A/HRC/40/61 possible, they must be granted a right of return with any destroyed housing reconstructed or replaced with adequate housing. 46 37. Forced evictions and violations of these clear legal standards are rampant worldwide. Usually there is no access to courts. At other times, courts order evictions in violation of international human rights law and in some circumstances, authorities act in blatant defiance of court injunctions. The Housing and Land Rights Network documented the demolition of over 53,000 homes in forced evictions in 2017 in India. Court orders were responsible for 17 per cent of them. 47 In recent communications the Special Rapporteur has been informed that tens of thousands of migrants on the outskirts of Beijing 48 and 26,000 households in Italy49 were evicted in 2017 with no provision of alternative housing. Recent changes to legislation in Hungary require the forced eviction of homeless people from where they are residing, with mandatory incarceration after two warnings. 50 Some 30,000 residents of the Otodo Gbame community were forcibly evicted from their ancestral fishing settlement in Nigeria and their homes demolished in violation of a court injunction. 51 In Kenya, authorities similarly ignored a court order and forcibly evicted the Sengwer indigenous people from the Embobut, burning 1,800 homes to the ground. 52 B. Reconceiving justice in the context of evictions, displacement and relocation 38. Access to justice in the context of displacement cannot be restricted to responding to threatened evictions or to seeking remedies after irreparable damage has been done to peoples’ lives and communities. Applications to evict communities are usually symptoms of States’ failures to meaningfully engage with communities to develop alternatives that respect their rights and that can be implemented cooperatively, without the use of force. Access to justice must be reconceived both in legislation and in practice to ensure rightscompliant decision-making from the earliest stages of any relocation or development plan. Engagement must go beyond mere consultation and ensure rights-based negotiation, with recourse to courts where necessary to ensure human rights compliance. 53 A facilitator from a human rights institution or ombudsperson’s office may be appointed to oversee this process. 39. Human rights impact assessments must be conducted prior to the approval of any development plan. 54 These assessments must provide for hearings and meaningful engagement through which residents can affirm and secure their right to housing. Commitments made by international financial institutions and development banks to integrating human rights in development should similarly require rights-based engagement with affected communities and ensure access to justice through complaints procedures.55 40. Access to justice must also be provided to address the underlying causes of displacement and evictions. Where increased numbers of households are unable to afford rent or mortgage payments, courts should require Governments to provide financial assistance and to adopt other measures to allow people to remain in their homes. Effective 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 A/73/310/Rev.1, para. 34. See also A/HRC/4/18, annex I; and High Court of Kenya at Embu, Ibrahim Sangor Osman v. Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security, Judgment of 16 November 2011. Housing and Land Rights Network, Forced Evictions in India in 2017: An Alarming National Crisis, fact sheet, February 2018. JAL CHN 8/2018. JAL ITA 3/2018. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Housing/AmicusConstitutionalCourtHungary_1.pdf. UA NGA 4/2016. See submission by Amnesty International for the present report, pp. 6–7. Lucy Williams, “The right to housing in South Africa: an evolving jurisprudence”, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, vol. 45, No. 3 (Spring 2014), pp. 827–834. See A/HRC/4/18, annex I, paras. 28–36. C. Daniel and others, eds., Glass Half Full? The State of Accountability in Development Finance (Amsterdam, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, 2016). 11