Housing and Land Rights Violation Database

On the occasion of World Habitat Day 2023, this report from HLRN’s Violation Database (VDB) Counting Costs, Loss & Damage: Quantifying Impacts of Habitat-related Human Rights Violations amid Environmental Hazards and Climate-change  selects cases of housing and land rights violations from HLRN’s 2022 report, In Pursuit of Climate Justice, to focus on the efforts at quantifying their impacts.

Its Preface reviews the most-recent norms developed in environmental, human rights and criminal law, including emerging recognition of ecocide and domicide. The body of the report presents cases that exemplify the pursuit of needed quantification data toward remedy and reparation for housing, land and other human rights deprivation associated with a variety of contexts. These involve:

Conflict, occupation and war in Ukraine (Kakhovka Dam case); Cross-border issues (Desiccating Iraq); Development-induced displacement (the East African Crude Oil Pipeline—EACOP); Discrimination/environmental racism (Bainsiria village, Odisha, India); Governance failure (Pakistan’s superfloods and Brazil’s Petrópolis landslides); Extractivism/megaprojects (Keystone Pipeline spills across North America); and Urbanization (Bengaluru flooding). The lessons learned from this review are culled in the report’s Conclusion, with Recommendations for practice going forward, including of the new Loss and Damage Fund established at CoP28 in 2023.