Chairperson's welcome
Today, housing rights violations occur in every country, at a scale that makes these rights some of the most widely-abused in the world. Yet these basic human rights remain poorly understood, are unenforceable in a majority of the world's countries and, even when clearly violated, rarely receive media attention
COHRE works throughout the world to increase understanding of the obligations and entitlements inherent in housing rights at all levels. From slum-dwellers and homeless people fighting for a place to live in security and dignity, to governments and international institutions with clear obligations under international law, COHRE plays a catalytic role in raising the profile of housing rights.
As such, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this latest version of COHRE's website. This site aims to meet the needs of many different types of users, with detailed statistical information and documentation for the serious researcher, easy to access multimedia for all visitors, and dedicated sections for those such as media professionals with specific interests. It is also intended to be a living site, with frequently updated content and new sections added regularly as developments unfold in housing rights, forced evictions and related fields.
Please take the time to explore our website, and be sure to revisit regularly to keep up-to-date on housing rights news and developments. This site is designed to be comprehensive, accessible and above all, useful to housing rights activists, lawyers, researchers, NGOs, grassroots groups, governments, UN agencies and others.
We hope our website provides you with the information and tools you need to improve the housing rights situation in your country, your city or your community.
John Packer, Chairperson
Board of Directors
Founder’s Message from Scott Leckie
People often ask me if there was any single event, place or person that led me to conceive of the idea of COHRE back in the early 1990s. While there were probably scores of reasons to set up a new international NGO focused on the human rights dimensions of housing, I’d have to say that one of the most poignant images that I have of that time nearly twenty years ago was of a small boy, perhaps no older than three, who was attempting to pull his extremely ill mother who was lying prone in the muddy laneway, by her hair into their home, a decrepit shack in one of Manila’s most notorious slums. The sight of such a series of human tragedies rolled up into a few seconds encapsulated to me more than any book or UN report ever could, why the promise of housing rights is so inestimably vital to every single person alive, and particularly so for those for whom this promise is as far from reality as ever.
I knew then and there that whatever could be done by a young international human rights lawyer to help address the global housing rights crisis, would be done. And so, with less than US$ 200 in the bank and just beginning to live a human rights life, COHRE was formed in October 1991 in a small room at on the Havikstraat in Holland’s fourth largest city, Utrecht (It became a formally established as a Dutch Foundation – Stichting COHRE – and a registered NGO in 1994). COHRE was formed without a business plan – or any plan for that matter – or with anything close to a vision of what it has become today; a multi-million dollar global institution with scores of staff working in offices in every region of the world. But what COHRE did have in those early days was immense energy and a sense of optimistic hope that human rights, if pushed to their limits, could make a difference in the lives of the world’s poorest communities. Approaching housing rights from the vantage points of justice, our shared humanity, Buddhist notions of compassion and of international law, the task from the outset was to ensure that housing rights would be defined and refined in the most positive manner possible and that simultaneously, the practice of forced evictions would be labelled as a distinct violation of human rights law.
During my years at COHRE we were extremely fortunate to have scored a wide range of human rights victories; everything from fundamentally re-shaping the position of international law on housing rights and evictions, assisting in stopping evictions in many countries to very consciously raising the political profile of housing rights far higher than ever before. Drafting general comments, resolutions, concluding observations, engaging in dozens of field missions to every corner of the globe and publishing scores of innovative, action-oriented publications all contributed to COHRE cementing its place among the leading human rights NGOs of the world.
It was a great honour to have worked with COHRE for sixteen years until 2007 when I took the difficult decision of leaving and setting up two new organisations, Displacement Solutions and Oneness World. I am particularly grateful to the COHRE Board of Directors for their solid commitment and support during my tenure as COHRE’s Executive Director and Founder, as well as to the dozens of COHRE staff members over the years who made working with COHRE such a sublime and exhilarating time for me.
COHRE is now in the very able hands of my successor Salih Booker and its extraordinary Board of Directors, and I am convinced that COHRE’s best days lie ahead for there remains far too much to do to end housing poverty and forced evictions the world over.
- Scott Leckie (COHRE Founder)
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