CURRICULUM VITAE

SCOTT LECKIE (April 2015)

Scott Leckie is an international human rights lawyer, academic, author, social entrepreneur, environmentalist, motivational public speaker, world citizen and recognized as one of the world’s leading global housing, land and property (HLP) rights experts. He has dedicated his entire working life to protecting that most fundamental of human rights - the right to adequate housing - across all corners of our world. At the age of 25, he was already being described by leading human rights scholars as an international human rights pioneer, and since that time he has carried out human rights work in 81 countries in all of the world's regions. His interventions have helped to protect hundreds of thousands of people against planned forced evictions in popular communities in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Zambia and elsewhere, restore the HLP restitution rights to tens of thousands of refugees and IDPs in Kosovo, Georgia, Timor Leste, Albania and beyond, led to the recognition of the HLP rights of communities threatened with displacement due to climate change, generated the creation of numerous new UN institutions, standards and Special Rapporteurs and assisted in the fundamentally reshaping and significant strengthening of the body of HLP rights under international human rights law.

He is the most widely published author on HLP rights themes, having written more than 200 books, articles and substantive reports on these issues.

He is one of the leading global experts in the field of economic and social rights, and is known globally for his work in establishing new human rights organisations and restitution institutions, as well as his ground-breaking work on substantive issues such as housing and land rights, climate change and displacement, forced evictions, housing, land and property restitution rights for refugees and displaced persons, human rights issues in post-conflict and post-disaster situations, the idea of a global property

registry administered by the United Nations and business and human rights. He conceived of the term and the practice of 'HLP Rights' in 2002, which is now recognised as a term of art throughout the UN and the international humanitarian community. With nearly three decades of practical human rights work and innovative problem-solving experiences, he is regularly requested to provide advice to United Nations agencies, Governments, NGOs and grassroots groups.

Current Positions

Scott Leckie currently maintains a variety of positions, including:

Director and Founder – Displacement Solutions (2006 - ), Geneva, Switzerland Founder and CEO - International Property Law Consultants - IPLC (2012 - ), Blairgowrie, AustraliaDirector and Founder – Oneness World Foundation (2007 - ), Geneva, SwitzerlandVisiting Lecturer – Australian National University College of Law, Canberra, AustraliaSenior Fellow - Melbourne University Law School, Melbourne, AustraliaAdvisory Board Member – Global Dialogue Foundation (GDF), Melbourne, Australia

Education and Background

He received an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex (UK) in 1987 and his B.A. in Political Science (International Affairs) in 1985 from the University of Oregon (US).

Organisation Founder

Scott Leckie is the founder of several international human rights organisations and institutions. In 2006 he founded Displacement Solutions, a non-profit NGO established to assist refugees and displaced persons to return and recover their original homes (www.displacementsolutions.org). In the same year, he founded Oneness World (www.onenessworld.org), a philanthropic institution dedicated to developing alternative forms of global governance based on our shared humanity, global citizenship and worldcentric consciousness. In 2012 he established International Property Law Consultants (IPLC - www.iplc.com.au), an advisory firm which works with companies to ensure respect for HLP rights in areas where they do business. Mr. Leckie is also the founder of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) - www.cohre.org), which he built into one of the world's largest human rights organizations with a multi-million dollar budget, eleven global offices and scores of staff. He was COHRE's Executive Director from 1991-2005. He also co-founded the Oregon Green Party (now Pacific Greens) in 1984.

Human Rights Policy and Institutional Designer

Scott Leckie has been particularly active in the area of human rights policy and institutional design efforts; work which is guided by the belief that innovation and creativity are often the missing links in global human rights

initiatives. Some of the highlights of the past 15 years, include:

In 2015, Scott and Displacement Solutions were nominated for the Sasakawa Award in recognition of work in support of climate displaced communities. Scott's two most recent books will be published in 2015. The first, which he co-edited with Prof. Chris Huggins, is Repairing Domestic Climate Displacement: The Peninsula Principles which will be published by Routledge in mid-2105. The other, a 600-page Legal Commentary on the Pinheiro Principles on the Housing and Property Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons, which he prepared together with Dr. Khaled Hassine.

In 2014, his book Land Solutions for Climate Displacement was published by Routledge based on field work with climate affected communities in Bangladesh, Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. This work resulted in the first-ever global calculation of the amount of land required to provide new housing and land to people and communities displaced by climate change (12.5-50 million acres globally). Together with internationally-renowned photojournalist Kadir van Lohuizen he backed the development of the Where Will We Go Exhibition which documents climate displacement through photographs and films around the world.

In 2013, he completed work on a range of publications focusing on the acquisition of land for climate displaced persons and communities, including lengthy report entitled Finding Land Solutions to Climate Displacement: A Challenge Like Few Others. Also in 2013, he coordinated activities leading to the eventual adoption in August 2013 of the world’s first comprehensive normative framework on the rights of climate displaced persons and communities, The Peninsula Principles on Climate Displacement Within States. In 2012, he worked extensively on various housing land and property rights themes in Myanmar, in conjunction with the political reform process underway there. He worked with Presidential advisors looking into land rights queries, and published several groundbreaking reports on HLP themes, including the first-ever analysis of the relationship between land mines and land rights in the country. In addition, he instigated the highly successful Coastal Kids Project which puts school children living along the world's coastlines in touch with each other in the era of rising sea levels.

In 2011, he instigated the Bangladesh HLP Initiative that initiated efforts to acquire land to provide new land-based solutions to families and communities displaced in Bangladesh because of climate change. In 2011, together with two colleagues, he edited The Climate Displacement Reader, published by Routledge/Earthscan. In the same year, he taught the world’s first law school course on climate change and displacement at the Australian National University, as well as providing HLP training to communities and government officials in Bangladesh and Kiribati. In 2010, he helped to establish the Bhutanese Refugee Restitution Organisation (BRRO) which seeks restitution and compensation for Bhutan’s 110,000 refugees. During 2010, he completed, with a co-author, the book Housing, Land and Property Rights and Conflict, which was published by Cambridge University Press. He also designed an intensive training programme on housing, land and property rights for communities affected by climate-induced displacement, and led a fact-finding mission to Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu to examine the displacement consequences of climate change.

In 2009, Mr. Leckie compiled for the first time, the entire legal code of Burma as it relates to housing, land and property rights which resulted in the 1245 page book, jointly authored by Zeke Simperingham, entitled Housing, Land and Property Rights in Burma: The Current Legal Code, now widely seen as the first effort of its type in the country. In the same year, he completed the first practical handbook of its kind designed to assist persons displaced due to climate change to access new homes and lands. In 2008, he assisted the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to develop a policy on HLP Rights in Post-Disaster contexts, and participated in designing the institutional framework for Colombia's housing, land and property restitution programme which aims to provide durable solutions to some 3 million internally displaced persons. Also in 2008, Scott Leckie expanded his work on displacement and climate change, working on these issues concerning the Maldives, Bougainville/Papua New Guinea and the Pacific and in the development of international policy on these themes.

In 2007, he was primary author of a report commissioned by the United Nations designed to solve the internal displacement crisis in Timor Leste, called Housing Timor, while in 2006 he was one of the primary authors of the UN's Global Report on Human Settlements. In 2005, he worked in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand on human rights issues in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Also in 2005, he prepared a draft UN Policy on Housing, Land and Property Rights in Post-Conflict Settings, while later in the same year he conceived of and spearheaded efforts leading to the adoption by the United Nations of his initiative which eventually became known as the UN's Pinheiro Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons.

In 2004, he developed the idea of National Housing Rights Dialogues as a tool for promoting the enforcement of housing rights in all countries and coordinated the first regional Housing Rights Dialogue, which addressed housing rights in Asia and the Pacific. In 2003 he was invited by the United Nations to Sri Lanka where he prepared, together with one of the country's Supreme Court judges, the design for a Sri Lanka Commission on Land, Housing and Property Rights which was under consideration by the parties until the breakdown of the ceasefire in 2005. Also in 2003, at the request of the UN, he designed the Iraqi Housing, Land and Property Directorate, which was under discussion at the time of the bombing of UN Headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. In the same year, he drafted a policy on human rights and displacement for British Petroleum (BP), the first such policy considered by a large global corporation. In 2000, he was requested by the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) to design a Housing and Property Commission to bring stability and residential justice to the newly emerging nation. In 1999, immediately following the end of hostilities, he designed the UN Mission in Kosovo’s Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) that subsequently resolved over 29,000 housing, land and property claims. He designed the Republic of Georgia's Housing Restitution Commission in 1998.

Human Rights Advisor and Advocate

Since 1990, Scott Leckie has worked in expert and high-level advisory

capacities with many United Nations and other international agencies, including the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Habitat, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), United Nations Operational Project Services (UNOPS), UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET), UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In addition, Scott has worked with and advised hundreds of grassroots slum dweller associations, popular movements and non-governmental organisations in Asia, Africa, Australasia, Latin America, North America and Europe.

He has worked closely with several UN rapporteurs for whom he provided research and drafting assistance, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and IDPs (2002-2005), UN Special Rapporteur on Housing Rights (1992-1995) and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1990-1992). He has also worked with the Centre for Human Settlements of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), the Panos Institute (London, UK), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)(London, UK), and the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM)(Utrecht, Netherlands). From 1989-1999 he acted as Legal Counsel and United Nations Representative for Habitat International Coalition.

Human Rights Awards

In 2014, Displacement Solutions was nominated for the Sasakawa Award, for its path-breaking work on climate displacement. In 2002 during his tenure as Executive Director of COHRE, the organization was awarded the prestigious UN Habitat Scroll of Honour Award in recognition of COHRE’s groundbreaking work on housing rights and eviction issues throughout the developing world. In 2004, he initiated the annual COHRE Housing Rights Awards, and also advised the Bodyshop on their annual human rights award. Over his career, he has facilitated the awarding of major grants from numerous donor agencies including the Governments of Canada, Finland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, as well as major foundations and other donors, including the Ford Foundation, Hoffmann Foundation, Misereor and many others.

Author and Researcher

He has written or edited more than 200 publications including books, academic articles, book chapters, manuals and other substantive reports. His personal author page on www.amazon.com can be accessed at: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Scott+Leckie&x=0&y=0. His books include:

Repairing Domestic Climate Displacement: The Peninsula

Principles (with Chris Huggins, forthcoming - 2015, Routledge)

The Pinheiro Principles: A Legal Commentary (with Khaled Hassine, forthcoming - 2015)

Land Solutions to Climate Displacement (2014 – Routledge Studies in Development, Displacement and Resettlement)

The Climate Change and Displacement Reader (with Ezekiel Simperingham and Jordan Bakker) (2012 – Routledge)

Conflict and Housing, Land and Property Rights: A Handbook on Issues, Frameworks and Solutions (with Chris Huggins) (2011 – Cambridge University Press)

Housing, Land and Property Rights in Burma: The Current Legal Framework (with Ezekiel Simperingham)(2010 – Displacement Solutions)

Housing, Land, and Property Rights in Post-Conflict United Nations and Other Peace Operations: A Comparative Survey and Proposal for Reform (ed, 2009 – Cambridge University Press)

Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons: Laws, Cases and Materials (ed. 2007 – Cambridge University Press)

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Cases and Materials (with Anne Gallagher) (ed 2006 – University of Pennsylvania Press)

Returning Home: Housing and Property Restitution Rights for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (ed, 2003 – Transnational Publishers)

National Perspectives on Housing Rights (ed, 2003 – Foreword by Nelson Mandela – Martinus Nijhoff Publishers)

When Push Comes to Shove: Forced Evictions and Human Rights (1995, Habitat International Coalition)

Destruction by Design: Housing Rights Violations in Tibet (1994, COHRE)

From Housing Needs to Housing Rights: An Analysis of the Right to Adequate Housing Under International Human Rights Law (1992, International Institute for Environment and Development - IIED).

He has published numerous academic articles in journals including: Human Rights Quarterly, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Forced Migration Review, The Ecologist, Third World Planning Review, Environment & Urbanisation, Beyond Law, Whole Earth Review, Cities, Housing, Human Rights Tribune, Habitat Debate, Economic & Social Rights Review, New Academy Review and many others.

On-Site Human Rights Work

He has carried out human rights field work in 81 countries, including: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Georgia (and South Ossetia), Germany, Ghana, Grenada, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palestine, Philippines, Serbia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Timor Leste, Tunisia, Turkey, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam and other countries.

International Standard-Setting and National Legislative Assistance

Mr. Leckie has also been very active in the promotion of new international human rights laws and standards for two decades. These include the instigation and original drafting of more than 100 United Nations resolutions, general comments, guidelines, principles, concluding observations, quasi-judicial decisions and several other international human rights standards. These include the first-ever UN resolution prohibiting forced evictions, the first ever quasi-judicial decision condemning forced evictions as a housing rights violation, and the first ever UN resolution comprehensively recognizing the right of refugees and displaced persons to housing and property restitution. Scott Leckie was also the first civil society representative to ever address a United Nations Treaty Body in 1989, when he was requested by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to advise the Committee on the right to adequate housing.

In addition, he conceived of and instigated the Peninsula Principles on Climate Displacement Within States (2013), the UN ‘Pinheiro Principles’ on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (2005), General Comment No. 15 on the Right to Water (2002), General Comment No. 7 on Forced Evictions (1997) and General Comment No. 4 on the Right to Adequate Housing (1991). He conceived of and successfully managed campaigns leading to the establishment by the United Nations of several new Special Rapporteurs, including Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Adequate Housing, Human Rights and Income Distribution and Housing and Property Restitution.

He has also worked with several governments and national NGOs providing assistance, drafting and analysis of national constitutional and legislative processes, including in Albania, Colombia, East Timor, Georgia, Kosovo, Myanmar, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Professor, Public Speaker and Trainer

He has lectured widely on various human rights issues, carried out human rights training programmes and given keynote speeches to conferences in all regions of the world. He currently teaches annual law school courses on Climate Change and Displacement at the Australian National University College of Law and the University of Melbourne law School. He has lectured on various human rights issues at various Universities including American University Law School (Washington DC, USA), Columbia

University Law School (New York, USA), Erasmus University (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Mahidol University (Bangkok, Thailand), New York University Law School (New York), University of Malta (Valletta), University of Oslo Law School (Oslo, Norway), University of Osaka (Osaka, Japan), University of Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo, Brazil), University of Tulsa Law School (taught in Geneva, Switzerland), Yale Law School (New Haven, USA) and many others. He is regularly requested to give public talks throughout the world on various human rights issues, and has led dozens of training programmes on various human rights themes.

Humanitarian Fundraiser

Mr. Leckie has worked extensively with donor institutions, both public and private, throughout his career. He has raised over US$ 25 million for various human rights causes from private foundations, UN Agencies, Governments and private individuals, and maintains extensive contacts within the donor community.

Personal

Scott Leckie was born in 1962 and is a citizen of the Netherlands and Australia. He speaks English, Dutch, German and Spanish. He has lived in fourteen countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia, and currently lives with his wife and daughter near Melbourne, Australia. Mr. Leckie has traveled to 107 countries, in 81 of which he carried out human rights work.

Scott Leckie is interviewed regularly concerning topical human rights and related issues and has appeared frequently on television, radio and within the written media throughout the world, including CNN, BBC, New York Times, The Guardian, ABC News, Australia Network, Financial Times, Asian Correspondent, and numerous others.

His interests include integral philosophy, organic gardening, cooking, bushwalking, bicycling, sea kayaking, guitar, reading, islands, snorkeling and especially coaching his daughter's basketball team.

Contact:scott@displacementsolutions.org tel: +61.400.388.345 (+ 11 hours GMT)