GENEVA, Switzerland, June 3 (UPI) -- The U.N. housing rights expert is urging Zimbabwe's government to halt mass evictions, saying it could constitute a gross violation of human rights.
The special rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to adequate housing, Miloon Kothari, said in a statement Friday Zimbabwean authorities were obligated under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which bars such evictions unless strict conditions are met. Zimbabwe ratified the convention in 1991.
The statement issued at the commission's Geneva offices also said Zimbabwe was a member of the Commission on Human Rights which has passed resolutions saying the practice of forced eviction constituted a gross violation of human rights.
Kothari urged the government of President Robert Mugabe to reply to his appeal on an urgent basis, providing detailed information on the events and on the measures taken to ensure compliance with Zimbabwe's international law obligations under the human rights instruments it has ratified.
In the past week, there has been reported a wave of evictions, some of which the government said were designed to clean out illegal markets.
