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COHRE’s work is based on the principle that the role of affected communities themselves is of primary importance in addressing housing rights violations. This is not only because it is fair and just to involve communities in processes that affect them, but also because communities have a vital contribution to make - without which most housing-related projects simply will not succeed. COHRE therefore strives to build quality alliances and partnerships with groups and support organisations working at the community level.

COHRE works with a large number of community-based grassroots organisations in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. Although the odds are often stacked against them, these grassroots movements are often the most effective voices supporting improvements in the housing rights situations facing the most vulnerable members of society. COHRE works to assist these groups in accessing resources and funds to continue to carry out their important work. 

INTERNATIONAL:

Habitat International Coalition (HIC) is an independent, international, non-profit movement of some 400 organizations and individuals working in the area of human settlements. Members include NGOs, CBOs, academic and research institutions, civil society organizations and like-minded individuals from 80 countries in both North and South. A shared set of objectives bind and shape HIC's commitment to communities working to secure housing and improve their habitat conditions. 

International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI) is a global network of associations and social movements of inhabitants, cooperatives, communities, tenants, house owners, homeless, slum dwellers, indigenous populations and people from working class neighbourhoods. Their objective is the achievement of the housing and city rights for all.

Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, Christian organization that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action worldwide. Habitat has built and renovated more than 350,000 homes around the world, providing more than 1.75 million people with safe, decent, affordable shelter.

Cordaid combines more than 90 years’ experience and expertise in emergency aid and structural poverty eradication. We are one of the biggest international development organisations with a network of almost a thousand partner organisations in 36 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Homeless International is a UK-based charity that supports community-led housing and infrastructure related development in partnership with local partner organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The initiatives are all led, developed and managed by the local community groups themselves.

International Institute for Environment and Development - the Human Settlements programme of the IIED works to reduce poverty and improving health and housing conditions among the urban populations of Latin America, Asia and Africa. The Programme also seeks to combine this with promoting more ecologically sustainable patterns of urban development.

OXFAM - Founded in 1995, Oxfam is an international group of 11 autonomous non-government organisations. Member organizations are of diverse cultures, history, and language, but share the commitment to working for an end to the waste and injustice of poverty. Oxfam has supported many projects related to land rights and evictions.  

Cities Alliance was launched in 1999 as a global alliance of cities and their development partners, committed to improving the living conditions of the urban poor. The Cities Alliance promotes the concept of inclusive urban citizenship, which emphasises active consultation by local authorities with the urban poor. Such initiatives can offer important alternatives to forced evictions. 

FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) is a human rights organization promoting the right to feed oneself. FIAN has members in all parts of the world and defends the right of ordinary people to feed themselves in dignity, which is intimately linked to land and housing rights, and the right to protection against forced eviction. 

International Rivers Network (IRN) is a non-profit organisation of activists promoting sustainable and environmentally sound alternatives to damming and channelling rivers, which often cause the displacement of communities and peoples. 

Lincoln Institute is involved in the debate and dissemination of knowledge of critical issues in land use and tax policy through professional development courses, research and publications. 

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a private foundation, and one of the largest humanitarian organizations in Norway. NRC has specialized in international activities for refugees and displaced persons. Through its efforts they provide assistance and contribute towards the protection of displaced people globally. In 1996 NRC launched the Global IDP Survey in recognition of the urgent need for more systematic and regular reporting on the needs of internally displaced people. 

U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) works to protect the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons worldwide. USCR documents human rights abuses and serves as a watchdog for refugee protection and assistance. Their site includes basic information on the organization; news updates, including USCR press releases; descriptions of USCR Field Operations, and USCR publications and resources. 

StreetNet International is an alliance of street vendors whose aim is to promote the exchange of information and ideas on critical issues facing street vendors, market vendors and hawkers (i.e. mobile vendors) and on practical organising and advocacy strategies. StreetNet seeks to create a new, more inclusive concept of 'World Class Cities' that involves the participation of the urban poor. 

Shack / Slum Dwellers' International (SDI) was initiated in 1996 by a number of organisations and urban poor community groups, as a people's process for strengthening grassroots savings and credit schemes. Their approach is based on the recognition that collective savings and credit is a critical tool for the urban poor in the worldwide struggle against poverty and socio-economic injustice. In the course of their work, SDI affiliates often face the problem of evictions, and have developed innovative methodologies to counter this. 

International Union of Tenants (IUT) is a non-governmental and non-party political organisation, safeguarding the interests of tenants. IUT has 40 member associations in 35 countries, of which 24 are European. Objectives include co-operation between tenants through sharing information, aiming to realise the right of everyone to adequate housing, a sound and healthy residential environment, affordable rent and secure tenure. 

AFRICA:

Women’s Land Link Africa
WLLA is a joint initiative, developed by COHRE, the Huairou Commission, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN-HABITAT. This project focuses on strengthening and supporting on-going work on women's housing and land rights in Africa.

Ghana:

Peoples Dialogue on Human Settlement (PD) is a community-based NGO established in 2003. PD's aim is to work with the urban poor in Ghana to alleviate poverty, improve living conditions and explore alternative solutions to forced avictions through negotiation and dialogue.

Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor (GHAFUP) is a network of of community-based organisations participating in community-led savings and loans schemes for land, housing, insfrastructure development and livelihood improvement.

Community, Land and Development Foundation (COLANDEF) provides tailor-made capacity-building support to organisations and actors in the land sector, complementing interventions with research, advocacy and lobbying  with the aim of protecting land rights for all, especially the vulnerable, and improving security of tenure.

Nigeria:

SERAC
Established in May 1995, the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) is a Lagos-based non-governmental and non-partisan organization concerned with the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights) in Nigeria. 

Women Environmental Programme (WEP) was founded in April 1997 by a group of women in Kaduna State as a response to environmental pollution issues in Kaduna and the surrounding area. It has grown into an Abuja-based NGO that now focuses on socio-economic and political issues generally, especially those affecting women and youth. WEP has a United Nations ECOSOC special status.

South Africa:

Centre for Applied Legal Studies
Founded in 1978 and based in South Africa, CALS was a pioneer in the development of Human Rights in South Africa in the apartheid years. Its initial primary objective of promoting human rights through research and education soon expanded to include a wide range of public impact litigation and extra-curial mediation. Recently, CALS has increasingly focused on issues of implementation and enforcement of rights and on ‘law in practice’. This has also generated a renewed emphasis on litigation and a concern with socio-economic rights.

Inner City Resource Centre
The Inner City Resource Centre is a non-profit advocacy and information centre focussing on housing and service delivery related problems in the Johannesburg inner city area. 

EUROPE:

European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) is an international public interest law organisation that monitors the human rights situation of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse. The ERRC acts to combat racism and discrimination through advocacy, litigation, training and policy development. 

European Housing Research Network (EHRN) assists European research institutes and individual researchers engaged in social science housing research. The Network arranges and supports conferences within the housing field and has also set up a number of working groups dealing with specific problems on a cross-national, European basis. EHRN publishes quarterly a newsletter to provide a forum for the exchange information in the field of housing research. 

Vzájemné Soužití (Life Together) is a Roma-Czech NGO that has been active in Ostrava since 1997. Through community work, Life Together aims to improve the social and living conditions of poor families in need. Activities are concentrated on the areas of humanitarian, educational, social and legal counselling, and the issues of housing, employment conflict resolution and human rights. Since its founding, Vzájemné Soužití has worked regularly with the ERRC (European Roma Rights Centre) on issues including pressing for school desegregation, securing justice for victims of coercive sterilisation, and end housing rights abuses of Roma in the Czech Republic. 

Milan Šimečka Foundation - Based in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Milan Šimečka Foundation was founded in February 1991 with the aim of helping to build a network of civil society organisations in Slovakia. The Foundation has a strong focus on human rights education is one of COHRE’s partners working on Roma rights in the region. 

Centre for Housing Policy is committed to a research focus that explores the relationship between a wide range of housing issues and other aspects of social policy in the UK. Its six research themes are homelessness and access to housing, health and community care, interaction of housing and welfare provision, funding management of rented housing, the changing nature of home ownership and housing issues for young people and children.

 

ASIA:

Regional:

Forum Asia is a membership-based regional human rights organization committed to the promotion and protection of all human rights including the right to development. FORUM-ASIA was founded in 1991 in Manila and its Regional Secretariat has been located in Bangkok since 1994. FORUM-ASIA has 46-member organizations across Asia.

Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) is a platform for consultation, cooperation and coordination among groups engaged in action, advocacy and lobbying at the intergovernmental levels. It was formally established in Bangkok in February 3, 2006 and comprised of 30 different regional organizations in Asia. Today, SAPA has over 100 civil society groups comprising its network –members.

SAPA Task-Force on ASEAN and Human Rights is one of the several task forces focusing on engagement with ASEAN in relation to human rights and the newly-established ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).  The Task Force is being coordinated by Forum Asia. COHRE is a member of the Task Force and is acting as a regional focal point on housing rights and forced evictions.

Cambodia:

Human Rights Task Force (HRTF) is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of international and Cambodian organizations and individuals committed to promoting the right to adequate housing and ending the practice of forced evictions in Cambodia.  HRTF members have formed a strategic partnership in order to collectively defend the housing rights of the urban poor in Phnom Penh and other urban areas. 

BABC - Bridges Across Borders Cambodia is a grassroots organization working to bring people together to overcome poverty, injustice and inequity in Cambodia.

Community Managed Development Partners (CMDP) is a network of NGOs that encourages community collective leadership for tenure security and protection of housing rights.

East Timor/Timor Leste:

Forum Tau Matan (FTM) has been a COHRE partner since early 2008. FTM was established in December 2003 by Timorese activists with a strong interest in human rights and youth in East Timor.
Website/Contact details:

Kadalak Sulimutuk Institute (KSI) was set up in 2000 and focuses on conflict transformation through action and research. They also work with IDPs affected by land conflicts.

Indonesia:

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) is an umbrella group of legal aid organisations in Indonesia, with a nationwide network. The Foundation was set up to provide legal assistance and protection to disempowered Indonesians, including those living in poverty, victims of forced eviction, marginalized communities, victims of partial dismissal and victims of human rights violations. LBH Jakarta – a member of YLBHI, is also a partner of COHRE.

Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) is a coalition of urban poor friends and organisations in Indonesia. The UPC is at the forefront of the struggle to defend the rights of the poor. Since its formal foundation in 1997, UPC has been focusing its activities on addressing urban poor issues in the greater Jakarta area.

Myanmar/Burma:

Network for Environmental and Economic Development (NEED) Burma is the convener of the Housing, Land and Property Rights Network of Burma. NEED operates out of its head office in Chiang Mai, Thailand and works towards strengthening environmental conservation, sustainable agricultural, and economic development in Burma
            
Earth Rights International (ERI) specializes in fact-finding, legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, training grassroots and community leaders, and advocacy campaigns. Through these strategies, ERI seeks to end earth rights abuses and promote and protect rights and the environment in the communities where they work.

Karen Environment and Sustainable Agriculture Network (KESAN) is a unique organization that provides direct services and support to Karen and Kachin communities in both Thailand and Burma. KESAN's mission is to support these communities with capacity-building, sustainable resource management, environmental protection, and preservation of unique cultural heritages.

Philippines:

The Urban Poor Associates (UPA) is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit human rights organization registered in the Philippines since 1992. It was established to educate families in housing rights matters and assist communities in eviction crises. UPA campaigns for the protection of housing rights and the prevention of forced evictions and illegal demolitions.

Sentro Ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN) is a legal resource NGO doing developmental legal work with women, workers, farmers and fishers, the urban poor, and local communities. Founded in 1987, SALIGAN is among the oldest and biggest members of the Alternative Law Groups, Inc. (ALG), a coalition of 20 law groups in the Philippines engaged in the practice of alternative or developmental law.

LATIN AMERICA:

Colombia:

Instituto de Servicios Legales Alternativos
Based in Colombia, ILSA has extensive experience of socio-legal work in the field of research and political action, especially by promoting a critical view of law that takes into account social and economic rights in Latin America, the recognition of legal pluralism, and the incorporation of contemporary debates on the implementation of rights, constitutional change and gender issues. ILSA aims to assist in the strengthening of Latin American organizations and social movements in the struggle for the realization of their rights. 

NORTH AMERICA:

Canada:

Ontario Tenants
A popular tenants' website with links throughout Canada. 

Centre for Urban and Community Studies
CUCS is a graduate research facility in Toronto, Canada that draws from a diversity of disciplines - including geography and urban planning, political science, and sociology. Research covers a range of areas of inquiry relevant to cities and communities, locally, nationally and internationally. 

Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation
Canadian-based CERA was established to ensure that housing rights guarantees under human rights law actually work for low income households, and to address both systemic and individual access to housing issues. CERA has become a leader within Canada in constitutional human rights advocacy on poverty and housing issues. 

USA:

National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
Established in 1989, the NLC serves as the legal arm of the national movement to end homelessness in the US. The Law Centre works for long-term, constructive solutions to homelessness and advocates for policies that help to remove barriers and obstacles faced by homeless families and allow them to realise a greater self-sufficiency.

Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign
Based in the US, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is committed to uniting the poor across colour lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. Areas of concern include; the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication and a living wage job.

Poverty & Race Research Action Council
PRRAC is a non-partisan, national, not-for-profit organization convened by major civil rights, civil liberties and anti-poverty groups in the US. Their purpose is to link social science research to advocacy work in order to successfully address problems at the intersection of race and poverty.

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA:

The Institute for Palestine Studies is an independent, non-profit Arab research organization, which is not affiliated with any political organization or government. The Institute is devoted to a better understanding of the question of Palestine.

Egyptian Center for Housing Rights is an NGO specialized in defending the right to adequate housing in Egypt, particularly for the weakest strata of society. 

BADIL - the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights takes a rights-based approach to the Palestinian refugee issue through research, advocacy and support of community participation in the search for durable solutions. BADIL was established in January 1998 to support the development of a popular refugee lobby for the right of return through professional research and partnership-based community initiatives.