Promote adequate housing rights by international standards

On June 9, 2012, the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group convened a seminar entitles “Land Expropriation Rights: Rights Defence and Law” at which scholars, legislators, and social movement activists from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan presented. The common feature refrained among participants was that the governments have the power to expropriate land easily. The Chinese and Taiwanese governments, for instance, can confiscate land for public interest. The Hong Kong government uses the term ‘public use’ as a basis for its decisions to requisite land. This means that it is very easy for governments to abuse power, and indeed, compensation is frequently far below the market value of land. The primary focus of this piece is to investigate international human rights standards regarding forces evictions, hence to safeguard adequate housing rights. Copyright © 2014 中國維權律師關注組.