[Ed. Note: On Dec. 6, 2000, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) based in Geneva, Switzerland, issued a report entitled Housing Rights in East Timor: Better Late Than Never that describes housing problems facing the people of East Timor more than a year after they voted for independence. An edited version of the press statement announcing the organisation's report is reproduced below.]

The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and local Timorese political institutions have currently failed to adequately address the national housing crisis affecting the world's newest country. This neglect threatens East Timor's future stability and could negatively affect the nation's long-term development.

Housing is a basic human right, and thus, all political institutions in East TimorÐ international and national alikeÐare urged to take immediate steps to tackle the severe denial of the housing rights of the homeless and destitute majority of the world's most recent country.

Indonesian-backed militia forces destroyed more than 80 percent of East Timor's housing stock in September 1999 following the massive vote in support of independence. Although the housing crisis remains one of the greatest challenges facing the nation, UNTAET has yet to adopt a housing policy, allocate sufficient funds or to appoint officials responsible for national housing reconstruction or the implementation of housing rights, despite the clear legal mandate given UNTAET by the U.N. Security Council to protect and promote human rights. As a result, the majority of East Timorese continue to live in housing that falls far short of internationally recognised standards of adequacy.

The protection and promotion of housing rights should always form a central function of any U.N. governing institution. In East Timor, this is not happening; and unless current policy changes, the same mistakes on housing and land committed by the United Nations in Cambodia, Kosovo and elsewhere will be repeated, leading to long-term disputes, instability and mass homelessness.

While the United Nations is given considerable credit for stabilising East Timor and for accomplishing many important tasks, including some relating to housing, such as the provision of emergency shelter kits and continuing work on the allocation of abandoned properties, the denial of housing rights nonetheless continues. Given the massive scale of housing destruction and internal displacement, it is difficult for the United Nations to justify its continued refusal to adequately address housing rights concerns, for housing has been treated by officials as an 'unbudgeted priority'Ð essential, but not important enough to justify the allocation of sufficient funds.

The United Nations should include a greater policy commitment towards compliance of international housing rights law, provide loan programmes for the poor to rebuild their homes and income-generating activities as well as convene a National Housing Rights Summit to find ways of addressing the housing problems plaguing East Timor.

Ken Fernandes, the Asia and Pacific coordinator of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and principal author of the organisation's new report on housing issues in East Timor, said that during COHRE's work in the country it 'found the East Timorese people eager to rebuild their nation. Sadly, there is little or no consultation with communities on housing or other issues that affect their lives by the United Nations. There are about 174 East Timorese NGOs [non-governmental organisations] ready to contribute to the development process, yet they are left out of the decision-making process. This is frustrating to all involved.'

There are also questions about the approaches of the East Timorese political authorities to date on housing and land issues. Timorese authorities are urged to learn the lessons of failed housing policy models pursued in other Asian countries and to reflect these in the political decisions they take towards ensuring housing rights for all, for the urban and housing policies proposed by the emerging domestic authorities could exacerbate the housing crisis. These policies also fail to adequately address the severe housing rights problems in the country.

The right to housing as a major component of human rights is found in a number of U.N. legal standards, including the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), both of which state that everyone has a right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing.