South Asia Regional Programme

Building on a decade of social-movement experience in Asia, the South Asia Regional Programme (SARP) was established in 1999 to address the growing need for research, training and advocacy on housing and land rights in South Asia.We currently serve affiliates in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SARP is located in New Delhi, India, providing a useful platform for linking members with other networks, regional and international NGOs, and with the United Nations system.

SARP is reviving interest in, and promoting the legal basis of the human right to adequate housing among inhabitants and the human rights community across South Asia. Through Habitat International Coalition's Housing and Land Rights Network and SARP, regional members join forces to develop regional competencies, mutual reliance and support to advocate and pose alternative solutions to housing rights violations through people's processes.

We focus on housing and land rights of people facing eviction, research on women's rights, and building solidarity toward developing child-friendly villages and cities. SARP fact-finding missions and country assessments identify housing and land violations and advocate legally grounded solutions. Also, the Network aids members' cooperation with the UN treaty-monitoring system, especially the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. For this purpose, SARP shares a UN liaison office (Geneva) with HLRN International to advocate within the UN system and other international organizations.

SARP goals

SARP's objective is to promote economic, social and cultural rights in the South Asian region through networking and building the capacity of its members. Specifically, SARP's work focuses on the practical application of the human right to adequate housing (RAH), as a legal framework articulated in international and, where applicable, domestic law. SARP also seeks to use the right to adequate housing as an entry point for the recognition of access to land as a human right.

Our goals:

• To create network of individuals and organisations working to uphold housing and land rights.

• To act as network for the recognition, defense and full implementation of the right of everyone to a secure place in which to live in peace and dignity.

• To enhance knowledge and actions toward practical realization of human dignity of those suffering deprivation, by means of advancing respect, protection, promotion and fulfillment of universal human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to adequate housing and its constituent entitlements. These include security of land tenure, democratic participation, self expression, habitability, access to clean water, access to land as a social good, access to housing finance, a safe environment, cultural adequacy and other related and complementary elements.

Habitat International Coalition

Over one billion people have no adequate shelter and are deprived of human well-being. War, occupation, discrimination, development projects, privatization and economic reforms, reducing social services, have evicted millions from their rightful homes and lands. They all need your solidarity.

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 organisations, social movements, aca-demic and research centers, pro-fessional 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 organises members with common interests within thematic structures, including:

• Women and Shelter Network (HIC-WAS)

• Habitat and Environment

• Committee (HEC)

• Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN)

• Finance & Resource

• Mobilization Working Group

• Social Production Working Group

Housing and Land Rights Network goals

HLRN shares with general HIC a set of objectives that bind and shape HLRN’s commitment to communities struggling to secure housing and improve their well-being and living conditions as a right. HLRN seeks to:

• 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;

• Defend the human rights of the poor, displaced, homeless and inadequately housed.

• Maintain a progressive platform for formulating common strategies.

Building relationships

HLRN maintains practical links on three levels. The Network is primarily dedicated to maintaining the cooperation of HIC members interested in the human rights approach to human development. However, it also plays a wider coalition-building role, mainstreaming the human right to adequate housing universally throughout HIC. As a strategic principle, HLRN also maintains productive relationships with other networks and coalitions globally, joining forces and pooling resources in the pursuit of common human rights values and goals.

Other HLRN Regional Programmes:    

Latin America              

Middle East and North Africa

Sub - Saharan Africa