Miloon Kothari is a scholar and activist[1] who served from 2000 to 2008 as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing with the Human Rights Council.[2][3] From 2015 to 2022, he was the President of UPR Info.[4] He was convener of the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR) from 2009 to 2014, an Indian human rights coalition that notably focuses on the Universal Periodic Review. He is the founder of the Delhi-based Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), which aims to work toward the "realization of the human rights to adequate housing and land."[5][6] He currently serves as a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.[7]
Kothari was also a visiting scholar at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT from 2013 to 2014. Kothari has published over 50 works on numerous areas in human rights, policy and law, and activism.[2]
In an interview with Mondoweiss in 2022, Kothari said about the Israeli occupation:『It’s been illegal from the beginning』adding "I would go as far as to raise the question of why [Israel is] even a member of the United Nations. Because… the Israeli government does not respect its own obligations as a UN member state. They, in fact, consistently, either directly or through the United States, try to undermine UN mechanisms".[10]
Kothari added "We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by–whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs, a lot of money is being thrown into trying to discredit us, but the important thing is our mandate is based on international human rights and humanitarian standards and that we are all seeking the truth".
Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid called on the United Nations to end its inquiry into the 2021 Israel/Hamas conflict following Kothari's comments.[11]
