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Our mandate is thorough and detailed
Leilani brings a dynamic energy to the role of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing; energy she will need to reach her goal of prompting and facilitating an international paradigm shift in how housing is approached.
During her time as Special Rapporteur, Leilani has presented reports to the UN on homelessness, the connection between the right to housing and the right to life, and the financialization of housing. She has traveled on official missions to Serbia and Kosovo, India and most recently to Chile, amongst others, to investigate and comment on the state of the right to housing.
In addition to her requisite work, Leilani has used her platform to start The Shift, a global movement to reclaim and realize the right to housing, which calls for everyone to approach housing as a human right, not a commodity.
A lawyer by training, Leilani assumed the role of Special Rapporteur in 2014, but she has been tirelessly advocating for the realization of the right to housing throughout her career. She is the current executive director of the NGO Canada Without Poverty.
In her previous role as Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, she was instrumental in launching a historic challenge to government inaction in the face of rising homelessness.
She has been a member of the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions for UN Habitat, and was a founding member of ESCR-Net, an international network of actors committed to economic, social and cultural rights.
Bruce assists with thematic reports, communications, engagement with UN and regional standard setting bodies on relevant issues, as well as leading with strategic litigation and standard setting in domestic, regional and international forums.
In addition to his role in the mandate, Bruce is the Executive Director of the Social Rights Advocacy Centre, which spearheads collaborative initiatives in research, public education and legal advocacy for social rights. He has published extensively on social rights and on the right to housing and recently co-edited The Optional Protocol to the ICESCR: A Commentary.
Bruce is a Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He was a founding member of ESCR-Net and of the NGO Coalition for the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR, a member of the Steering Committee of the Strategic Litigation Working Group of ESCR-Net, and a member of the International Social and Economic Rights Project.
A law graduate from the University of Maastricht, with a degree in International and European Law, and a Political Science degree from the University of Ottawa, Julieta is an experienced researcher with experience in administrative and logistical support.
As part of her law degree, Julieta has specialized in the procedural and substantive sides of the International and European Human Rights Framework. For the mandate, Julieta provides administrative and substantive support. As an English, French and Spanish speaker, she facilitates communications for the mandate and is in charge of global outreach.
Our mandate is thorough and detailed
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