A/HRC/16/42
I.
Introduction
1.
This is the third annual report submitted to the Council by the current Special
Rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik.
2.
The area of post-disaster and post-conflict reconstruction is of particular relevance to
this mandate. Whether in natural disasters and their aftermath, or in countries recovering
from conflict, the need to integrate human rights standards into prevention, relief and
rehabilitation has been widely admitted.
3.
The Special Rapporteur undertook research into how the right to adequate housing
has been incorporated into national and international relief and reconstruction initiatives in
post-disaster and post-conflict contexts. The present report summarizes her findings1 .
4.
The first section of the report discusses human rights in the context of post-disaster
and post-conflict situations. The second looks at key issues and questions concerning the
right to adequate housing arising in those situations, with a focus on three areas: tenure
security as a dimension of the right to adequate housing; the crucial role of consultation and
participation; and institutional, coordination and phasing of action. The report concludes
with a number of recommendations.
II.
Human rights in post-disaster and post-conflict situations
5.
Armed conflicts and natural disasters are a massive and growing problem
worldwide. They have devastating consequences for the people affected and cause daunting
challenges on a massive scale. Each year conflicts result in dislocation for hundreds of
thousands of people. According to calculations by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the total number of people forcibly uprooted
through conflict and persecution stood at 43.3 million at the end of 2009, “the highest
number since the mid-1990s”. This included 15.2 million refugees, 983,000 asylum
seekers, and 27.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).2 At the same time the world
is facing natural disasters on an unprecedented scale. During the period 2000-2008 an
average of 392 disasters per year occurred worldwide. During 2009 a total of 335 disasters
were reported, killing 10,655 and affecting more than 119 million persons, and causing
more than US$41.3 billion in damages3 .
6.
There are similarities and differences between post-disaster and post-conflict
contexts 4 . While conflicts and disasters often result in large-scale human displacement,
deliberate destruction of land records and systems is far more likely in post-conflict than in
post-disaster contexts, as is the extent of secondary occupation of homes of those displaced.
Housing rights issues in post-conflict situations arise mainly as a consequence of
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2
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4
The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the following researchers who assisted in the preparation of
this report: Natalie Bugalski, Dana Clark, Jean du Plessis, Marisa Ensor, Chris Huggins and Roberto
Ottolenghi. Valuable comments and suggestions were received from Szilard Fricska, Coordinator of
the Human Settlements in Crisis Programme, Disaster and Post-Conflict Section, UN-Habitat
UNHCR, 2009 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and
Stateless Persons (Geneva, 2010), p. 1.
F. Vos, J. Rodriguez, R. Below and D. Guha-Sapir, Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2009: The
numbers and trends, CRED, Brussels, 2010, p. 1.
UN-HABITAT, Land and Natural Disasters. Guidance for Practitioners (Nairobi), pp. 10-11;
W. Fengler, A. Ihsan, and K. Kaiser, “Managing Post-Disaster Reconstruction Finance: International
Experience in Public Financial Management”, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4475,
World Bank (Washington D.C., 2008), pp. 3-4.
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