housing and esc rights law Centre on housing rights and evictions
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Vol. 5 - No. 1 March 2008
quarterly
With the Housing and ESC Rights Law Quarterly, the COHRE ESC Rights Litigation Programme aims to present advocates and other interested persons with information on national and international legal developments related to housing and ESC rights.
the battle for The Land and Housing Rights of the Negev Bedouin By Ahmad Amara1 Introduction Since 1948, the State of Israel has sought to concentrate the 155,800 Bedouin living in the Negev desert in southern Israel into a limited number of urban settlements, while refusing to recognise the Bedouin’s ownership of other lands occupied by them.2 This article provides an account of the land and housing challenges faced by the Bedouin, as well as their efforts to resist this forced urbanisation.
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The Bedouin struggle has resulted in a number of significant court decisions on social and economic rights. These decisions have exemplified the role that can be played by the law and by the courts in either weakening or empowering minorities. They have also demonstrated the incapacity of those institutions to address specific social crises in the face of prevailing politics
in some instances. Together with civil society organisations, the Bedouin have been advocating their cause through legal and non-legal avenues. While both the State and the Bedouin have achieved significant successes in their respective campaigns, the land and housing crisis being experienced by the Bedouin remains ongoing and in need of a speedy » and just solution.
Global Advocacy Fellow at the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. The piece is based on research carried out by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard University. The views reflected in the article are solely those of the author. I am grateful to Nate Ela and Sandra Ashhab for their constructive readings of earlier drafts. I am especially thankful to the Harvard Law students who took, and are still taking, part in the project. Correspondence can be addressed to Ahmad Amara at Email: aamara@law.harvard.edu Source for figures on Bedouin population size: The Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel): http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/newhodaot/hodaa_template.html?hodaa=200711171.
1 • The battle for the land and housing rights of the Negev Bedouin
10 • Challenging violations of the right to water before the European court of human rights
2 • Editorial
7 • Restitution for internally displaced persons: a step towards peace and recovery in Colombia
11 • Round-up of recent decisions in ESC rights cases
12 • Case to watch
This publication has been made possible with the support of the United Nations Housing Rights Programme, www.unhabitat.org/unhrp The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily shared by the UN or by UN-HABITAT ISSN 1812-240 X