WUNRN
COHRE - Centre on Housing Rights
& Evictions
Palestine - Securing Women's Housing Rights
By
Mayra Gomez, COHRE’s Senior Expert on Women and Housing Rights.
Palestinian family in the remains of their home in
(13 July 2010 © Omran Risheq).
16 November 2010 -
Since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
More than 4,000 houses
were demolished during Operation Cast Lead in
Demolitions have been
carried out for punitive reasons, to clear land surrounding illegal Israeli
settlements, bypass roads and the Wall, in the course of military incursions,
and for Palestinian building without the permit required by the occupation authorities.
Although many
Palestinian homes are demolished for being built ‘illegally,’ it is virtually
impossible for Palestinians to get building permission, leaving them with
little choice but to build illegally. This is not the case for Israeli citizens
or Israeli settlers, who easily get permits. The practice of denying
Palestinians building permits not only constitutes a clear case of
discrimination, over time it also has the broader effect of changing the ethnic
composition of the
Palestinian women in
particular, have been disproportionately affected by these housing rights
violations, and too often have little access to judicial forms of
redress.
Whether they work
outside the home or not, Palestinian women devote a significant amount of their
time and energy to unremunerated and often overlooked work in the home, and are
therefore particularly affected by forced eviction from, and destruction of,
their homes.
When families are made
homeless, by whatever means, women shoulder the greatest burden when it comes
to rebuilding the home or making a new one elsewhere. Through COHRE’s
previous and ongoing work on
In cases where women
must contend with inadequate living conditions, including lack of access to
essential services such as water and sanitation, these conditions also impact
women in gender-specific ways, particularly due to their care-giving roles
within the family and community.
Against the unique
political background of the Palestinian context, it is important to recognize
the vital role women play within the household and to identify their
relationship with the home.
Within the immediate
context of the occupation, however, and the urgent hardships that it routinely
imposes, the reality is that women have had little space to press for these
rights. Today, thousands of Palestinian women are at risk of being
forcibly displaced as a result of Israeli actions.
Using the prism of
gender discrimination and human rights, COHRE is working with partners in
COHRE is partnering
with the Women’s Center on Legal Aid
and Counseling (WCLAC), an independent Palestinian NGO that has been
able to make a number of important achievements in the area of human rights and
in particular, the rights of Palestinian women since its founding in 1991.
Currently, COHRE and
WCLAC are working together to document violations of Palestinian women’s
housing rights, particularly with regard to forced evictions, house
demolitions, inadequate living conditions and lack of access to essential
services, including water and sanitation. This information, including firsthand
testimonies from affected women themselves, will soon be brought to the
attention of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination on All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), as it gears up to review Israel’s record
on women’s rights early next year.