A/HRC/RES/31/9
Recalling that States have the primary responsibility to ensure the full realization of
all human rights and to endeavour to take steps, individually and through international
assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of their
available resources, with a view to progressively achieving the full realization of the right
to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living by all
appropriate means, including the adoption of legislative measures,
Welcoming the adoption by the General Assembly of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development,3 in which the Assembly acknowledged, inter alia, the importance
of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,
Welcoming also the decision by the General Assembly, in its resolution 66/203 of 22
December 2011, to convene a United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable
Urban Development (Habitat III), to be held in Quito in October 2016, to reinvigorate the
global commitment to and support for housing and sustainable urban development and the
implementation of the New Urban Agenda,
Emphasizing that the adverse effects of climate change have a range of implications,
both direct and indirect, for the effective enjoyment of human rights, inter alia, the right to
adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and
welcoming the adoption of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change,
Expressing deep concern at the number and scale of natural disasters, and in this
regard welcoming the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 20152030,4
Noting with interest the work of the United Nations treaty bodies, in particular the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in the promotion of the rights related
to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, including
all its relevant general comments and, for States parties to the Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the examination of
individual communications,
Recalling the Global Housing Strategy of the United Nations Human Settlements
Programme, the principles on housing and property restitution for refugees and displaced
persons,5 the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land,
Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, and the guiding principles
on security of tenure for the urban poor, as laid out in the report of the Special Rapporteur
on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on
the right to non-discrimination in this context,6
Concerned that the right to adequate housing is not realized for many throughout the
world, and that millions continue to live in substandard housing and millions more are
homeless or at immediate risk of homelessness, and recognizing that this situation should
be addressed by urgent and immediate measures by States and the international community,
in accordance with existing international human rights standards,
Deeply concerned that homelessness disproportionately affects women and persons
with disabilities, and other persons who are marginalized and most vulnerable, each in
different ways but with common structural causes, and that homelessness and tenure
3
4
5
6
2
General Assembly resolution 70/1.
General Assembly resolution 69/283, annexes I and II.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/17, annex.
A/HRC/25/54.