In addition to housing rights violations, the practice of forced eviction can result in the violation of a number of other rights including:

• The right to non-interference with privacy, family and home


• The right to be protected against the arbitrary deprivation of property


• The right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions - many forced evictions occur without warning, forcing people to abandon their homes, lands and worldly possessions


• The right to respect for the home


• The right to freedom of movement and to choose one's residence


• The right to education - often children cannot attend school due to relocation


• The right to life - violence during the forced eviction which results in death, is a common occurrence.


• The right to security of the person - implementing authorities rarely provide evicted persons with adequate homes or any form of compensation, thus rendering them vulnerable to homelessness and further acts of violence.


• The right to effective remedies for alleged human rights violations

The human cost and trauma of forced eviction on individuals, families and communities cannot be over emphasised. Forced eviction most often affects those who are already the most disadvantaged including: low income social groups, women, indigenous peoples, ethnic, religious and racial minorities, occupied peoples and others lacking security of tenure.

Forced evictions take away people's livelihoods, their land, their belonging to a community, and the dignity of a place to live in peace without the fear of losing their home.

Women suffer disproportionately from the practice of forced eviction, given the extent of statutory and other forms of discrimination against women with respect to home ownership and inheritance rights, or rights of access to accommodation; and their particular vulnerability to acts of violence and sexual abuse when they are rendered homeless. (For more on forced eviction and women read about the COHRE Women and Housing Rights programme.)

There is invariably an element of force or coercion involved during evictions, and the use of physical and psychological violence is also common. To implement a forced eviction, it is common practice for governments to employ armed police officers, SWAT teams, criminal gangs or hired thugs and bulldozers. COHRE receives regular reports of the use of violence during forced evictions including killings, beatings, rape and torture.

Evicted persons not only lose their homes and neighbourhoods but often are forced to relinquish personal possessions. Evictees often also lose key personal and community relationships, those which provide a social safety net or survival network of protection and which allow many daily tasks to be shared. In most cases, evictees find themselves in worse conditions than before the eviction even if their living conditions were less than ideal in the first place.

In the past decade or more, resistance to forced evictions has increased around the globe. All over, community groups and NGOs have stood up against this violation of the rights of ordinary people. Forced evictions take many forms and have a variety of causes. In response, innovative strategies and valuable alliances have emerged.

COHRE has been instrumental in placing the issue of forced evictions on the international agenda. In its work with NGOs and communities resisting forced evictions, COHRE has found that the use and application of international legal standards and procedures can discourage governments and others from carrying out forced evictions. These resources complement and bolster other methodologies and strategies, in the global struggle against the phenomenon of forced eviction.