COHRE-NEWS N ews l e t t er o f t he C en t re on H o u sin g R i g h t s a nd E v ic t ions - S ri L a n k a
Issue No.12 – October/December 2009
Housing Rights in response to the December flood disaster
In this Twelfth edition of the COHRE - News, the front page highlights the Housing Rights in response to the December flood disaster in Sri Lanka.
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Next there is an article on COHRE works to strengthen coordinated advocacy on the right to water and sanitation in the occupied Palestinian territory by Lara El-Jazairi, Legal Officer - COHRE Right to Water Programme.
s of December 15, 2009, over 80,000 families from Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka have been affected due to severe flooding from continuous and heavy rains. Most of the affected families have been displaced from their homes and lands. Two people have died, and over 1,500 houses have been fully or partially damaged. With most of the displaced living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, attention needs to be drawn to the return and restitution rights of those displaced. COHRE appreciates the Government of Sri Lanka’s and international and local agencies’ fast and effective response to IDPs during the initial emergency relief phase. However, it is noted by COHRE that there is still much that needs to be done by the Government and other actors to protect and promote the housing rights of IDPs. Substantial planning must occur to ensure the human rights of IDPs are respected beyond the humanitarian phase, and the return and recovery of those displaced are carried out in a safe and dignified manner. In order for this to happen, more than simple pledges and delivery of aid are needed. While the humanitarian effort following the recent floods have been substantial, it is not clear whether assistance for recovery is adequate to address the housing, land and property (HLP) rights of those affected. HLP rights need to be incorporated into all post-disaster plans if reconstruction and the return to normalcy are to succeed. An active respect for community participation and a transparent and accountable process that continues past the initial return phase is essential to create the conditions for effective restitution and recovery. Many policy gaps became apparent in the post tsunami recovery phase that have yet to be rectified for the protection of current natural disaster IDPs (as well as conflict IDPs). Without the protection of HLP rights, IDPs can become more vulnerable to other forms of human rights abuses, including gender based violence, discrimination, inadequate housing, restrictions
on the freedom of movement, and inadequate water and sanitation, among others. The Government of Sri Lanka is urged to incorporate an adequate HLP rights framework into their response to the recent floods as well as to all of their post-disaster relief and recovery efforts in the future. This is especially important in view that some of the affected have been subjected to recurrent disaster related displacement. In particular, the following key areas should be addressed in order to alleviate housing violations that have occurred following the tsunami, and from other natural disasters: • Return and restitution: • Participation, consultation & non-discrimination: • Right to adequate housing and security of tenure: • Women and children’s rights • Documentation and property issues • Right to water and sanitation While responses to the initial emergency phase of the recent floods were efficient and commendable, further steps must be taken to develop a human rights framework that may be incorporated throughout the full relief and recovery process following a disaster. The Government is obligated, together with NGOs and international agencies to ensure that return and recovery programmes address key human rights concerns. Housing, land and property rights are often overlooked due to their complexity and the tendency to focus only on the immediate humanitarian need. However, HLP rights are fundamental to ensuring a successful and sustainable recovery process. Without a stable family unit, with access to adequate house, water and sanitation, livelihoods recovery will not be possible in the long run as insecurity will prevail and returnees will be vulnerable to a host of other human rights abuses.
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This article is followed by a brief summary on Two workshops were held in the eastern districts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee on the general topic of Housing Land and Property Restitution. Next there is a write up on campaign for recognition land rights as a fundamental right under the Constitution. Finally there is a write up on COHRE-Sri Lanka comprehensive Resource Centre on housing, land and property rights. We hope you find this News-Letter useful in understanding the rights and problems faced in Sri Lanka and internationally on the right to housing. We welcome any comments, submission of any new case notes and articles and relevant events on the right to housing. If you have any comments, require additional copies, or wish to subscribe to the mailing list for the Quarterly Newsletter on HLP-rights in Sri Lanka or For further information, please contact COHRE office, located at 106 1/1 Horton Place, Colombo 7. Sri Lanka. Telephone/Fax +94.11.2693143 or e-mail at srilanka@cohre.org. The above human rights considerations should be incorporated immediately into the flood response by all concerned actors, and into regulations governing disaster management in general. The recent flooding provides policy makers with an opportunity to show they have not only learned the appropriate immediate response lessons from the tsunami, but also longe term human rights implications of displacement that address housing, land and property rights in a comprehensive and sustained manner.
Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere...
COHRE works to strengthen coordinated advocacy on the right to water and sanitation in the occupied Palestinian territory By Lara El-Jazairi, Legal Officer, Right to Water Programme - COHRE
In September 2009 an Advocacy Task Force (ATF) was established as a subcommittee of the EWASH group. The EWASH (Emergency Water and Sanitation Hygiene) is a coalition of over 30 organisations working in the water and sanitation sector in the occupied Palestinian territory and its members include local and international NGOs and UN Agencies. The project to establish an Advocacy Task Force was designed by COHRE on behalf of the EWASH and is currently co-ordinated by COHRE, managed by OXFAM GB, with financial support from ECHO. The ATF has a mandate to conduct strategic advocacy on water and sanitation issues in the occupied Palestinian territory, with a particular focus on raising international awareness of some of the obstacles to water and sanitation provision and the impact that lack of access to water and water and sanitation services and facilities has on Palestinian communities. One of the first major events to be held by the ATF was on the 3 September 2009. The EWASH Advocacy Task Force in cooperation with the UN Humanitarian Country Team held a press conference to draw attention to the impact of the Israeli imposed blockade on water and sanitation in Gaza. The blockade has had a severe impact on the functioning of water and sanitation services and facilities in Gaza, due to restricting entry for much needed construction materials and aid. Organisations working in the water and sanitation sector jointly called for an immediate opening of Gaza’s border crossings to allow the entry of spare parts and materials critical for restoring Gaza’s water and sanitation services and to respond to the humanitarian crisis and growing environmental hazard. The event was held at Beit Lahiya Waste Water Treatment Plant, so that journalists could directly witness the impact of the Israeli blockade on the functioning of essential services. The event was well attended by journalists from over 25 media outlets and statements were read out by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, representatives from UN Agencies and International NGOs, the local service provider (CMWU) and housewives who shared their personal experiences of struggling to manage on limited supplies of clean water. The press conference drew significant attention to the issue globally. Major media outlets throughout the world covered the event including: Aljazeera, BBC, the Washington
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Post, the New York Times, the Jerusalem Post, and AFP. The ATF has also been producing fact sheets highlighting specific issues relating to water and sanitation in the occupied Palestinian territory; producing short documentary films; organising field visits for journalists and diplomatic missions; and organising discussion evenings and public debates. The latest discussion evening, on 28 October, focused on the water and sanitation crisis in the West Bank, and speakers included Donatella Rovera from Amnesty International and Fuad Bateh from the Palestinian Water Authority. The speakers drew attention to Israeli policies in practices in the West Bank such as overexploiting the water resources for the benefit of Israeli citizens living in both Israel and the illegal settlements (Israel currently controls around 89% of all transboundary water resources shared between Israel and Palestine); preventing Palestinian water resource and water and sanitation infrastructure development (leaving a third of West Bank Palestinian communities without access to a water network and causing an environmental crisis due to lack of proper sewage treatment); creating Palestinian dependency on water supplied by the Israeli national water company Mekerot, which often reduces amounts available to Palestinian communities in hot summer months when demand is high in Israel and the settlements
(Palestinian domestic consumption in the West Bank is on average 50 litres per capita per day with some communities surviving on a mere 15 litres per capita per day in comparison to Israeli citizens domestic consumption of around 280 litres per capita per day); restricting Palestinian access to water resources through Israeli ‘security’ measures such as the illegal Wall, roadblocks, checkpoints (which means that some Palestinian communities must travel long distances to reach water points and pay up to 40% of their household income on clean water- mainly due to transport costs); and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure during military incursions and as a punitive measure. The next focus activity was week long campaign on the right to water and sanitation in the occupied Palestinian territory, around Human Rights Day (10 December). The week long campaign ran from Sunday 6 December to Sunday 13 December. The aim of the campaign was to conduct numerous advocacy initiatives or activities that will raise awareness of violations of Palestinian’s human right to water and sanitation on the local, national and international levels. For information on how to become involved in the campaign and call for an end to violations of Palestinian’s human right to water and sanitation, please contact opt@ cohre.org
Workshops on Housing, Land and Property Restitution in the Eastern Province Two workshops were held in the eastern districts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee on the general topic of Housing Land and Property Restitution (HLPR). These two workshops follow from other investigations and projects conducted in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka by COHRE concerning restitution rights of displaced persons in the region. In 2009, COHRE produced two reports following a three – tier fact finding programme comprising, government agencies, non – governmental agencies, and displaced persons conducted in the latter part of 2008. The two reports are - High Security Zones and the Rights to Return and Restitution in Sri Lanka (April 2009), and Recommendations for a National Policy on Housing, Land and Property Restitution in Sri Lanka (May 2009). Both reports may be accessed at – www. cohre.org/Sri Lanka The workshops were designed with a view to the findings on the above two reports as a basis, in order to relate the thoeratical and conceptual aspects of HLPR to the facts on the ground wherever relevant. The overall theme of the workshops, is of central importance to post conflict resettlement and rehabilitation in Sri Lanka. The concept of restitution is a legal concept that is applied to a process of ending displacement. The right to restitution is recognized by the international community as a distinct right, but which is interlinked with many other important human rights applicable to displaced persons. Thus, it is of paramount importance for agencies and individuals engaged with displaced persons and the resettlement process, to have an understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of the right to restitution and of its practical relevance to their work. Thus, the objectives of the workshop were as follows: to
in the overall processes of return, restitution and resettlement, and create awareness of the nature of the skill base that is required for this purpose. The third session made an outline of the national and international legal framework that is relevant to land and property rights in Sri Lanka. While the right to restitution does not depend entirely on whether a displaced persons is able to prove his/ her land and property rights, this session dealt with the central importance of - land and property rights information, land and property documentation and land tenure for HLPR, and practical issues affecting land and property. The fourth and final session introduced the scope and ambit of the human right to housing, the importance of relevant standards for adequate housing and the determination of relevant compensation schemes for the loss of housing, property and land. It dealt with the practical difficulties of achieving equity and equality among the beneficiaries of HLPR, where there are no uniform standards for housing reconstruction and compensation schemes. The resource persons for the workshops were - Dr. Malathy DeAlwis, Consultant, Consortium of Humanitarian Studies (session two); Mr. M.A.M Hakeem Abubaker, Attorney at Law and Lecturer and the Faculty of Law, Colombo (session three), and Ms. Rasika Mendis, Attorney at Law and Research and Policy Officer, COHRE (sessions one and four). If you require further information of the above workshops, or is interested in HLPR trainings to be conducted by COHRE in 2010, please contact Rasika at rasika@cohre.org, or Shyani at shyani@cohre.org.
• Develop a good understanding of the right to restitution, and international standards for HLPR; • Identify capacity building needs within organizations for the implementation of HLPR; • Understand the relevance of HLPR to different stakeholders involved in the resettlement process; A pre workshop assessment was conducted to assess the training requirements of agencies operating in the East. The workshops themselves contained a component of assessment, for future training requirements for agencies operating in the East. These trainings are in recognition that effective rights based return and restitution requires development of the required expertise and skill to address the complexities that are most often inherent in a restitution process (referred to as ‘resettlement’ in Sri Lanka). Based on feedback from several organizations the substantive content of the sessions of the workshop comprised the following: The introductory session dealt with the underlying concepts and principles of HLPR and their relevance to the East. Many of the overarching principles on which the concept of restitution finds its basis, are other related human rights, which cannot be adequately realized without the simultaneous realization of the right to restitution. The second session dealt with vulnerability assessment and gender concerns in the specific context of displacement. This session introduced principles and standards that are relevant to vulnerable groups (including women), and the potential difficulties and challenges in assessing vulnerability in a context of displacement. The thrust of the session was to highlight the need to mainstream concerns of vulnerability and gender
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LET US AGREE & JOIN HANDS “The ownership of Land should be guaranteed as a fundamental right” According to the Survey on the land issues in the 18 Districts conducted by the “Praja Abhilasha” and People to People Dialogue on Peace and Sustainable Development Networks, it was understood that there should be a solution for the problems on those affected by the Tsunami, those affected and displaced by the war, those affected and displaced by other natural disasters such as earth slips, cyclone and floods, those persons displaced due to animals such as elephant living in their natural habitats and people displaced as they have no deeds for their land (Exp – those in the Estate sector have no deeds though they have been living there to over 200 years).
the government for security reasons and not giving other lands as compensation, those affected by the houses given by the National Housing authority as deeds were not given hence there must be special policy changes in order to solve these problems. The Praja Abhilasha and PPD Networks propose the following to solve the issues:
Apart from these issues, there are those displaced as a result of Land given to Multinational Companies, land taken over by
03. The ownership of land should be considered as a fundamental right in the constitution and should be legalized.
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01. A National Land Commission should be established. 02. A National Land Policy should be established and necessary actions should be taken.
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The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions – Sri Lanka (COHRESri Lanka) houses a computerized comprehensive Resource Centre including domestic and international legal publications on housing, land and property (HLP) rights. These publications are categorized under the following headings in order to easily access them. • Women’s Children’s HLP issues
• Law Reports in Sri Lanka
• Human Rights Law
• COHRE publications
• Return and Restitution
• Law Dictionaries
• Circulars on HLP issues
• Administrative Law
• Right to Water
• International Law
• Law in General
• Civil Law
• Sri Lankan Legal System
• Law of Property
• Evidence
• Conveyancing
• Special Laws in Sri Lanka New publications are added regularly. We will provide updates periodically. The Resource Centre can be used by any interested person free of charge. The Resource Centre is open to the public MondayFriday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. COHRE Sri Lanka office is located at 106 1/1 Horton Place, Colombo 7 Telephone/Fax : +94-11-2693143 E-mail – srilanka@cohre.org
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04. There should be legal changes on land, to be established by the legislature. Let us consider the above demands and suggest the government to take immediate action. We would be thankful, if you contribute your co-operation for this campaign. We invite to all for an Open Discussion with the NGOs, CBO, CSO, and Government Agencies. F. Raajan Local Coordinator / Secretary - Praja Abhilasha Joining Hands Network No.10, Malwatta Road, Negombo - Sri Lanka. Email - fraajan@gmail.com
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