often apply in relation to property rights (including home ownership) or rights of access to property or accommodation and their particular vulnerability to acts of violence and sexual abuse when they are rendered homeless.” 1 Over the years, former UN Special Rapporteurs on Violence against Women and on the Right to Adequate Housing have also addressed women’s experiences violence within the context of forced eviction. In 2000, the then Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (UN DocE/CN.4/2000/68/Add.5) said: While the entire family is affected by forced eviction, again it is the women who suffer most. Women will have to cope with the new circumstances, will have to fulfil their responsibilities as before, but with more limited means, and will need to work harder to make ends meet. … Often the land assigned for resettling does not enable the people to continue their way of life. Such disruption interferes with and prevents women from exercising traditional responsibilities. It has been shown above that this leads to the devaluing of women and often to increased violence against women. … Violence occurring in relation to forced eviction starts before the eviction process. Psychological stress on learning about the eviction can destabilise the family atmosphere and cause emotional trauma. Sometimes, rape is used by the evictors to break resistance. During the eviction, verbal abuse and beatings, rape and even killing are common. The destruction of the home and the destruction of property are further traumatic experiences. The destruction of the home is often equivalent to the destruction of life; everything that was accomplished so far is destroyed. Coping with injuries, the death of family members, inadequate housing or even homelessness, poverty, lack of community support when relocated away from the home town are all possible burdens that have to be taken on by women after eviction. In 2009, these issues were again raised by the then Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (UN Doc. A/HRC/11/6/Add.6): The impact of these forced evictions, often by militia or armed forces, is profoundly devastating for women and is correlated with heightened rates of physical, psychological and economic violence against women before, during and after the evictions. This is true both in terms of violence against women at the hands of state authorities, non-state actors, community members, as well as violence against women by their partners or relatives within the home. Similar concerns have been voiced by the former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, whose global consultations revealed that within the context of forced evictions women were often beaten by the authorities, arrested, morally abused, inhumanly transported, and even put in arbitrary detention.2 Impact on Jobs and Livelihood In the Philippines, the relocatees’ livelihoods in former communities are vendors, construction workers, drivers, sales lady, security guards and massage therapist. They are earning from P50-500 per day. Others became jobless after the forced eviction and relocation. Some retain their work and source of livelihood in Metro Manila but spend very high on transportation ranging from P70-250 going to work and back to the relocation site. Others rented rooms near their work and spend P500-1000 per month. 1 In its resolution 2004/28 on forced evictions, the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights reiterated that “every woman, man and child has the right to a secure place to live in peace and dignity, which includes the right not to be evicted unlawfully, arbitrarily or on a discriminatory basis from their home, land or community.” The Commission also recalled that while certain groups were more vulnerable to forced eviction because of social exclusion and discrimination, the fact remains that “women in all groups are disproportionately affected, given the extent of statutory and other forms of discrimination which often apply in relation to the property rights of women, including homeownership and rights of access to property of accommodation, and given the particular vulnerability of women to acts of gender-based violence and sexual abuse when they are rendered homeless.” 2 Women’s Right to Adequate Housing and Land: Middle East/North Africa Proceedings of the Alexandria Consultation, Miloon Kothari (UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing) with collaboration and support from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 23–26 July 2004. 7