Leilani Farha

Leilani Farha is the Global Director at The Shift, an organization committed to changing the narrative around housing rights and realizing housing as a human right across the globe. Farha launched The Shift in 2017 with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Cities and Local Government.

Previously, she served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. In that role, Farha was a vocal advocate. As Special Rapporteur, she led investigations and advocacy trips to India, Egypt, Chile, and Portugal, among other countries. She focused on exposing how housing has become an instrument to grow wealth for governments and large-scale investors, despite its status as a fundamental human right. Farha is equally concerned about the global rise in homelessness as a neglected human rights issue. She has presented reports to the UN on the treatment of housing as a commodity and its consequences for poor and middle-class people, as well as issued reports to guide States and other actors in meeting their commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals. An attorney by training, Farha continues to advocate for housing rights as the Global Director at The Shift. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Mount Saint Vincent University in Canada in recognition of her work and is featured in PUSH, a documentary released in 2019 regarding the financialization of housing.