Miloon Kothari is an Independent Expert on Human Rights and Social Policy based in New Delhi, India and Geneva, Switzerland. He is President of UPR Info https://www.upr-info.org/en. In July 2021, Mr. Kothari was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as Commissioner with the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel

From 2000-2008, Mr. Kothari was the first Special Rapporteur on adequate housing with the United Nations Human Rights Council. During his tenure as Special Rapporteur he led the process that resulted in the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development based Evictions and Displacement – the current global operational human rights standard on the practice of forced evictions https://www.ohchr.org/en/Issues/Housing/Pages/ForcedEvictions.aspx

Mr. Kothari has extensive experience in fact-finding, research and training on UN human rights mechanisms and standards. He has undertaken training across the world as a consultant with governments, UN agencies, local governments, national human rights institutions, judicial bodies, academic institutions and civil society organisations.

Mr. Kothari has published widely and has lectured and taught at leading academic institutions around the world. From 2013-14 he was appointed Dr. Martin Luther King Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his time at MIT, he was actively involved in the development of the MIT Displacement Research and Action Network (DRAN) http://mitdisplacement.org/

In 2017 Mr. Kothari was bestowed with an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) http://www.sfu.ca/ceremonies/honorary-degrees/past_honorary_degrees/2017.html