The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 63
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- Despite the fact that the Constitution of India separates the right to life as a justiciable right from the right to housing as a policy directive, the Supreme Court of India recognized the impossibility of separating the two rights as early as 1981, stating: The right to life includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes along with it, namely, the bare necessaries of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter and facilities for reading, writing and expressing oneself in diverse forms, freely moving about and mixing and commingling with fellow human beings. This case was followed by a number of crucial decisions, including in the Olga Tellis case, in which it was explicitly recognized that the right to livelihood forms an integral part of the right to life; the Shantistar Builders Society case, in which it was held that the right to life "would take within its sweep … a reasonable accommodation to live in"; and Chameli Singh v. State of U.P., in which the state's obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights were considered and it was noted that "[the] right to shelter when used as an essential requisite to the right to live should be deemed to have been guaranteed as a fundamental right".
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Reference
- SR Housing, Report to the UNGA (2016), A/71/310, para. 63.
- Paragraph number
- 63
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