Olympic Displacement

**COHRE and RUIG/GIAN Joint Media Statement**

The Olympic Games have displaced more than two million people in the last 20 years

Note: the report is available at http://www.cohre.org/mega-events or at http://tenant.net/alerts/mega-events/Report_Fair_Play_FINAL.pdf

The Olympic Games have displaced more than two million people in the last 20 years, disproportionately affecting minorities such as the homeless, the poor, Roma and African-Americans, according to a new report, Fair Play for Housing Rights: Mega-Events, Olympic Games and Housing Rights.

Jean du Plessis, Executive Director (a.i.) of the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), said, “Our research shows that little has changed since 1988 when 720,000 people were forcibly displaced in Seoul, South Korea, in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games. It is shocking and entirely unacceptable that 1.25 million people have already been displaced in Beijing, in preparation for the 2008 Games, in flagrant violation of their right to adequate housing. These figures show the extent to which mega-events, such as the Olympic Games, can often leave a negative housing legacy for the local population.”

A research team, coordinated by COHRE, has spent three years studying seven past and future Olympic host cities (Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London) and the impact the Games have had on the housing rights of their residents. The project was supported by the Geneva International Academic Network (RUIG/GIAN), and was undertaken in conjunction with a number of partner organisations.

As a result of this study, COHRE has developed a set of guidelines for all stakeholders in future host cities to follow in order to minimise the negative impacts arising from mega-events. These Multi-Stakeholder Guidelines on Mega-Events and the Protection and Promotion of Housing Rights also seek to highlight opportunities for promoting positive housing legacies to be enjoyed long after the event has been staged.

The report also addresses the housing impacts of other mega-events such as the FIFA World Cup, World Expos, IMF/World Bank Conferences and even beauty pageants such as the Miss World and Miss Universe contests. It demonstrates that mega-events can both directly and indirectly cause a number of housing rights violations and other negative effects. These include: forced eviction; displacement; rising housing costs (leading to unaffordability of housing); reductions in the provision of social, public, and low-cost housing; discrimination against minorities and the poor; criminalisation of homelessness; expropriation of private property; and lack of transparency and exclusion of local residents from participation in decision-making.

Du Plessis said: “No person or community should be forcibly evicted for the sake of a sporting event. No-one should be displaced due to a cultural celebration. The rich diversity of a community should not be hidden, moved or destroyed for the sake of a beauty pageant. It is possible (and imperative) for mega-events to be organised without forcibly evicting people, without criminalising the homeless and without rendering housing unaffordable. COHRE calls on all parties to ensure that adequate attention to the housing rights of anyone affected by the hosting of such events is mainstreamed into the bidding, selection and implementation processes. COHRE also calls on affected communities and support organisations to closely monitor these processes, and to take action to ensure that no housing rights are violated as a result of mega-events. This is important not just for the Olympic Games, but for all mega-events.

Read the full report here.