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,
Australia
Director and Founder – Oneness World Foundation (2007 - ), Geneva, Switzerland
Visiting Lecturer – Australian National University College of Law, Canberra, Australia
Senior Fellow - Melbourne University Law School, Melbourne, Australia
Advisory 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 cofounded 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 pathbreaking 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&fieldkeywords=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)