Jean du Plessis is an independent land, housing and human rights specialist. He recently retired from the U.N. after serving for 12 years in the Land, Housing and Shelter Section of UN-Habitat, which included serving in the Secretariat of the Global Land Tool Network. His remit during this time included capacity development, the continuum of land rights, land value capture and land-based finance, as well as coordinating the work of the GLTN International Training and Research Institutions cluster.
Jean holds a master’s degree in political philosophy from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He has more than 30 years of experience in the human rights, land, housing and development sectors. In the course of his career, he worked in and with communities, non-governmental organizations, universities, bilateral institutions, governments and UN agencies. This work included support to South African communities facing forced removal under apartheid; and, after 1994, communities pursuing land rights, reconstruction and development in the post-apartheid context. From 1996 to 2000 he was policy director and then chief director of the South African Government’s land restitution program. From 2002 Jean served six years as the deputy director of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), based in Geneva. This was followed by a period working as an international consultant, until he joined UN-Habitat in 2011.
