Habitat International Coalition (HIC), the global movement specialized in human settlements since 1976, comprises some 450 members in 80 countries, in the North and South. They include NGOs, community-based organizations, social movements, academic and research centers, professional associations and like-minded individuals dedicated to the struggle against deprivation of well-being and for realizing the human right to adequate housing for all.
HIC is coordinated through member-based regional Focal Points, as well as organizes members with common interests within thematic structures, including:
-Women and Shelter Network (HIC-WAS)
-Habitat and Sustainable Environment Network (HSEN) and
-Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN)
Our Housing and Land Rights Network goals are:
-Advocate the recognition, defence and full implementation of everyone’s right everywhere to a secure place to live in peace and dignity;
-Promote public awareness about human settlement problems and needs globally;
-Promote public awareness about human settlement problems and needs globally;
-Defend the human rights of the poor, displaced, homeless and inadequately housed; and
-Maintain a progressive platform for formulating common strategies.
This HIC-MENA website provides a self-service database for members and the public, including unique Arabic-language resources on housing and land, as well as other economic/social/ cultural rights not found elsewhere. It also allows privileged access to HIC-HLRN members to search the membership database to find partners for skill and expertise exchange, campaigns and other purposes in building housing and land rights problem solving.
Building upon HIC’s long experience at advocating indigenous housing and land rights in Palestine, HLRN now addresses special needs across the Middle-East/North Africa region by promoting rights-based solutions for local and regional housing struggles. The MENA Program promotes the development of economic, social and cultural rights culture in the region (covering the Arab countries, Cyprus, Israel, Kurdistan and Turkey). HLRN does so by creating the context for MENA communities and housing rights defenders to develop practical and complementary skills, to become more integrated and develop solidarity regionally and with social movements elsewhere. HIC-HLRN/MENA Program efforts include contributing to the region’s ESC-rights and globalization discourse and providing access to international forums and UN treaty bodies.
HLRN members and representatives share a vision of “a place to live and flourish in peace and dignity for all.”
Our shared mission is “to reach the fuller realization of human dignity and human development toward respect, defense, promotion and fulfillment of the human right to adequate housing and land.”
Translating this vision and mission into a regional program of interrelated and mutually supporting goals, HLRN manages engages members in the MENA region in activities consolidated into three manageable clusters (of equal importance and priority) to carry out:
-Network, Coalition, and alliance development and maintenance;
-Empowerment and capacity building to ensure the human right to adequate housing (HRAH);
-Advocacy at all levels (multilateral, regional, national and local).
