WUNRN
COHRE - the Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions - is very pleased to announce the launch today of its new website - http://www.cohre.org/
The new COHRE website covers many sectors and regions across the housing rights discipline, and describes the work of the organisation in its focus countries and eight topic areas - now arranged into sector-specific pages - including forced evictions, security of tenure, access to land, water and sanitation, women and housing rights, litigation, restitution and return, and mega events.
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http://www.cohre.org/topics/women-housing-rights
WOMEN &
HOUSING RIGHTS
HOUSING RIGHTS VIOLATIONS ARE NOT GENDER NEUTRAL
More than 70 percent of people living in inadequate
housing are women and housing rights violations impact women in gender-specific
ways.
(© COHRE)
From the woman who has no other housing option than to
stay in a situation of domestic violence in order to keep from becoming
homeless, to the young mother struggling in the slums without basic tenure
security for herself and her family, to the girl orphaned by HIV/AIDS and
prohibited from inheriting housing and land on an equal basis with her
brothers, it is women and girls who find themselves confronted with the most
desperate situations of housing insecurity.
COHRE believes that securing women’s rights to housing
and land is fundamental to improving women’s status and their lives.
Women are often the primary targets during forced
evictions, which most often take place during the day, when women are at home.
In the midst of the violence and chaos that often accompanies forced evictions,
the perpetrators of forced evictions – including the police – often commit acts
of physical and sexual abuse against women and girls.
Concepts such as the “head of household” are also
commonly used to deprive women of equal ownership and security of tenure.
In order to secure women’s housing and land rights, COHRE
believes that we must use a methodology and approach that recognises that
gender-neutral forms of advocacy are not enough to make a real change in the
lives of women. It must also be understood that those women’s housing rights
violations are not only rooted in unjust systems of poverty and social neglect,
they are also deeply-rooted in systems of gender-based oppression that must
themselves be challenged and put right.
To ensure that housing rights benefit women and advance
the goal of gender equality, COHRE’s Women and Housing Rights Initiative works
to:
·
Enforce and
strengthen the international human rights framework so that women are able to
fully enjoy their housing and land rights in practice.
·
Defend and
advocate on behalf of women’s housing and land rights at all levels and fight
against the denial of these rights in all forms.
·
Empower and
support women and their advocates to effectively claim women’s housing and land
rights and to combat gender-based discrimination.
For more information, please contact Mayra Gomez, COHRE’s
Senior Expert on Women and Housing Rights, on women@cohre.org.