Housing Rights and Evictions

 http://www.cohre.org

… the right to housing goes further than the right not to be subjected to arbitrary or forced eviction. It also involves a duty on the State to take effective action to enable its people to meet their need for a safe and secure home where they can live with dignity.




Housing Rights
An introduction to Housing Rights

 http://www.cohre.org

… the right to housing goes further than the right not to be subjected to arbitrary or forced eviction. It also involves a duty on the State to take effective action to enable its people to meet their need for a safe and secure home where they can live with dignity. That is not achieved easily or overnight, but … it is now internationally recognised that States must take appropriate steps to ensure the realisation of this right.

Nelson Mandela Former President of South Africa

The right to housing is one of the most widely violated human rights. Over one billion people are inadequately housed. The United Nations estimates that a further 100 million people worldwide are without a place to live. One third of humanity (more than two billion people) live without security of tenure, adequate legal safeguards against forced eviction and without access to clean and affordable drinking water in the home.

COHRE is a Geneva-based, international non-governmental human rights organisation founded in 1994 as a foundation in the Netherlands (Stichting COHRE).

COHRE is the leading international human rights organisation campaigning for the protection of housing rights and the prevention of forced evictions.

COHRE's mission is to ensure the full enjoyment of the human right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere.

The organisation maintains registered offices in the Americas (Brazil and USA), Asia (Cambodia and Sri Lanka), Africa (Kenya) and Europe (Switzerland and the Netherlands). Since 1996, COHRE has directed its activities from it's Geneva-based International Secretariat.

COHRE began as a small network of committed human rights advocates working to raise the profile of housing rights within the international human rights community. Over the past fifteen years the organisation has grown considerably, and today it includes dozens of international human rights lawyers, community activists, and other land and housing rights experts and advocates. The COHRE staff comprises over 20 different nationalities.

The organization has a Board of Directors consisting of highly respected leaders in their respective areas of expertise within the international human rights community. COHRE is also able to call on advice from prominent human rights experts on its Advisory Board.

While COHRE has broadened the spectrum of its work, the essential focus of the organisation remains unchanged. Since its inception, COHRE has consistently and comprehensively applied a human rights approach to housing and living conditions throughout the world with a view to redressing violations of housing rights, promoting compliance with international standards and preventing future infringements of housing rights.

COHRE was granted special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 1999. Since that time, COHRE has continued to enjoy close working relations with various United Nations bodies and agencies, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Habitat (the United Nations agency for human settlements), the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, other UN treaty-bodies, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Commission on Human Rights and its Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and the Commission's successor organization – the Human Rights Council.