Forced Evictions. Violations of Human Rights. Global survey on forced evictions no. 8

THIS REPORT IS the eighth in COHRE’s Global Survey series on forced evictions, aimed at increasing awareness of the often unknown scale of this practice. It is the most extensive compilation on forced evictions published by COHRE since the series began in 1990, and addresses forced evictions that COHRE has monitored between January 1998 and the end of 2000.
Forced evictions continue to occur on a large scale in virtually all countries worldwide. This is despite the many positive developments in recent years that have significantly strengthened legal protection against forced eviction under international human rights law, and which continue to confirm that forced evictions are a gross violation of human rights, in particular the right to adequate housing.

The forced evictions covered in this global survey occur largely as a result of development projects, discrimination, urban redevelopment schemes, gentrification, urban beautification, land alienation in both rural and urban areas and in situations of armed conflict and ethnic cleansing, or their aftermath. Examining the practice of forced eviction from a human rights perspective reveals that the reasons and justifications commonly provided by governments for implementing forced evictions, and the manner in which evictions are carried out, rarely meet the international standards required by human rights law and rarely correspond to basic notions of human dignity.

This global survey examines cases involving the forced eviction of nearly 4.3 million persons in 63 countries during 1998–2000. It also documents a number of pending evictions involving an additional 3.6 million persons, who face being forcibly removed from their homes or having their homes destroyed despite advocacy efforts at the international, regional and national levels to see that these actions are not carried out.

COHRE clarifies that this compilation captures only a representative cross-section of a much wider practice. The report seeks to record instances of forced evictions on the basis of information COHRE has received directly from affected persons and groups and where the cases at hand are particularly noteworthy. Thus, this study does not purport to be comprehensive in terms of representing the universal scale of the practice of forced evictions.

Section II of the survey contains descriptions of forced evictions, categorized by continent and, within that, individual countries. Information is provided on the context within which the eviction took place, where possible. Following the descriptions of country-specific evictions, information is provided on the state’s legal recognition of the right to adequate housing under international and national legislation. Section III contains details of planned forced evictions categorized by country, whilst Sections IV and V summarize international legal and human rights guidelines regarding forced evictions and development-based displacement. The concluding section lists relevant publications available from COHRE. This survey will be of interest to grassroots movements, NGOs, researchers, lawyers, policy makers, legislators and any other institutions interested in eradicating the human rights violations associated with the practice of forced evictions.