The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 34
Paragraph
Paragraph text
In a few cases, the Committee has considered how homelessness creates a serious threat to life, health and personal integrity for individuals in vulnerable circumstances. Surprisingly, however, the Committee has been reluctant to engage with homelessness as a violation of the right to life. Instead it has found that State action leading to homelessness may constitute cruel and inhuman treatment, contrary to article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, or unlawful interference with the home, contrary to article 17. While recognizing the interdependence of civil and political rights with the right to adequate housing, the Committee has largely confined this recognition to a traditional negative rights framework of treatment, punishment or interference and has not engaged with substantive obligations to address homelessness and inadequate housing as violations of the right to life.
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)
Equality & Inclusion
Governance & Rule of Law
Person(s) affected
All
Year
2016
Paragraph type
Other
Reference
SR Housing, Report to the UNGA (2016), A/71/310, para. 34.