This website is now an archive. Leilani Farha’s tenure as UN Special Rapporteur ended on April 30th, 2020. You can follow her work in her new role as Global Director of The Shift at www.maketheshift.org

The Shift calls for a change in the way we think and interact with housing and home.

The Shift
The Shift
The Shift
  • The Shift sees housing as a human right not a commodity
  • The Shift affirms housing as a vehicle for equality, dignity and inclusive community, rather than for inequality and the concentration of wealth
  • The Shift rejects forced evictions and displacement especially where they occur without the exploration of alternatives, without consultation and without provision of adequate alternative housing as defined in international human rights law
  • The Shift understands homelessness as a systemic failure to effectively and fully implement the right to housing and rejects the criminalization of homelessness
  • The Shift affirms the social function of housing and land and supports the agency of individuals to hold governments accountable so that their right to housing can be realized

The Shift calls for participatory human rights based housing strategies, that include ending homelessness, at local, national and global levels in accordance with international human rights obligations and the commitments articulated in Agenda 2030 and the New Urban Agenda to ensure the right to adequate housing for all.

The Shift will unite, support and foster local, regional and global activities and initiatives that claim the right to housing.

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