Research Project

International monitoring of the right to adequate housing

Principal Investigator
Dr Koldo Casla

Founded by the former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Leilani Farha, The Shift is an international NGO based on the recognition of housing as a human right, not a commodity or an extractive industry. The Shift restores the understanding of housing as home, challenging the ways financial actors undermine the right to housing. Using a human rights framework, The Shift provokes action to end homelessness, unaffordability, and evictions globally.

The project will assist The Shift in undertaking a series of letters of concern concerning several countries about the role of private and public actors in damaging housing conditions. Letters of concern are the instrument The Shift uses to articulate the responsibilities of national and international actors, including international financial institutions, as well as transnational corporations. The Shift monitors their role and responsibilities in relation to the adoption of policies and practices that bolster the financialisation of housing and can damage the protection and fulfillment of the right to adequate housing around the world.

Applications are now open. Find out how to apply.

Project description

How to apply

If you want to join the module-based projects of the Human Rights Centre Clinic in 2023-24, please submit your application by Monday 9 October at 9am to humanrightscentreclinic@essex.ac.uk. Please send your application documents in a single PDF file with the file name [SURNAME]_[First name]_HRCC application.

The application should include two elements:

  1. your CV (two pages maximum)
  2. a 400-word statement explaining why you want to join the Clinic and what you expect to learn from it. The statement should include your preferred three module-based projects in order of preference. We will do our best to accommodate your choices

Interviews will take place via Zoom during the afternoons of 10th and 11th October 2023. You will be allocated a time slot for a short conversation with the HRC Clinic Director and the Deputy Director. We will communicate the decision on 13 October 2023.

Important:

  • if you are taking part in any of the five module-based projects, you will also need to enrol in HU902 (Spring Term and two sessions in Autumn Term)
  • the process described above applies to module-based projects only, not to the stand-alone project on arbitrary detention, which follows its own application process and does not require you to register for HU902
  • you are free to apply to module-based projects and to the stand-alone project at the same time, but note that the module-based projects will require approximately 8-10 hours of your time per week from late October to the end of June on top of the coursework for all other modules. We recommend you do not overstretch your commitments.
 
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