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User:Waigocom/Scott Leckie

Scott Leckie (born 1962) is an international human rights lawyer and global housing advocate in the field of economic, social and cultural rights. He established several human rights organisations and remedial institutions, and has carried out ground-breaking work on substantive issues such as housing and land rights, climate change and displacement, forced evictions, housing, land and property restitution rights for refugees and displaced persons, human rights issues in post-conflict and post-disaster situations and business and human rights.

He was Executive Director of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) from 1991-2007, and is the current director of Displacement Solutions and Oneness World Foundation. He has worked with the Centre for Human Settlements of the University of British Columbia, the Panos Institute, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM).

From 1989-1999 he acted as Legal Counsel and United Nations Representative for Habitat International Coalition.

Scott Leckie was born in Los Angeles, USA and holds both American and Netherlands nationalities. He currently resides in Australia.

Education

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LL.M. (International Human Rights Law) - University of Essex (UK) in 1987
B.A. (Political Science) University of Oregon (US) in 1984

Human Rights Career

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Displacement Solutions

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In 2007 Scott Leckie founded Displacement Solutions, a non-profit initiative designed to assist refugees and displaced persons to return and recover their original homes. In 2007 he also established the HLP Institute (www.hlpi.org), an international think tank dedicated to publishing and developing wider access to documentation on housing, land and property rights which has since been incorporated into Displacement Solutions.

Oneness World Foundation

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In 2007, Scott Leckie founded Oneness World, a philanthropic institution dedicated to developing alternative forms of global governance based on the principles of shared humanity and world citizenship.

Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)

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In 1991 Leckie founded the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), from a small home office in Utrecht, Netherlands into one of the world's largest human rights organizations with offices on every continent. He was Executive Director of COHRE from 1991-2007.


Human Rights Policy and Institutional Design

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Scott Leckie has been particularly active in the area of human rights policy and institutional design efforts; work which is guided by the belief that innovation and creativity are often the missing links in global human rights initiatives. In 2009, he designed and established the Climate Change Land Fund, a fund administered by Displacement Solutions and developed to finance the purchase of new land for those displaced by climate change. In 2008, Leckie assisted the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to develop a policy on HLP Rights in Post-Disaster contexts, and participated in designing the institutional framework for Colombia's housing, land and property restitution programme which aims to provide durable solutions to some 3 million internally displaced persons. In 2007 he was primary author of a report commissioned by the United Nations designed to solve the internal displacement crisis in Timor Leste, called Housing Timor, while in 2006 he was one of the primary authors of the UN's Global Report on Human Settlements.

In 2005, he worked in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand on human rights issues in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Also in 2005, he prepared a draft UN Policy on Housing, Land and Property Rights in Post-Conflict Settings, while later in the same year he conceived of and spearheaded efforts leading to the adoption by the United Nations of his initiative which eventually became known as the UN's Pinheiro Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons. In 2003 he was invited by the United Nations to Sri Lanka where he prepared, together with one of the countries leading judges, the design for a Sri Lankan Commission on Land, Housing and Property Rights which was under consideration by the parties until the breakdown of the ceasefire in 2005. Also in 2003, at the request of the UN, he designed the Iraqi Housing, Land and Property Directorate. In the same year, he drafted a policy on human rights and displacement for British Petroleum (BP), the first such policy considered by a large global corporation. In 2000, he was requested by the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) to design a Housing and Property Commission to bring stability and residential justice to the newly emerging nation. In 1999, immediately following the end of hostilities, he conceived of and designed the UN Mission in Kosovo’s Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) which subsequently resolved over 29,000 housing, land and property claims. He designed the Republic of Georgia's Housing Restitution Commission in 1998.

He also co-founded the Oregon Green Party (now Pacific Greens) in 1984 and the Housing Rights Committee of Habitat International Coalition in 1988.


Human Rights Field Work

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Scott Leckie has carried out human rights work in Albania, Australia, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Grenada, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Palestine, Philippines, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sweden, Thailand, Timor Leste, Tunisia, Turkey, United States and other countries.

International Standard-Setting and National Legislative Assistance

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Scott Leckie has also been active in the promotion of new international human rights laws and standards for two decades. These include the conception and original drafting of more than 50 United Nations resolutions, general comments, guidelines, principles and several other international human rights standards, including the UN ‘Pinheiro Principles’ on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (2005), General Comment No. 7 on Forced Evictions (1997) and General Comment No. 4 on the Right to Adequate Housing (1991). He has also worked with several governments and national NGOs providing assistance, drafting and analysis of national legislative processes, including in Albania, Colombia, Republic of Georgia, Kosovo, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste.

Lecturing / Public speaking

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He has lectured widely on various human rights issues, carried out human rights training programmes and given keynote speeches to conferences in all regions of the world. He is a visiting Professor with the University of Tulsa Law School and has lectured at various Universities including Columbia University Law School, Yale Law School, New York University Law School, American University Law School, University of Oslo Law School, University of Osaka, University of Sao Paulo, University of Malta and many others.


United Nations

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Scott Leckie has worked in expert and advisory capacities with many United Nations and other international agencies, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Habitat Programme, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), UNOPS, UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET), UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the World Bank and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In addition, he has worked with and advised hundreds of grassroots slum dweller associations, movements and non-governmental organisations in all Asia, Africa, Australasia, Latin America, North America and Europe.


Publications

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books, academic articles, book chapters, manuals and other substantive reports

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  • The Climate Change and Displacement Reader (2010)
  • Returning Home: Housing and Property Restitution Rights for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons - Volume 2 (ed, 2010)
  • Housing, Land and Property Rights: A Textbook (2010)
  • Housing, Land and Property Rights in Burma: The Current Legal Code (with Eziekiel Simperingham, 2009)
  • UN Peace Operations and Housing, Land and Property Rights: Proposals for Reform (ed, 2009)
  • Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Laws, Cases and Materials (ed. 2007)
  • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Cases and Materials (ed, with Anne Gallagher, 2006);
  • Returning Home: Housing and Property Restitution Rights for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons - Volume 1 (ed, 2003)
  • National Perspectives on Housing Rights (ed, 2003 – Foreword by Nelson Mandela);
  • When Push Comes to Shove: Forced Evictions and Human Rights (1995) download pdf
  • Destruction by Design: Housing Rights Violations in Tibet (1994)
  • From Housing Needs to Housing Rights: An Analysis of the Right to Adequate Housing Under International Human Rights Law (1992).

Published articles in journals

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Human Rights Quarterly, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Forced Migration Review, The Ecologist, Third World Planning Review, Environment & Urbanisation, Beyond Law, Whole Earth Review, Cities, Housing, Human Rights Tribune, Habitat Debate, Economic & Social Rights Review, New Academy Review and many others.

Current Positions

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Leckie currently maintains a variety of positions, including:

References

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http://displacementsolutions.org/?page_id=15
http://www.cohre.org/Founder

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