**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 30 May 2008**

COHRE MEDIA RELEASE

More than 100,000 people forcibly evicted from their homes in South Africa through xenophobic attacks: South African government must act immediately to deal with both the causes and consequences of these recent xenophobic attacks says human rights group

The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is deeply concerned at the recent forced eviction of up to 100 000 people from their homes and residential areas in South Africa through xenophobic attacks. COHRE condemns these attacks in the strongest possible terms, and commends the civil society organisations and individuals that have rushed to assist those affected.

COHRE/SERAC JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Human rights organisations call for an end to housing rights violations in Nigeria: More than 800,000 residents evicted from Abuja from 2003 to 2007

Please note that the full report is now attached in pdf here

More than 800,000 residents were forcibly evicted from informal settlements in Abuja, Nigeria, from 2003 to 2007, during the administration of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, according to The Myth of the Abuja Master Plan: Forced evictions as urban planning in Abuja, Nigeria, a new report released by the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and the Lagos-based Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

**COHRE and CLC Joint Media Statement**

HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS WELCOME JUDGMENT IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and the Cape Town-based Community Law Centre (CLC) at the University of the Western Cape welcomed the judgment that was handed down in the Constitutional Court today in the case of Various Occupiers v City of Johannesburg and others, in which COHRE and the CLC intervened as joint amici curiae.

The Constitutional Court overturned the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling, noting that the SCA "should not have granted the order of ejectment ... in the absence of meaningful engagement." As part of an Inner City Regeneration Strategy, the City of Johannesburg has attempted to evict residents of so-called "bad buildings" in terms of the National Building Regulations and Standards Act (NBRA). The City used this apartheid-era legislation to evict residents on grounds of health and safety concerns without consulting residents and without considering all relevant circumstances – such as the probability that residents would be made homeless.

The full exchange of letters between COHRE and the city is now available in pdf, from the original letter to Sutcliffe to the city's response to the the reply to that from COHRE.

1 November 2007
International Secretariat
83 Rue deMontbrillant
1202
Geneva
Switzerland

Dr Michael Sutcliffe
eThekwini City Manager

Click here for PDF version.

3 October 2007
Cllr Obed Mlaba
eThekwini Mayor
Tel: + 27 31 311 2110
Fax: +27 31 311 2111
Email: mayorspa@durban.gov.za

Dr Michael Sutcliffe
eThekwini City Manager
PO Box 1014
Durban 4000
Tel: + 27 31 311 1100
Fax: + 27 31 311 2170

Dear Cllr Mlaba and Dr Sutcliffe,

RE: Urgent housing concerns and recent events in Durban

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world. COHRE has consultative status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere, including preventing or remedying forced evictions. In South Africa, COHRE has been monitoring and researching housing rights issues in Johannesburg, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town.