Leilani Farha is a Canadian lawyer who is the Global Director of THE SHIFT, an international human rights organization focused on housing, finance and climate. Between June 2014 and April 2020, she was the

United Nations special rapporteur Special rapporteur (or independent expert) is the title given to independent human rights experts whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations (UN) to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. De ...

on adequate housing.

Career

Farha is a lawyer and social worker by training (LLB/MSW) and an alumna of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, and has been an Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA) and Canada Without Poverty.

United Nations special rapporteur on housing

In her tenure as Special Rapporteur, she has focused on economic inequality and an absence of effective political representation for the poor as causes of

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

or inadequate accommodation. Farha campaigns for the right to adequate housing for marginalized groups, she worked in Canada to implement United Nations resolutions that see homelessness as a violation of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

. Farha has taken part in missions worldwide to examine the condition of housing rights and to develop policies to implement those rights.

Views

Leilani Farha told ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' about the

Grenfell Tower fire On 14 June 2017, a List of fires in high-rise buildings, high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of Public housing in the United Kingdom, flats in North Kensington, West London, England, at 00:54 British Summer Time, BST ...

. Farha fears tenants'

were breached because they were not sufficiently involved in the way the building was developed, notably safety issues, before the fire and are not sufficiently involved in the investigations after the fire. Farha stated, "I’m concerned when I have residents saying to me they feel they are not being heard and that they are not always being treated like human beings. Those are the fundamentals of human rights: voice, dignity, and participation in solutions to their own situations." Lack of safety over cladding used, over electrical circuits and access to the building for fire and rescue vehicles could have breached human rights to safe and secure housing, Farha stated.

THE SHIFT

Leilani Farha was a pioneer in launching THE SHIFT in 2019 as a new global movement to claim and realize the basic human

right to housing The right to housing (occasionally right to shelter) is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate house, housing and shelter (building), shelter. It is recognized in some Economic, social and cultural rights#National constitutions, nat ...

; SHIFT encourages individuals and businesses to consider housing not exclusively as a place to invest excess capital, but to consider providing housing facilities as a place for people to live with dignity, raise families and participate more actively in the community. After leaving her position as UN Special Rapporteur, she became the Global Director of The Shift organization. SHIFT pursues its goals with the partnership of the

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univer ...

and United Cities Local Government. The Shift is a new worldwide movement
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References

External links