE Africa Programme discovered that this eviction was part of a trend. Earlier, in February 2001, the Municipality of Dakar had ordered the demolition of the Baraka community, a slum with 1200 inhabitants in the outskirts of Dakar. Furthermore, in 2002 there had been forced evictions at Bignona, Diamaguene and Noleve, resulting in a further 1200 people losing their homes. During the mission, the COHRE Africa Programme, together with the NGO Environnement et Développement du Tiers-Monde (ENDA), carried out a housing rights training session, and made plans to continue to work on housing rights and eviction issues in Senegal.

sierra leone – facing the postconflict housing challenge The COHRE Africa Programme visited war-torn Sierra Leone in 2002 to examine the housing crisis caused by the armed conflict, and to determine the best way for COHRE to apply

housing rights principles as a means of improving housing conditions. As is so often the case in post-conflict situations, the housing problems are enormous and will most likely require massive, concerted efforts at the local, regional and international levels. Following the visit, the COHRE Africa Programme impressed upon the Government of Sierra Leone the need to find permanent housing for those residing at the Aberdeen Amputee Camp in Freetown, the largest such camp in the country. COHRE also urged the Government to develop a national housing rights plan with a view to finding adequate housing for all of those affected or displaced during the conflict.

zimbabwe – resisting land seizures In September 2000, the COHRE Africa Programme undertook a challenging and sometimes dangerous fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to investigate the housing and land situation that has been the cause of so much conflict in that country. Upon completion of this mission, the COHRE Africa Programme published Land, Housing and Property Rights in Zimbabwe, which details the complex and compelling land issue in Zimbabwe in the wake of the country’s so-called “fast track” land-reform policies. It examines Zimbabwe’s land reform and resettlement policies since independence and the initial progress made in implementation of these policies. It also points out that Government failure to consolidate and further implement equitable land distribution in the early 1990s resulted in illegal land invasions of black-owned and white-owned farms. Since this development, the land issue has become deeply politicised. This has deeply affected all sections of Zimbabwean society, both politically and economically, and the conflict threatens to spill over to surrounding countries.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

The report contains a number of essential recommendations to the Government and the international community to ensure that the housing, land and property rights of all Zimbabweans are fully respected and protected. COHRE issued a press statement condemning the continuing housing and land rights violations in Zimbabwe. This statement was widely covered in the media. The need for accelerated, comprehensive land reform in Zimbabwe is well known and widely supported both inside and outside the country. However, the reform programme pursued by the Government of Zimbabwe in the past few years has, in COHREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view, been politically motivated and, in its implementation, has flagrantly violated the basic human rights of the thousands of farmers and tens of thousands of farm workers who have been left homeless and without income. COHRE also firmly believes that no adequate steps have been taken to assist the people who have been resettled on seized land either to allocate it equitably or use it productively â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a failure which, in COHREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view, will result in a new wave of problems, including land and housing rights abuses, in coming years. COHRE has repeatedly urged the Government of Zimbabwe to seriously reconsider its approach in accordance with its human rights obligations to all its citizens.

programmes and activities

women and housing rights programme

cohre women and housing rights programme (whrp) p r o g r a m m e c o - o r d i n ato r – b i r t e s c h o l z

In all parts of the world, the COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme (WHRP) has continued to make important advances in securing women’s rights to land, property and housing. Women in virtually all countries remain victims of direct or indirect discrimination in the housing sphere, and it is WHRP’s aim to bring increasing degrees of gender equality to the housing sector throughout the world. Through its advocacy at both the local and the international levels, the WHRP has successfully raised the profile of women’s housing rights in all respects. The WHRP is well placed to continue to draw attention to the plight of women and the discrimination and injustice they still so often face in the housing sphere. Soon after taking office, the WHRP Co-ordinator travelled to India, Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand to investigate the women’s housing situation and to expand the WHRP’s Asian contacts. On the basis of these visits, she developed a framework for the WHRP over the next three years. In December 2002, the WHRP Co-ordinator travelled to Morocco in conjunction with the COHRE Africa Programme to conduct a factfinding mission on housing issues in general and, in particular, issues affecting women. She is also in the initial stages of planning a joint research and training project on women and housing rights issues in Bosnia with a local NGO, ReDo (Citizens Association for Reconstruction and Development). This project is intended to take place during 2003.

Women evicted in May 2000 from the Sanjay Ghandi National Park in India have returned to rebuild their homes. Here they discuss their strategy with the COHRE WHRP.

networking To create a global working group on women, housing and land, the WHRP has joined forces with several international NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and the Huairou Commission (a grassroots network of groups working on women, shelter and community), as well as numerous local community-based groups in Nepal, Uganda, Peru and other countries where the WHRP is active. The group will work to raise awareness of the issues of lack of access to, control and ownership of housing and land for women, and collaborate on all levels to build effective strategies leading to the realisation of housing and land rights for women everywhere.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

publications In the period 2000-2002, the WHRP produced several innovative publications for worldwide distribution and use. The first, Sources 5: Women and Housing Rights (2000), reveals that international housing rights law can be an effective tool in local struggles to improve women’s housing and living conditions. To COHRE’s knowledge, Sources 5 is the first publication which compiles – in a single volume – all the international legal sources of women’s rights to housing, gives detailed explanations of their significance, and offers concrete, practical suggestions as to how international human rights law can be used in local struggles to promote and protect women’s housing rights. Sources 5 also provides an overview of the most pressing housing-related problems currently faced by women throughout the world. Sources 5 is intended to be used by advocates to: (1) identify and clarify the specific obligations of any government with respect to women’s housing rights; (2) learn where, how and in what terms women’s housing rights have been set down in law; (3) inform communities, women’s groups, low-income groups, grassroots, non-governmental and community-based organisations, lawyers, researchers, government officials and others of the existence of legally recognised housing rights as they pertain to women; (4) publicise the legal sources of women’s housing rights throughout the community, city, country and region; and (5) enhance local struggles in support of women’s housing rights.

programmes and activities

In 2002, supported by a grant from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the WHRP published Violence: The Impact of Forced Evictions on Women in Palestine, India and Nigeria. This report confirms that women are disproportionately and adversely affected by the practice of forced evictions, due to the unique relationship they have with the home, as well as the vulnerable status accorded them. In preparation for this report, the WHRP commissioned research studies by women in three countries – Palestine (Israeli-Occupied Territories), India and Nigeria – to investigate the kinds of violence women face during evictions and the resulting impacts on their lives. Each study is a comprehensive examination of women’s experience of selected evictions in the focus countries. First-hand testimonials and careful reporting vividly narrate horrific accounts of beatings, rape, sexual exploitation and humiliation, homelessness, divorce and even death. An analysis links the findings of the three studies, highlighting the gender-specific nature of forced evictions and the interdependence of all human rights for women. Finally, the report makes practical recommendations for action at the local, national and international levels, aimed at preventing forced evictions and mitigating their particularly adverse affects on women. The WHRP has also prepared a detailed paper entitled Home is Where the Hurt Is: An Economic and Social Rights Perspective on Violence Against Women, a working paper submitted to the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. This paper contributes to developing an inclusive human rights approach to violence against women, taking into account the respect for, protection, fulfilment or denial of social and economic rights, and particularly the right to housing.

women’s inheritance rights The WHRP has launched a new project aimed at securing women’s rights to land, property and housing inheritance. The issue of inheritance is crucial to women throughout the world because it relates to some of the key factors that contribute to women’s disproportionate levels of poverty and housing insecurity. Inheritance is fundamental in that it relates not only to how wealth is transferred within societies, but also directly to the security and safeguarding of women’s housing. This project will yield useful information on existing practices with regard to the status of women’s inheritance rights in various cultural contexts. It will also lay the groundwork for developing specific, concrete, and practical solutions to violations of women’s housing rights, which are widespread and often culturally condoned.

women’s economic equality In early December 2000, the WHRP co-hosted an international consultation in Cape Town, South Africa, on Women’s Economic Equality, which brought together 26 women’s human rights advocates from almost every region of the world. The consultation aimed to create a much needed

space and process to encourage and support work specifically focused on women’s economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. The consultation provided an opportunity for participants to discuss women’s economic inequality and strategies for incorporating women’s perspectives into the interpretation and application of economic and social rights. Specifically, participants discussed notions of equality, examined the relevance for women of particular rights – such as food, housing and work – and discussed women’s experiences in economic and social realms in specific country situations.

united nations commission on human rights The WHRP has played an instrumental role in drawing international attention to the issue of equal rights for women in terms of owning and accessing land, housing and property. Part of this effort has been focused on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, where the WHRP successfully achieved the adoption of three resolutions – in 2000, 2001 and 2002 – pertaining to women’s rights to housing, land, property and inheritance.

“The COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme is the backbone and leading force in a cutting-edge international movement for women’s housing and property rights. The programme is conducting important research, advocacy, and capacity-building on women’s housing rights around the world. It has also provided invaluable guidance on international housing rights standards and their practical application to local and international human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch.” Janet Walsh, Deputy Director, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch “The COHRE Women and Housing Rights Programme is unique in that it is one of the few human rights groups that understand what it means to integrate development efforts with human rights approaches. It also understands what it means to bring grassroots women’s efforts on secure tenure to the table as equal partners and not just as victims.” Jan Petersen, Director, Huairou Commission, a grassroots network of groups working on women, shelter and community

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

housing housing and property and property restitution programme (hprp) restitution programme p r o g r a m m e c o - o r d i n ato r – s c ot t l e c k i e

Around the world today there are tens of millions of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are denied access to and rights over their original homes, even when they make every attempt to return to the place where they once lived. In response to this very concrete violation of housing rights, COHRE has become closely involved with the issue of housing and property restitution. Since 1998, COHRE has worked closely with national governments, United Nations bodies such as UNHCR and UNHabitat, and community-based groups in countries including Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, East Timor, the Republic of Georgia, Kosovo, Palestine (Israeli-Occupied Territories), South Africa and Sri Lanka, to ensure that issues of housing and property restitution are properly addressed at all levels. In Albania, East Timor, Kosovo and Georgia, COHRE actually designed – often on behalf of the United Nations – the formal legal mechanisms, institutions and programmes dealing with restitution. In 2000, COHRE formally established its Housing and Property Restitution Programme (HPRP) to address more systematically the immense restitution challenges facing refugees and IDPs in re-possessing or re-asserting their rights over their original homes and lands. The HPRP is dedicated to ensuring that refugees and IDPs are allowed to return to their original homes once they determine that the conditions to do so are acceptable to them.

programmes and activities

COHRE is increasingly recognised as a leading institution in this field, with extensive experience of the practical implementation of housing and property restitution. Since 2001, the HPRP has acted as an advisor on restitution issues to the Standards and Legal Advice Section of the UNHCR. The HPRP recently completed a detailed policy document for use by the Palestinian Negotiations Support Unit on how the practice of housing and property restitution relates to the case of the five million Palestinian refugees. In early 2002, the HPRP was approached by the World Bank to assist the Government of Albania in its restitution efforts. COHRE may also play a role in eventual restitution and related efforts in Somalia and Sri Lanka, and perhaps in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iraq as well. In the period 20002002, the HPRP was actively involved in Albania, East Timor, Israel, Palestine (IsraeliOccupied Territories), Serbia & Montenegro and Sri Lanka.

publications The HPRP has been very active in the production of publications and other materials. In 2002, the programme focused much of its energy and resources on completing a book entitled Returning Home: Housing and Property Restitution Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons (Transnational Publishers), edited by HPRP Co-

albania

ordinator Scott Leckie. A number of other articles and publications were also prepared during 2002, including New Directions in Housing and Property Restitution and Housing Rights – A Neglected Issue by the Humanitarian Community (published in Talk Back, July 2002). In June 2001, in its Sources Series, COHRE published a 130-page book compiling legal resources on housing and property restitution. Sources 7: Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and IDPs: Basic Standards (2001) reveals that the right to housing and property restitution is increasingly recognised as an essential element of the right of return for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The right of return is now understood to encompass not merely returning to one’s home country, but also to one’s original home. Sources 7 provides a comprehensive collection of housing and property restitution law, together with an analysis of how specific laws in this category have been applied in actual post-conflict situations. Relevant provisions of international, regional and national laws are included. Sources 7 is intended for use by educators, human rights lawyers, NGOs, international and national policymakers, and refugees and IDPs themselves, in order to facilitate the right of refugees and IDPs to return home voluntarily in safety and dignity.

In May and June 2002, the HPRP worked in Albania to assist the national Government and Parliament in resolving the difficult restitution problems facing the country. More than 100,000 Albanians are directly affected by the as yet unresolved issue of land and property restitution. Working closely with the World Bank and the OSCE programmes in Albania, the HPRP provided the Government of Albania Advisory Group on Restitution with a detailed series of policy recommendations designed to assist the Government in resolving, in a fair and equitable manner, all outstanding restitution claims in the country. The recommendations were contained in a paper entitled Albania: Resolving The Question of Land And Property Restitution And Compensation. The HPRP also proposed components of a new draft restitution law to replace existing legislation affecting this area.

israel COHRE has continued to closely follow the escalating violence between Israel and Palestine (Israeli-Occupied Territories), and since the beginning of the 2002 has drawn particular attention to cases of forced eviction and house demolition. For example, on 10 January 2002, COHRE wrote to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after learning from eyewitnesses that a dozen Israeli bulldozers and armoured vehicles had driven into the Rafah refugee camp before dawn and begun destroying homes and other buildings. Residents had fled their homes in heavy rain. Local officials estimated that hundreds had been made homeless. In its letter to Prime Minister Sharon, COHRE strongly condemned this action by the Israeli authorities as a violation of the housing rights of the inhabitants.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

“We first learned about COHRE in 2000 and since then our advocacy campaign for the right of return and restitution of Palestinian refugees has greatly benefited from COHRE's work and experience worldwide. We wish we had more partners as professional and uncompromising in their stand for human rights as COHRE.” Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Director of the BADIL Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, Bethlehem, Palestine.

palestine More than five million Palestinian refugees continue to struggle for their right to return to their original homes. The HPRP acts as an occasional advisor on restitution issues to the Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) in Palestine, the group responsible for providing policy and legal support to negotiators who represent the Palestinian Authority during peace talks. Among other advice provided, COHRE Executive Director Scott Leckie prepared a 140-page report to the NSU entitled A Brief Survey of Housing, Land and Property Restitution: Precedents for Palestinian Refugees. COHRE is planning to prepare a detailed Restitution Blueprint for the NSU in 2003. The blueprint will outline the precise institutions, mechanisms and procedures required to make the restitution of Palestinian housing, property and land a reality once a formal peace agreement is adopted. The HPRP continues to work very closely with the leading organisation supporting the rights of Palestinian refugees, the Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights (BADIL). COHRE and BADIL are planning to jointly hire a lobbyist to co-ordinate a campaign to change policies within various UN agencies and States with regard to the right of Palestinian refugees to repossess the properties confiscated by Israel since 1947. In June 2002, at its Geneva headquarters, the HPRP convened a one-day expert workshop on the issue of restitution for Palestinian refugees. The HPRP provides regular

programmes and activities

assistance and strategic input to BADIL in its campaigning to draw greater attention to the issue within the United Nations and elsewhere. The HPRP continues to publish regular articles and editorials on the rights of Palestinian refugees to have restored to them the properties confiscated over the past 54 years – a key element in the search for peace in the Middle East. A recent article entitled Finding Peace in the Middle East by Getting Real on the Refugee Property Issue was prepared for the journal Forced Migration Review.

serbia & montenegro The HPRP went to Serbia in February 2002 to assess the situation facing some 250,000 Croatian-Serb refugees living in the country, unable to return to their original homes in Croatia. In Serbia, the HPRP and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights made a series of fact-finding visits, including one to a Roma community of 2,500 residents living at the Belgrade Municipal Dump. Many of the residents were refugees from Macedonia and Kosovo. They spoke of their dreams of returning to their original homes once conditions permitted them to return safely. The HPRP has since prepared and distributed a short video/VCD documentary film on this Roma community.

sri lanka The HPRP visited Sri Lanka in March 2002 and met with officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to discuss any assistance that HPRP could provide to the UNHCR in the context of the continuing peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers. The HPRP has continued to maintain contacts in Sri Lanka and is likely to visit the country again in early 2003 to assist in further promoting the issues of housing and property restitution in the context of resolving the refugee-return problem.

other countries The HPRP has repeatedly attempted to convince the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to incorporate housing and property restitution issues into its mandate – so far, without success. With a view to assisting in developing the restitution component of any eventual refugee return once a peace agreement is signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the HPRP continues to communicate regularly with the UNHCR offices dealing with these two countries.

Bhutanese refugees showing property records to a COHRE fact-finding team.

The HPRP also regularly communicates with refugees from Bhutan, 100,000 of whom remain in camps in Eastern Nepal, and continues to promote the right of all Bhutanese refugees to return to their original homes and lands in Bhutan. Regarding Western Sahara, the HPRP has been in regular contact with the responsible UNHCR offices, and has continued discussions regarding restitution issues likely to arise once a settlement is reached on the final legal status of the disputed territory. With respect to Somalia, in October 2002 the HPRP was formally requested by the United Nations to take the lead in establishing a restitution mechanism for Somalia. The HPRP is currently considering this request and is seeking possible consultants to assist in this process.

training programmes, speeches and workshops In the context of the many COHRE training programmes held each year, the issues of housing and property restitution were addressed in sessions in Cambodia and Malaysia, as well as in speeches in Albania, Serbia and Sri Lanka. In another context, because housing and property issues affecting internally displaced persons (IDPs) have generally been neglected, COHRE and the Global IDP Project convened a one-day workshop on such issues in July 2001. The workshop was attended by ten experts from various humanitarian agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, UNHCR, ICVA and others. All agreed that the international community needs to be more closely engaged in developing IDPs’ housing rights, and that United Nations agencies and NGOs should be more aware of the role and importance of housing rights,

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

closely incorporating them within their programmes. The workshop participants felt that this could be achieved through the promotion of training sessions for humanitarian aid workers and policy-makers, coupled with the publication of a manual and a checklist to be used in the field. Further meetings are planned with other organisations to begin to improve the housing rights situation of IDPs throughout the world. In 2002, the HPRP sponsored a workshop on housing and property restitution to refugees and other displaced persons during the Third World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The meeting was convened in partnership with the newly appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and IDPs, Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro. The panel provided an overview of international human rights standards relevant to the right to return, and of successful strategies as a mechanism of post-conflict reconstruction and peace-building.

programmes and activities

standard-setting COHRE has been active on restitution issues at the UN Sub-Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights since 1998, when it succeeded in securing the adoption of Resolution 1998/26 on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons. The HPRP has continued to work with the Sub-Commission and, in 2001, persuaded it to charge one of its members with preparing a working paper on these issues. The resulting working paper, (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2002/17, 12 June 2002) on The Return of Refugees’ or Displaced Persons’ Property, was considered by the Sub-Commission in August 2002. The HPRP played a significant role in the report’s detailed preparation. On the basis of the debate on the report, the Sub-Commission decided to request the UN Commission on Human Rights to appoint a UN Special Rapporteur on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons. The Rapporteur chosen was Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro (Brazil), the author of the working paper. Once Mr. Pinheiro is formally approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, this will be a major victory for the HPRP, and one that will draw considerable new attention to the issues of housing and property restitution.

cohre esc litigation programme

cohre esc rights litigation programme (lp) p r o g r a m m e c o - o r d i n ato r – m a lc o l m l a n g f o r d

The judicial enforcement of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights is gaining increased attention in a growing number of countries. Many organisations are examining the potential for including legal action in their advocacy strategies. A significant number of cases have already been litigated at the national, regional and international levels, providing a useful guide to possible future actions. COHRE publications have been quoted in a number of recent groundbreaking ESC rights judgements at the national and regional levels. The ESC Rights Litigation Programme aims to support and initiate legal efforts to bring social and economic justice to the poor, particularly in the area of housing. Based in Geneva, the Programme works to facilitate the judicial application of ESC rights by local and national lawyers throughout the world. To this end, it has been preparing useful litigation resources, providing legal advice and assistance, and training lawyers and NGOs. Research into test cases on housing rights has been initiated in a number of countries. The ESC Rights Litigation Programme is active in all regions – striving to support the justiciability and full enjoyment of ESC rights. The ESC Rights Litigation Programme was established in late 2001 to simplify the processes leading to ESC rights litigation, particularly at the national level. The aim is to increase the prospects of well-prepared cases coming to

court and positive precedents being established. The Programme has started work on: (1) producing a series of publications containing useful legal resources; (2) increasing access to and awareness of existing and emerging case law; and (3) providing legal advice and assistance to lawyers and organisations in developing countries. The Programme has also been working to establish an exhaustive online list of housing rights case law (available on the COHRE Website: www.cohre.org), as well as the capacity to provide regular case-law information updates. Contacts have been made with a number of organisations and lawyers with whom COHRE hopes to work in joint efforts to facilitate ESC rights litigation. The Programme has also been assisting the International Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in establishing an online case-law database for ESC rights cases.

publications During 2002, the ESC Rights Litigation Programme was involved in preparing three innovative, user-friendly publications. The first, Litigation Strategies for ESC Rights, is based on interviews with 40 leading lawyers, advocates and judges who have been actively involved in ESC rights litigation. Litigation Strategies for ESC Rights covers the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Finland, Ghana, Hungary,

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

The community of Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana face many problems, including lack of basic services and the threat of eviction

legal advice & assistance India, Ireland, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA. The publication provides detailed case studies of the specific considerations the lawyers and others had to deal with when litigating ESC rights in these countries. It also indicates key points that litigators should reflect on in seeking to improve their legal strategies. The second publication, A Legal Practitionerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dossier for Litigating ESC Rights, contains an exhaustive range of legal analyses, resources, contacts and useful guidelines for any legal practitioner wishing to pursue litigation in support of economic, social and cultural rights. This lengthy single-volume publication will provide an invaluable source of practical, hands-on information free of charge to lawyers and judges throughout the world, the purpose being that ESC rights should be accorded ever-greater seriousness. The third publication, 50 Leading ESC Rights Cases, provides summaries of what COHRE considers to the most important precedent-setting cases supporting economic, social and cultural rights. All these documents are due to be published and distributed during 2003.

programmes and activities

The ESC Rights Litigation Programme receives regular requests, often urgent, for legal advice from local and national lawyers, NGOs, and international organisations. At the request of the Community Legal Centre in South Africa, which played a key role in the SA Constitutional Court case TAC v Minister of Health (about whether HIV-positive pregnant women should be given access to anti-HIV/AIDS medicines), the Programme provided advice on health rights cases from other jurisdictions. The Programme also assisted the COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme (CAPP) on the issue of whether the Philippines Urban Development Housing Act (UDHA) was consistent with international law in relation to rights of all slumdwellers to protection from forced evictions. The Programme has also provided legal advice to: (1) the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre, Romania, with regard to the rights of disabled people to community housing under the European Convention on Human Rights; (2) the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) on tenantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rights under the European Convention on Human Rights;

(3) Indian and Swedish NGOs in making submissions to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during its November 2001 and 2002 sessions; (4) tenants’ organisations in Melbourne, Australia, on exclusion of disabled people from tenancy law; and (5) tenants’ organisations in Western Australia in relation to the obligation of states in a federal system.

ability and housing rights), Romania (Roma land rights), South Africa (right to water), Ghana (right not to be forcibly evicted) and Sweden (housing rights). The Programme is in frequent contact with these groups as to the progress of the proposed legal actions.

information & training In addition to these instances of local legal assistance, the Programme has been active in providing support for the adoption of an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). COHRE, together with other groups such as ESCR-Net and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), has been campaigning for a Working Group to be established as the next step towards the envisioned adoption of an Optional Protocol by the UN General Assembly.

test cases The ESC Rights Litigation Programme is actively pursuing the initiation of test cases to develop and strengthen housing rights laws at the national, regional and international levels. Research has already commenced into the bringing of specific cases before the African Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the European Committee on Social Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition to pursuing cases directly, the Programme has sought to act as a catalyst for ESC rights litigation. Discussions have been held with various groups concerning initiation of litigation in the following countries: Australia (dis-

From countries in which the Programme has an established or developing reputation, it regularly receives requests for information on ESC rights litigation in general, and case law in particular. In addition to responding to such requests, the Programme has provided training on the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights to the consultants associated with COHRE’s regional programmes for Asia and the Pacific, the Americas, and Africa, as well as housing rights advocates and organisations in Victoria, Australia. Furthermore, the Programme Co-ordinator has presented summer courses and lectures at the Central European University (Hungary), the University of the Philippines, and New York University. The Programme has also started organising the strategic workshop on litigating ESC Rights to be held in Geneva in November 2003.

escr-net The Programme has assisted the International Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net) in designing and implementing an online case database. The Programme has provided 20 extensive case summaries to ESCR-Net (see www.escr-net.org) and continues to advise it on the development of its database.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

cohre right to water programme

cohre right to water programme (rwp) p r o g r a m m e c o - o r d i n ato r – m a lc o l m l a n g f o r d

As the world wakes up to the fact that its supplies of clean, fresh water are dwindling, water is becomming increasingly recognised as a fundamental human right – essential for life, health and human dignity. In its work of the past ten years, COHRE has continually encountered the problems of deteriorating water resources and the inability of poorer and more vulnerable groups – particularly those in slums and squatter settlements – to access affordable, clean water and live in a healthy environment. Global statistics paint a depressing picture: one-third of humanity without access to adequate water supplies and sanitation, and water-related diseases accounting for 80 per cent of all deaths in developing countries. In response to this situation, the COHRE Right to Water Programme was established in late 2001. This Programme is dedicated to contributing to the realisation of the right to water through an innovative series of projects, and seeks both to clarify international standards in this area and to undertake advocacy and awareness-raising in order to get them implemented. COHRE Right to Water Programme has four principal components: (1) advocacy through development of international water rights standards, in particular by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; (2) a publications series with particular focus on the provision of resources that enable effective monitoring of the right to water; (3) training sessions in water rights for Government officials and Non-Govern-

programmes and activities

mental Organisations; (4) raising of awareness through strategic use of the Internet, films, articles and promotional materials. In the course of 2002, the Programme visited Australia, Germany, Hungary, the Philippines, South Africa, the UK and the US to discuss issues relating to the right to water with various stakeholders. The Programme hopes to appoint new staff in the very near future, given the critical importance of, and the attention being given to, water rights issues.

advocacy for the right to water In 2002, the Programme also made a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding violations of the right to water in Poland, the Slovak Republic and the Solomon Islands. The Programme also sent formal letters of protest to the Indian Government concerning a number of rural communities being deprived of access to water.

“COHRE’s highly informed legal analysis and dedicated advocacy have been invaluable to the Committee’s task of monitoring the right to water around the world” Eibe Riedel, Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

international standard-setting: un general comment on the right to water The high point of 2002 was the adoption of General Comment No. 15 on the Right to Water by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. On COHRE’s initiative, the Committee had agreed in May 2002 to place a general comment on the right to water on its 2002 agenda. The COHRE Right to Water Programme had assisted the Committee in obtaining comments on the first draft from all stakeholders, as well as providing expert advice on international human rights and water law. The General Comment was adopted in December 2002 and has been quoted in recent and continuing debates and strategic discussions on water issues.

publications The Programme has published a briefing paper on The Right to Water for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Seminar held on 14 November 2002 in Geneva. It has also prepared a chapter entitled The Right to Water in South Africa for inclusion in Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa, to be published by the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Two more publications, Legal Resources for the Right to Water and Monitoring the Right to Water, are planned for 2003. In addition, a user-friendly publication simply entitled Right to Water will be published in early 2003 in conjunction with the World Health Organisation, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, water-and-sanitation aid agency WaterAid and the Centre on Economic and Social Rights. Right to Water is intended for presentation at the 2003 Kyoto World Water Forum. The COHRE Right to Water Programme is being incorporated into the COHRE Website, www.cohre.org.

training The Programme’s Co-ordinator conducted a training session on Implementing the Right to Water for WaterAid, a major water-and-sanitation aid agency, in July 2002. The session was attended by 30 participants, all from WaterAid. The major thrust of the training was twofold: (1) the conceptual nature of human rights; and (2) concrete ways of implementing these rights in delivering clean water and sanitation to poor communities throughout the world. At the Central European University (Hungary) in August 2002, the Co-ordinator gave a series of lectures and workshops on Operationalising the Right to Water. A pilot educational seminar on the right to water was also given at a Swiss primary school. The Programme organised and participated in a series of meetings to discuss and debate the draft UN General Comment No. 15, including: the NGO Consultation (July 2002, Geneva); the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Consultation (31 October 2002, New York); the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Multi-Stakeholder Seminar (November 2002, Geneva); and the CESCR Day of Discussion (Geneva, November 2002). The Programme receives frequent requests to send speakers to workshops and training seminars.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

monitoring the right to water The Programme has also continued to receive numerous requests to take actions on the right to water. In January 2002 it visited South Africa, where the right to water is constitutionally entrenched, for discussions with a range of stakeholders. A workshop on Monitoring the Right to Water in South Africa is now being planned for 2003. Other international and regional workshops are also planned for 2003.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;COHRE is a trusted and indispensable source of human rights research and resources in the area of housing rights, evictions and the related social, economic and cultural rights. If it did not exist, it would have to be established. COHRE is an extremely effective NGO that serves many functions around educating politicians, government officials, and community activists throughout the world. Among its many activities, COHRE is widely known and respected for facilitating effective NGO access to the important United Nations human rights committees, for very careful documentation of severe breaches of housing rights, and for assisting local NGOs in making recommendations for improvements ranging from local policies and programs to the wording of constitutional changes. We have an excellent housing rights bill being debated in the Canadian Parliament -- thanks to the assistance of Scott Leckie. I urge all organizations capable of financially assisting COHRE in its important human rights work to do so.â&#x20AC;? J. David Hulchanski, PhD; Director, Centre for Urban and Community Studies; Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto

programmes and activities

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board of members

The COHRE Board of Directors is comprised of five prominent members: Prof. Cees Flinterman (COHRE Chairperson) is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) in Utrecht, Netherlands. He is also a member of the Parliamentary Advice Commission on International Relations and of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Mr. John Packer (COHRE Treasurer) is the Director of the Office for Security and Cooperation in Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (OSCEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) High Commissioner on National Minorities in the Hague, Netherlands. Dr. Aart Hendriks (COHRE Secretary) is a Commissioner of the Netherlands Commission for Equal Treatment in Utrecht, Netherlands. Prof. Virginia Dandan (COHRE Board Member) is the Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Professor of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines. Prof. Sandy Liebenberg (COHRE Board Member) is a human rights lawyer who heads the SocioEconomic Rights Project of the Community Law Centre based at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.

o r ga n i sat i o n

Members of the COHRE Board (left to right): Prof. Sandy Liebenberg, Mr. John Packer, Prof. Cees Flinterman, Prof. Virginia Dandan and Dr. Aart Hendriks

All Board members represent COHRE in their personal capacities, and contribute their time and energy on a pro bono basis. In the period 2000-2002, the COHRE Board of Directors met on the following dates: 16 June 2000, 18 November 2000, 28 April 2001, 24 November 2001, 4 May 2002 and 24 November 2002. In 2001, COHRE began holding parallel and joint meetings of its Boards of Directors and COHRE Consultants. The first such set of meeting took place in Chamonix, France in April 2001, the second in May 2002. These meetings provided COHRE staff with an opportunity to discuss and consolidate their knowledge of housing rights and the COHRE mandate, as well as to discuss their activities and programmes directly with the COHRE Board of Directors.

advisory advisory board board The COHRE Advisory Board is now comprised of eight members, each with acknowledged expertise in areas where COHRE works. In addition to the support and guidance provided by the COHRE Board, the Advisory Board assists COHRE in developing new programmes and implementing existing ones. The current members of the COHRE Advisory Board are: Prof. Philip Alston (New York City, USA) is a Professor of Law at New York University in New York City. 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 Land Affairs, which co-ordinated the land restitution programme of the first post-apartheid government. Ms. Savitri Goonesekere (Colombo, Sri Lanka) is a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and a leading human rights practitioner in Sri Lanka.

Fr. Joseph Maier (Bangkok, Thailand) is a Catholic Priest who has worked in the Slaughterhouse Slum in Klong Toey, Bangkok, 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 Bangkok slums. Mr. Felix Morka (Lagos, Nigeria) is the Executive Director of the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC). Mr. Morka is Nigeria’s leading advocate for economic, social and cultural rights. He is a Board member of ESCR-Net, and holds a range of additional positions. Mr. Enrique Ortiz (Mexico City, Mexico) is the Secretary-General of Habitat International Coalition. He initiated the Mexican Government’s Popular Housing Fund (FONAPO), widely hailed as one of the most effective programmes of its kind anywhere in the world. Ms. Anita Roddick, OBE (Littlehampton, England) is the founder of The Body Shop, and is widely renowned for her support of progressive political causes. Ms. Roddick also sits on the Jury of The Body Shop Human Rights Award.

Prof. Virginia Leary (Geneva, Switzerland) is the Professor Emeritus of Law, State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. She is a member of the Board of Human Rights Watch/Asia and of the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

cohre’s financial supporters

cohre’s financial supporters Without the financial assistance provided by donors and other backers, COHRE’s work throughout the world would simply not be possible. COHRE is profoundly grateful to all those institutions that have contributed to COHRE’s efforts in recent years. In the period 2000-2002, COHRE received generous financial assistance from the following institutions (in alphabetical order): The Body Shop, Cordaid, EZE, Ford Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Government of

Canada (CIDA), Government of Finland, Government of The Netherlands (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Housing), Government of Norway, Government of Sweden (SIDA), Government of United Kingdom (DFID), Habitat Platform Netherlands, ICCO, MISEREOR, Smith Richardson Foundation, Swedish NGO Human Rights Foundation, UN-Habitat Programme, UNHCR, UNIFEM, and the World Bank.

the cohre team

the cohre team international secretariat and thematic programmes COHRE International Secretariat Scott Leckie (US/Netherlands) – Executive Director, Co-ordinator of COHRE Housing and Property Restitution Programme; Jean du Plessis (South Africa) – Deputy Director, Interim Co-ordinator of COHRE Africa Programme; Bret Thiele (US) – Senior Legal Officer, COHRE Global Forced Evictions Project; Steven Ablondi (US) – Co-ordinator of COHRE Global Forced Eviction Project ; Malcolm Langford (Australia) – Co-ordinator of COHRE ESC Rights Litigation Programme, Co-ordinator of COHRE Right to Water Programme; Birte Scholz (US) – Co-ordinator of COHRE Women and Housing Rights Pro-

o r ga n i sat i o n

gramme; Souad Dajani (Palestine) – Research Consultant; Rolf-Hagen Schulz-Forberg (Germany) – Research Consultant; and Aoife Nolan (Ireland) – Research Consultant. COHRE Administrative Unit Dinah Towle (New Zealand) – Senior Administrator; Esra Yagiz (Turkey) – Administrative Assistant; Rob Stuart (UK/Netherlands) – Publications Editor; Rob Lichtman (US) – Technical Assistant; Richelda Uchi (Philippines) – Office Assistant.

COHRE Fundraising Unit Dinah Towle (New Zealand) – Co-ordinator; Anabelle Buron (France) – European Fundraiser; Anna Pomykala (US) – United States Fundraiser. COHRE Media and Publicity Unit Harriet Martin (United Kingdom) – Media and Communications Officer; Fionn Skiotis (Australia/Greece) – Documentary Filmmaker; Alison Clements Hunt (United Kingdom) – COHRE Housing Rights Awards. COHRE Training Programme Clare Verbeek (South Africa) – Training Specialist

regional programmes COHRE Asia & Pacific Programme (CAPP) Ken Fernandes (Pakistan) – Programme Co-ordinator; Depika Sherchan (Nepal) – Programme Assistant, Evictions Programme; Dan Nicholson (Australia) – East Timor and Pacific Programme; Kathy Diaz (US) – Burma Programme; Mike Forster (Bougainville) – Bougainville Programme. COHRE Americas Programme (CAP) Leticia Marques Osorio (Brazil) – Programme Co-ordinator; Mayra Gomez (US) – Research Officer; Emily Walsh (Brazil) – Programme Assistant; Carlos Arenas (Colombia) – Central America Research Consultant; Jose Ceballos (Dominican Republic) – Research Consultant; Grahame Russell (Canada) – Research Consultant. COHRE Africa Programme (CA) Jean du Plessis (South Africa) – Interim Programme Co-ordinator, COHRE Deputy Director; Yousif Ahmed (Sudan/Netherlands) – Legal Officer.

COHRE Board Members after a meeting with the COHRE team - Chamonix, France, May 2002

others COHRE’s financial accounts are audited by KPMG Auditors in Geneva, Switzerland. COHRE is provided with legal advice and assistance by Robert Zoells at the Geneva Law Offices of Mock & Widmer. COHRE’s graphic designers are Anja Pleit and Renske Das of Ontwerpburo Suggestie & illusie, Utrecht, Netherlands. COHRE would once again like to thank Addison Holmes, Leilani Farha and Ndidi Bowei for their efforts in the period 2000-2002. We wish them all the very best in their new pursuits.

cohre interns Over the years, COHRE has worked with many fine interns. The period 2000-2002 was no exception, and COHRE would like to give recognition and special thanks to the following interns, who generously gave their time and assistance (in alphabetical order): Lisa Anderson, Jeannie Bliss, Kathleen Casey-Vitale, Michael Donovan, Laura Freeman, Halley Jones, Elizabeth Kruger, Andrea Lindemann, Liliana Luper, Susannah Marshall, Noumi Oosterwijk, Corey ‘Switters’ Sherman and Sarah Song.

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

the cohre structure

the cohre structure advisory board

board of directors

international secretariat, fundraising unit and administrative unit

executive director

cohre housing and property restitution programme (hprp)

deputy director

cohre women and housing rights programme (whrp)

thematic programmes and projects

cohre esc rights litigation programme (lp)

media and publicity unit

cohre asia and pacific programme (capp)

cohre right to water programme (rwp)

cohre americas programme (cap)

cohre global forced evictions project (gfep)

cohre africa programme (ca)

thematic research projects

geneva

■

bangkok

■

melbourne

programmes and activities

■

porto alegre

■

duluth

■

rotterdam

■

accra

financial accounts 2000-2003

financial accounts 2000-2002 COHRE’s accounts are audited annually by independent auditors. A breakdown of expenditure for 2000 – 2002 is given below:

cohre expenditure per programme, 2000-2002

■ cohre asia/pacific ■ cohre americas ■ cohre africa ■ cohre global ■ thematic programmes ■ publications/website/films ■ overheads

summary of cohre expenditure 2000-2002 2000-2002

2000

2001

2002

223,490

39,002

67,465

117,023

COHRE Asia/Pacific

COHRE Americas

197,423

1,000

52,290

144,133

COHRE Africa

98,877

11,053

16,998

70,826

COHRE Global

405,312

138,653

111,708

154,951

Thematic Programmes

175,000

52,527

22,296

100,177

Publications/Website/Films

195,155

48,123

39,326

107,706

Overheads

310,007

61,290

107,372

141,345

TOTAL US$

1,605,264

351,648

417,455

836,161

cohre activity report 2000 – 2002

cohre women & housing rights programme (whrp) 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: women@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: cohre@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

cohre housing & property restitution programme (hprp) 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: scott@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

Brazil headquarters (visitors address) Rua DemĂŠtrio Ribeiro 990/conj 305 90010-313 Porto Alegre, RS BRAZIL tel/fax: +55.51.3212.1904 e-mail: cohreamericas@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.733.1126 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: litigation@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

cohre right to water programme(rwp)

cohre asia & pacific programme(capp)

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.733.1126 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: water@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

cohre esc rights litigation programme (lp) cohre international secretariat

cohre americas programme(cap)

cohre global forced evictions project (gfep)

cohre africa programme(ca)

83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: evictions@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

c/o 83 Rue de Montbrillant 1202 Geneva SWITZERLAND tel: +41.22.734.1028 fax: +41.22.733.8336 e-mail: cohreafrica@cohre.org web: www.cohre.org

cohre activity report 2000-2002