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Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- State compliance with the right to adequate housing must ultimately be assessed in relation to the circumstances of rights-holders. A human rights framework for addressing the financialization of housing must challenge the way in which accountability to the needs of communities and the human rights obligations of Governments has been replaced with accountability to markets and investors. Mechanisms must be established for rights-holders to be fully heard and engaged in decisions that affect them. States must ensure that financial institutions and investors are responsive to the needs of marginalized communities, behave in a manner that is consistent with the full realization of the right to adequate housing and provide complaints procedures and access to effective remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has suggested that the obligation to fulfil incorporates both an obligation to facilitate and an obligation to provide. In the context of the critical relationship between housing and financial markets, the articulation of a State's fulfilment obligation to not only provide housing when needed but also to facilitate the implementation of the right to housing is helpful in capturing the wide range of States' obligations to ensure that financial markets and the actions of private investors work towards the realization of the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Claims have recently been brought against the Dominican Republic and Panama, for example, on the basis that government decisions to cancel planned luxury developments in order to protect indigenous territories or environmental resources violated investors' rights under bilateral investment treaties. The Government of Mauritius is currently being taken to arbitration by a group of property development companies from the United Kingdom that invested in luxury real estate developments in Mauritius and are now seeking damages for a decision on the part of the Government to change its planning policy to restrict such developments.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- The mere threat of those kinds of claims can have a directive effect on State housing policy. Investment treaty arbitration frequently involves millions of dollars in damages, and thus acts as a disincentive for States to enact and enforce any regulatory measures restricting the profitability of housing or real estate assets purchased by foreign investors. Those whose right to adequate housing may have been infringed by States' failures to regulate the activities and speculative profits of foreign investors, on the other hand, have few if any avenues of redress, and certainly no ability to seek damages in the amounts claimed by private investors. The imbalance in access to remedies creates an imbalance in State accountability and priorities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The housing sector in the global South has not been subject to extensive financing of homeownership. Only about 17 per cent of the population in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Zambia, for example, would be eligible for mortgage finance based on existing criteria. Low-income, informal and indigenous communities have nevertheless experienced, first-hand, the power of financial corporations to appropriate land and real estate and to generate vast disparities in wealth by treating housing and land as commodities. The displacement of Garifuna communities by model cities containing luxury developments for tourists and wealthy residents in Honduras is an example of the kinds of displacements of communities and forced evictions that are occurring in many countries (see A/HRC/33/42/Add.2, para. 56). Many local and national governments looking for capital investment have opted to sell land to major developers at the expense of indigenous and impoverished communities and those living in precarious housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Housing and urban real estate have become the commodity of choice for corporate finance, a "safety deposit box" for the wealthy, a repository of capital and excess liquidity from emerging markets and a convenient place for shell companies to stash their money with very little transparency. In addition, corporate tax havens that generate massive amounts of profit immune from taxation, estimated at 30 per cent of global gross domestic product, are particularly attracted to housing and real estate. In most countries, residential investment provides many tax advantages, so that the housing system itself provides a tax haven for the rich (see A/67/286, pp. 11-12).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Some Governments have chosen to encourage a more inclusive approach to private investment in housing in the form of financial incentives to encourage the development of affordable units. The Government of Algeria, for example, finances the development of rental housing for households earning less than 1.5 times the minimum wage, on free government land. It also provides a lease-to-own programme for households with little down-payment capacity. Other Governments require that developers include a proportion of affordable units. The Mayor of London recently announced that builders will be required to ensure that 35 per cent of new homes that are built are genuinely affordable.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- In many developing and emerging economies, the World Bank and other international and regional financial institutions continue to actively promote the financialization of housing as the dominant strategy for addressing the critical need for housing, despite evidence that such strategies fail to provide housing options to the households that are most in need, and lead to greater socioeconomic inequality. World Bank development programmes concentrate on what they consider to be the building blocks of housing finance such as title registration, foreclosure procedures, lending regulations, long-term funding instruments, and improving the liquidity of mortgage assets in order to reduce the costs of credit-risk underwriting for investors. Those policies, combined in many cases with austerity measures that reduce social protection and housing programmes, have meant that development programmes frequently support the emergence of a financialized housing system that may be at odds with States' obligations to prioritize the needs of those in the most desperate circumstances.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- The excessive financialization of housing is directly related to systemic patterns of inequality in investment treaties and in domestic law that fail to recognize the paramountcy of human rights over investor interests and deny access to justice for those whose right to housing is at stake. Ensuring meaningful accountability of financial institutions and private actors to the right to housing will require a significant transformation of current systems of law and accountability and new avenues of access to justice at the local, national and international levels.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Massive investment of capital into housing markets and rising prices should not be confused with the production of housing and the benefits that accrue from it. The bulk of real estate transactions of that sort do not create needed housing or long-term secure employment. When rented homes or mortgages are owned by remote investors, money mostly flows out of communities and simply creates greater global concentration of wealth. The new corporate interest in developing rental properties from homes sold in foreclosures has also raised concerns that there is a greater incentive to pursue foreclosures rather than modify a loan agreement to avoid an unnecessary eviction. The proliferation of foreign and domestic investment in short-term rental properties, such as for Airbnb, in countries like Portugal, has contributed to escalating prices of housing and changes to the make-up of neighbourhoods, without creating affordable housing or other benefits for the local population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- What is so stark about the pouring of those vast amounts of money into housing is that hardly any of it is directed towards ameliorating the insufferable housing conditions in which millions live. If even a portion of those amounts was directed towards affordable housing and access to credit for people in need of it, target 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure adequate housing for all by 2030, would be well within reach. Financialization under current regimes, however, creates the opposite effect: unaccountable markets that do not respond to housing need, and urban centres that become the sole preserve of those with wealth.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 77d
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur suggests that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that States ensure that all investment in housing recognizes its social function and States' human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the State and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation. The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors. In order to create those new conversations and achieve that shift, the Special Rapporteur recommends the following:] Business and human rights guidelines should, on a priority basis, be developed specifically for financial actors operating in the housing system;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Many residential rental properties are now owned by bondholders or holders of public stock with no direct connection to properties. It is difficult to know who is accountable for human rights when the owner of housing is a multibillion dollar fund, bondholders, public stockholders or a nameless corporate shell. Tenants living in housing owned by absentee corporate landlords have complained of sharp increases in rent, inadequate maintenance and conditions as a result of substandard renovations that have been undertaken quickly to flip the home into rentals, and an inability to hold anyone accountable for those conditions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Increased prices of housing and real estate assets have become key drivers in the creation of greater wealth inequality. Those who own property in prime urban locations have become richer, while lower-income households confronting the escalating costs of housing become poorer. Surveys of ultra-high-net-worth individuals show that more than half have increased the proportion of their investments allocated to residential properties, with the most common reasons being in order to sell at a later date and to provide a safe haven for wealth. The "economics of inequality", in fact, may be explained in large part by the inequalities of wealth generated by housing and real estate investments. Buying a home with a mortgage becomes a speculative investment depending on volatile financial markets, which may generate considerable wealth on leveraged equity or, alternatively, deprive households of a lifetime of savings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Financialized housing markets create and thrive on gentrification and the appropriation of public value for private wealth. Improved services, schools or parks in an impoverished neighbourhood attract investment, which then drives residents out. The transformation of an old railway line in West Chelsea in Manhattan into a public walkway and park has attracted wealthy investors to a mixed income neighbourhood, radically transforming it with luxury housing units costing in the multimillions, and displacing longer term residents. In Vancouver, the opening of new public transport facilities in Burnaby, one of the few remaining areas of affordable rental housing, has quickly led to the development of expensive condominium towers, displacing residents who have not only lived there for decades, but also invested in developing their community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Despite the growing attention to the importance of business and human rights and despite the fact that housing represents the largest global business sector, very little attention has been paid to the obligations of business enterprises and financial corporations operating in the real estate and housing sector with respect to the right to adequate housing. The "Practical guide to ESG integration for equity investing", for example, makes no reference to human rights in relation to investments in housing and other real estate. The International Organization of Securities Commissions, whose members regulate more than 95 per cent of the world's capital markets, has not addressed the central role that human rights in general and the right to housing in particular should play in the regulation of capital markets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- Policy responses to the financialization of housing have tended to prioritize support for financial institutions over responding to the needs of those whose right to adequate housing is at stake. Spending on bailouts of banks and financial institutions after the 2008 financial crisis far outstripped spending to provide assistance to the victims of the crisis. In fact, many national Governments made substantial cuts to their housing programmes. As noted above, the World Bank continues to promote "financial liberalization" rather than active State intervention in housing provision in emerging economies, despite the evidence that financialization generally increases inequality and fails to address the needs of the millions of households living in situations of homelessness or grossly inadequate informal housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 22
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Homelessness for persons with disabilities is also linked to the breakdown of family relationships. A study in Montreal, Canada, of homeless persons with intellectual disabilities found that almost all individuals who lived on the street or in shelters had had no contact with their families since becoming homeless. On mission in Chile, the Special Rapporteur visited a homeless shelter run by the Salvation Army in Valparaiso where many of the residents were persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities who had been shunned or abandoned by their families.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 24
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Water, sanitation and hygiene facilities are often inaccessible and located some distance from the home. Those with mobility impairments may be dependent on assistance or forced to drag themselves along the ground to reach the facilities. In many situations, persons with disabilities are simply unable to gain access to toilets, must defecate in their homes and are often unable to remove waste. Streets or alleys in informal settlements are often sand, gravel or mud, sometimes built into steep cliffs and hill-sides, and are not accessible to persons in wheelchairs or with reduced mobility.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 75
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In its recent white paper on the rights of persons with disabilities, the Department of Social Services of South Africa called for a comprehensive strategy to realize the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities consistent with the transformative nature of the constitutional right to housing, including supported community living plans, subsidized housing support, universal design as a requirement in infrastructure grants and a sustainable community-based system for support for independent living. In the white paper, emphasis was laid on the critical importance of strengthening the enforcement of existing legislation, improving access to courts, complaints mechanisms and institutions and strengthening the capacity of institutions such as the South African Human Rights Commission and of organizations for persons with disabilities to support persons with disabilities in gaining access to justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 31
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Conflict and displacement also give rise to increased numbers of persons with disabilities. In Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Gaza Strip, for example, conflict has contributed to high numbers of persons with disabilities. At the same time, in each of those places, adequate, accessible housing is extremely scarce, with housing stock having been destroyed and a lack of access or specific policies blocking access to the materials and resources necessary to rebuild homes. In refugee camps, poorly lit and remotely located latrines can lead to difficult access and experiences of sexual violence for women with disabilities, while crowded, narrow walkways can result in persons with visual impairments falling into open sewers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 79
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Subnational and local governments have also initiated important efforts to address the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities. Article XIV (1) of the World Charter for the Right to the City provides for universal realization of the right to housing and emphasizes the need for accessible and suitable locations. In article X of the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City, it is recommended that cities adopt regulations to ensure the accessibility of housing for persons with disabilities. Some cities have sought to initiate inclusive zoning policies to prevent restrictions on supportive housing. Others have adopted measures to address affordability, such as housing benefits and/or allowances, grants or loans for required adaptations, lower interest rates on housing loans and reduced housing taxes for families with a family member with a disability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 36
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In the Convention, a broad and substantive concept of the right to equality and non-discrimination is affirmed. Prohibited discrimination includes any distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability that has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to adequate housing. As such, the provision extends to any failures to address systemic inequality in access to adequate housing, including those relating to inadequate services, insufficient social protection and a lack of affordable housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 37
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The right to non-discrimination also requires Governments and private actors to take positive measures to reasonably accommodate the needs of persons with disabilities insofar as such accommodation is “necessary and appropriate” and does not impose a “disproportionate or undue burden”. Reasonable accommodation is not restricted to physical modifications to existing housing. It also includes an obligation to adapt the application of laws and policies. As a component of the right to non-discrimination, reasonable accommodation is considered an immediate obligation of States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 38
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Equality and non-discrimination are crucial for the realization of the right to housing of persons with disabilities under article 28. States must take positive measures to the maximum of available resources to address systemic homelessness and deprivation of housing, which disproportionately affects persons with disabilities, and to strive towards the full realization of the right to adequate housing for all persons with disabilities. In the Convention, it is made abundantly clear that the right to non-discrimination of persons with disabilities is not simply a negative right, requiring Governments and private actors to refrain from actions that exclude persons with disabilities, but also a positive right, requiring them to take measures to ensure the enjoyment of the right to housing. As Andrea Broderick notes, “the intersection of equality and socioeconomic rights in the [Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities] may provide a key to unlocking the structural inequalities which disabled people, and by extension other marginalised groups, have encountered for too long now”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- In 1994, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights made an important advance with the adoption of general comment No. 5 (1994) on persons with disabilities. The Committee noted that an estimated 70 per cent of persons with disabilities worldwide lacked access to the services that they required and that “there is no country in which a major policy and programme effort is not required”. It emphasized that States were required “to take positive action to reduce structural disadvantage … in order to achieve the objectives of full participation and equality within society for all persons with disabilities” and that that included the right to support services for living in the community and to housing that was accessible, with additional resources made available.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 66
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In a decision adopted in 2008, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the release of all persons who were imprisoned because of psychosocial disabilities, in keeping with the right to equality, health and a dignified life. The Court directed the Government to enact a law to protect the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities and to arrange health services and other necessary measures. Local and international organizations have continued to exert pressure on the Government to implement the Court’s order in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In a decision adopted in 2012, the Court ordered the Government to provide a monthly stipend, build shelters and appoint a social welfare worker in each district.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82b (i)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [Courts, tribunals and national human rights institutions should:] Interpret and apply domestic law in accordance with the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities and in particular recognize that the rights to life, liberty, substantive equality and non-discrimination require Governments to address homelessness, provide support for living in the community and respond to the diverse housing needs of persons with disabilities;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Homelessness disproportionately affects persons with disabilities. In a vicious circle, disability often leads to homelessness and homelessness, in turn, creates or exacerbates impairments and additional barriers linked to stigma and isolation. Of the homeless adults in shelters in the United States of America, 43 per cent have a disability. Persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable to homelessness and its effects.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 34
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- “Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of persons” is a guiding principle set forth in article 3 (a) of the Convention that is particularly critical in the interpretation of the right to adequate housing. The deprivation of choice of where and with whom to live is often the most critical assault on dignity and autonomy for persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 56
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Persons with disabilities frequently have critical needs in relation to the location of housing in order to ensure access to work, accessible transportation, support services and health-care facilities. Patterns of displacement of low-income communities to the peripheries of cities have disproportionately affected persons with disabilities. Such displacement and isolation are contrary to the right to housing and other human rights of persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- In some instances, courts have played an important role in holding financial institutions liable for predatory and discriminatory lending practices, albeit without reference to international human rights obligations. In a recent case, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States ruled in favour of a lawsuit brought by the city of Miami against Bank of America and Wells Fargo for discriminatory predatory lending practices linked to the mortgage crisis. The Constitutional Court of South Africa recently considered a case involving a fraudulent scheme by investors and a finance company leading to hundreds of homeowners suffering losses of homes and savings. The Court rejected a claim by banks that would place responsibility on the homeowner for repayment of an unpaid debt due to the bank, holding that there is an obligation on the part of well-resourced powerful banking groups to check on the legality of what their clients are buying before lending money and earning interest on it.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- When seeking both private and public housing, persons with disabilities face overt and indirect discrimination. Sometimes access to housing is denied because of an irrational fear that facilities will be contaminated. Income and employment status is used in many countries to vet prospective tenants such that well-paid, full-time workers without a disability are considered to be “qualified” for affordable rental housing, while persons with disabilities with lower incomes are denied access. People with psychosocial disabilities are often treated as unworthy tenants because of “abnormal” behaviour that is defined as “antisocial”. Persons with intellectual disabilities are also discriminated against on the basis of an assumed lack of capacity to take care of the premises and deprived of the legal capacity to sign rental agreements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Discrimination is compounded by other grounds, notably sex, gender, socioeconomic status, race and belonging to ethnic, religious or linguistic minority groups. Indigenous peoples in Canada experience twice the rate of disability as the non-indigenous population and are subjected to intersecting discrimination on the basis of indigeneity, poverty and disability. Criminalization of persons with disabilities, in particular those living in homelessness and those with psychosocial disabilities, is common. A typical pattern for persons with psychosocial disabilities is first to lose their housing, when their needs are not accommodated or when they do not receive adequate financial assistance, then to be criminalized in the context of homelessness and then to be incarcerated. In prison, punitive responses for persons with psychosocial disabilities result in extended isolation, segregation, further deterioration of mental health and an ongoing cycle of homelessness and incarceration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Forced institutionalization often occurs as an indirect result of other violations of the right to adequate housing. When States fail to provide necessary forms of support for living in the community, or when persons with disabilities or their families simply have no means to afford housing, persons with disabilities may be forced to live in institutions because of a lack of housing options. Legislative protection of legal capacity and supportive decision-making can be rendered ineffective in the context of housing decisions when there is no support or affordable housing available for living in the community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 21
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur has proposed a new rights-based framework under which homelessness is understood as a deprivation of housing (both physical and social) but also as a socially constructed group identity that is linked to stigmatization and discrimination, much of which is rooted in perceptions about persons with disabilities. As a result, in most places, that population suffers severe isolation and neglect. Homelessness and related violations of the right to life often result from deinstitutionalization without adequate community support or affordable housing in the community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 67
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Effective remedies for violations of the right to adequate housing must be provided wherever possible by interpreting and applying domestic law consistently with the right to housing of persons with disabilities under international human rights law. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights emphasized that “guarantees of equality and non-discrimination should be interpreted, to the greatest extent possible, in ways which facilitate the full protection of economic, social and cultural rights”. Unfortunately, even in the wealthiest countries, where there are sufficient resources to ensure the right to housing of persons with disabilities, courts have failed to interpret domestic human rights guarantees of equality consistently with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and refused to apply such guarantees so as to hold Governments accountable for failures to address widespread homelessness and inadequate housing among persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 35
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Freedom of choice for persons with disabilities is not just a civil and political right to freedom from forced institutionalization. In article 19 of the Convention, the right to be free to choose where and with whom one lives is set out as a positive right to be included in the community, with access to a range of residential and other support services. In addition, article 19 must be read in conjunction with and is reinforced by article 28 to require not only services but also adequate, accessible housing in which to live.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 80
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Few marginalized groups suffer such egregious violations of the right to housing as do persons with disabilities. Across the world, they are commonly homeless, institutionalized and subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment for no reason other than their disability. They endure isolation, stigmatization and discrimination in all aspects of housing, whether access, design or policy development and implementation. Their very lives are imperilled by housing and communities that are based on exclusion and uniformity rather than inclusion and diversity. Yet it is on the basis of those experiences and the claims to equal dignity and rights advanced by those affected that the disability human rights paradigm has emerged. This paradigm has the potential to breathe new life into the right to adequate housing because it underscores and amplifies the essence of that right, namely, having a place to live in dignity, it allows persons with disabilities to participate in their communities and it recognizes diversity as a strength that makes households and communities thrive.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 40
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Under article 9, States are required to ensure that all housing available to the public, including social and private rental housing, takes into account all aspects of accessibility for persons with disabilities. In the article, a broad range of accessibility issues “encompassing the physical environment, transportation, information and communication, and services” are addressed and obligations are established to: ensure physical accessibility, such as through ramps and accessible doors, as well as the accessibility of windows, bathrooms and kitchens; remove the communication barriers confronted by persons with disabilities applying for and living in housing; and ensure access to work, services and public spaces — in short, to ensure that all aspects of the housing environment are accessible. As the Special Rapporteur has consistently noted in her dialogue with government officials, under that article, States are also required to address economic and social accessibility barriers by ensuring sufficient benefits or housing subsidies to cover the cost of adequate housing and other services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 42
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Participation is integral to the implementation of the right to housing of persons with disabilities. In article 4 (3) of the Convention, it is stated that, in the implementation of legislation, policy or other decisions, States must closely consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities through their representative organizations. As stated by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, participation leads to the promotion of agency and empowerment, ownership, pride and better decisions, since persons with disabilities are best placed to identify their diverse needs. Effective participation, however, must be grounded in human rights and meaningful accountability. Under article 33 of the Convention, all States are required to develop independent institutions to monitor its implementation, including the right to housing, ensuring that persons with disabilities and their representative organizations are involved and participate fully in the monitoring process.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- In many countries in the global South, where the majority of households are unlikely to have access to formal credit, the impact of financialization is experienced differently, but with a common theme - the subversion of housing and land as social goods in favour of their value as commodities for the accumulation of wealth, resulting in widespread evictions and displacement. Informal settlements are frequently replaced by luxury residential and high-end commercial real estate.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Deinstitutionalization without adequate housing and community support can have devastating consequences. In Gauteng Province, South Africa, more than 1,300 persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities were transferred owing to government budget cuts from a private hospital to the care of an array of non-governmental organizations, most of which lacked the capacity, oversight and resources necessary to address the needs of those transferred. This led to widespread ill-treatment and the death of more than 70 persons.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 23
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Persons with disabilities living in poverty in cities commonly live in informal settlements or homeless encampments. The Special Rapporteur has been shocked by the deplorable conditions endured by persons with disabilities in those contexts. Many, including young children and older persons, are left to languish in isolation, sometimes in dark rooms without electricity, hidden from view at the back of the home, without access to community centres, social opportunities or health clinics.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons with disabilities
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 39
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Article 9 of the Convention, in which the obligation of States to identify and remove barriers and ensure accessibility is outlined, is another unique provision in that instrument that is particularly important to housing. As affirmed by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in its general comment No. 2 (2014) on accessibility, accessibility is an enabling condition to ensure that persons with disabilities live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 52
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The inability to afford adequate housing is frequently the greatest obstacle facing persons with disabilities in realizing their right thereto. They are more likely to live in poverty, and they have higher housing, equipment and health-care costs. Family income is reduced when a family member has to take on the role of support person. Inadequate levels of financial assistance and/or housing subsidies often make it impossible for persons with disabilities to obtain adequate housing and significantly increase the risk of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Housing and real estate markets have been transformed by corporate finance, including banks, insurance and pension funds, hedge funds, private equity firms and other kinds of financial intermediaries with massive amounts of capital and excess liquidity. The global financial system has grown exponentially and now far outstrips the so-called real "productive" economy in terms of sheer volumes of wealth, with housing accounting for much of that growth.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- In "hedge cities", prime destinations for global capital seeking safe havens for investments, housing prices have increased to levels that most residents cannot afford, creating huge increases in wealth for property owners in prime locations while excluding moderate- and low-income households from access to homeownership or rentals due to unaffordability. Those households are pushed to peri-urban areas with scant employment and services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- In circumstances where Governments should be relying on positive measures and resource allocation to provide housing to households affected by economic downturns and widespread unemployment, many have been held accountable to austerity measures imposed by creditors. They have agreed to dramatically reduce or eliminate housing programmes, privatize social housing and sell off massive amounts of housing and real estate assets to private equity funds.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- A report on the topic is timely as States embark on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. If the commitment in target 11.1 to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services is to be achieved by 2030, it is essential to consider the role of international finance and financial actors in housing systems. That will help to identify and address more effectively patterns of systemic exclusion, to ensure more meaningful human rights accountability for issues of displacement, evictions, demolitions and homelessness, and the engagement of all relevant actors in the realization of the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The financialization of housing has dramatically altered the relationship of States to the housing sector and to those to whom they have human rights obligations. Rather than being held accountable to residents and their need for housing, States' housing policies have often become accountable to financial institutions and seem to pander to the confidence of global credit markets and the preferences of wealthy private investors. Given the predominance of housing-related credit in many economies, domestic housing policy becomes intertwined with the priorities and strategies of central banks and international financial institutions, which are themselves rarely held accountable to States' human rights obligations to ensure access to adequate housing and do not meaningfully engage with rights-holders.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- In response to the mortgage crisis in Spain, the autonomous regions of Andalusia and Catalonia introduced progressive laws explicitly affirming the social function of housing and facilitating temporary expropriation of vacant housing. Catalonian legislation also prohibited foreclosures and evictions that would result in homelessness. Both of those regional initiatives were struck down by the Constitutional Court as encroaching on the jurisdiction of the national Government and opposing the general economic interests of the country. In response, at least in the case of Catalonia, the legislation was reintroduced with amendments and was passed by the Catalonian parliament.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- A number of States, including Austria, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, have instituted restrictions on foreign purchasers of residential real estate. The province of British Columbia in Canada has introduced a 15 per cent foreign homeowner tax. The City of Vancouver recently approved a 1 per cent tax, which would apply to both foreign and domestic investors, on vacant homes in order to address the issue of approximately 20,000 vacant homes in its overheated speculative housing market. Net revenue from those taxes is to be invested in affordable housing initiatives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Emerging norms for business and human rights and increased attention to corporate social responsibility offer additional avenues through which to pursue enhanced accountability and effective remedies for violations of human rights linked to the financialization of housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The negotiation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, however, brought about a transformative approach to disability, placing the economic, social and cultural rights and the civil and political rights of persons with disabilities within a unified framework. In the Convention, the right to adequate housing is recognized on an equal basis without discrimination, including through the provision of reasonable accommodation. Furthermore, a substantive right to adequate housing for persons with disabilities is affirmed outside an “equal enjoyment” framework and without comparison to the mainstream population. It is thus recognized in the Convention that the right to adequate housing has a particular meaning for persons with disabilities and imposes distinct obligations upon States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The Washington Group on Disability Statistics has developed two standard sets of questions for surveying populations. The short set covers six core areas of activity and has been adopted by 70 countries. It provides the best opportunity for States to obtain disaggregated data that will allow international comparisons and benchmarks. The extended set of questions covers a greater range of domains of functioning, a number of which are associated with psychosocial impairments. Neither set addresses housing. The best way to obtain reliable data on housing and disability is to conduct surveys based on the extended set of questions of the Washington Group, supplemented by questions on housing and homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 43
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Under article 13 of the Convention, it is required that persons with disabilities have effective access to justice in all stages of legal proceedings, on an equal basis with others. States should ensure access to justice for claims relating to the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities, establish complaints and accountability mechanisms and ensure that courts are authorized and adequately resourced to hear and adjudicate claims relating to the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities. National human rights institutions also have an important role to play in facilitating participation and effective monitoring by providing independent accountability mechanisms and in facilitating access to justice through complaints procedures or by supporting or initiating systemic claims before courts or tribunals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 74
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Finland reported that its framework for advancing the right to housing for persons with disabilities included: the constitutional protection of the right to housing; the provision of supportive housing and community-based support with a commitment to self-determination in the use of forms of support and services; funding for building and renovating housing to make it accessible and suitable; national action plans on homelessness; and a range of supervisory mechanisms, including an advisory board for the rights of persons with disabilities to oversee coordinated efforts. Finland stated that it considered those currently living in institutions to be homeless and had set a deadline of 2020 to close all institutions, emphasizing the right to live in the community with access to the necessary services and forms of support.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 30
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Mass displacement caused by situations of risk, including armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters, has catastrophic effects on persons with disabilities. In a survey by the United Nations, it was found that only 20 per cent of persons with disabilities could evacuate their living spaces immediately without difficulty in the event of an emergency and that a disproportionate number would be injured or die in the event of a disaster because their needs would not met by organized efforts. Persons with disabilities who are refugees, affected by disasters or living in conflict and post-conflict situations are especially vulnerable to mass, often repeated displacement, resource shortages, limited or non-existent services and access to rehabilitation or reconstruction and a wide array of security concerns.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 76
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- A number of Governments appear to be working to ensure that both public and privately developed housing meets accessibility requirements. In Singapore, the Housing and Development Board has committed itself to ensuring that barrier-free housing is implemented across its public housing sector, in which 80 per cent of the population resides, including through measures such as increasing elevator availability, Braille signage and voice synthesizers. In Brazil, in the Act on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (2015), it is required that 3 per cent of publicly funded housing be available to persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- The Republic of Korea experienced a fairly rapid transition to a financialized economy after the Asian financial crisis, when the International Monetary Fund bailout of Korean banks was made conditional on a restructuring programme of deregulation and privatization. While expanded access to mortgages has increased the rate of homeownership, the Republic of Korea now experiences greater inequality between rich and poor and has the highest level of household debt for any emerging country.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- In Egypt, after Prime Ministerial Decree No. 350/2007 removed restrictions on foreign purchases of property, land prices more than doubled in many areas, rising at a rate of 148 per cent per year between 2007 and 2011. Extension of credit for housing has been largely restricted to higher income households in Cairo and Giza, and approximately 3 million homes have been left empty or unfinished by their owners in urban areas. Poverty continues to increase and more than 12 million people live in informal housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Domestic adjudication in the area of housing and finance has also tended to protect investors and has been oriented towards enforcing the contractual relationship between lenders and creditors, both with individual households and with States, without considering imbalances in power or the implications for human rights of the means used for enforcing repayment. The right to adequate housing has rarely been referenced in the adjudication of foreclosures and subsequent evictions, although it is clearly at issue.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Decisions made by global financial corporations, institutions and private equity firms regarding access to credit, foreclosures and development priorities have a direct impact on homelessness, displacement and access to affordable housing. The adoption of progressive policies with respect to corporate social responsibility by investors in housing and real estate could play an important role in redirecting investment towards the social use of housing and advancing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Orphanages housing abandoned children similarly institutionalize and isolate children with disabilities. One study found that 45 per cent of children living in Russian State institutions had impairments.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 65
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In India, the High Court of Bombay has applied the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act to require increased allocations of land (tenements) to persons with disabilities. In a similar vein, the Supreme Court of Argentina, in a case involving a homeless mother and her son with a disability, stated that there should be a minimum guarantee of access to housing for those facing situations of vulnerability because of disability and ordered the immediate provision of shelter.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (v)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Adopt a clear policy framework for the inclusion of all persons with disabilities in all areas of housing policy and design, ensuring that those living in poverty or homelessness, women, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, indigenous peoples, migrants and both young and older persons are fully included;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (xv)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants with disabilities enjoy their right to adequate housing, notably by including the relevant international human rights provisions in the forthcoming global compact on refugees and the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Housing and commercial real estate have become the "commodity of choice" for corporate finance and the pace at which financial corporations and funds are taking over housing and real estate in many cities is staggering. The value of global real estate is about US$ 217 trillion, nearly 60 per cent of the value of all global assets, with residential real estate comprising 75 per cent of the total. In the course of one year, from mid-2013 to mid-2014, corporate buying of larger properties in the top 100 recipient global cities rose from US$ 600 billion to US$ 1 trillion. Housing is at the centre of an historic structural transformation in global investment and the economies of the industrialized world with profound consequences for those in need of adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Elsewhere, financialization is linked to expanded credit and debt taken on by individual households made vulnerable to predatory lending practices and the volatility of markets, the result of which is unprecedented housing precarity. Financialized housing markets have caused displacement and evictions at an unparalleled scale: in the United States of America over the course of 5 years, over 13 million foreclosures resulted in more than 9 million households being evicted. In Spain, more than half a million foreclosures between 2008 and 2013 resulted in over 300,000 evictions. There were almost 1 million foreclosures between 2009 and 2012 in Hungary.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- In addition to the more obvious requirements, within the framework of human rights, to ensure that housing developers exercise due diligence, comply with safety standards and adopt policies of non-discrimination, for example, States may also be required to ensure that investment in housing complies with a rights-based housing strategy and with the target of ensuring adequate housing for all by 2030. Private actors may be required to take particular steps to ensure access to credit for disadvantaged households and to address the needs of residents of informal settlements, women, migrants and people with disabilities. The obligation of States to facilitate the realization of the right to housing by establishing a coherent strategy at both the national and international levels with clearly allocated roles and responsibilities is central to the commitments made by States in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Accountability to global finance rather than to human rights has been rigorously imposed by the International Monetary Fund and other creditors when Governments have faced foreign debt crises. Decisions made by central banks and finance ministers in consultation with international financial institutions are rarely informed by input from stakeholders or those involved with housing policy and programmes. Processes put in place to address the debt crisis in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe through the "Vienna Initiative" for example, brought together "key stakeholders", identified as national central banks and Western European parent banks along with multiple regional and international financial institutions. Absent were civil society groups and anyone representing the interests of borrowing households, the people most affected by any decisions taken.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- As noted by the Institute for Human Rights and Business, global financial institutions with representations from central bank governors and ministers of finance, "seem generally remote from stakeholder engagement. These institutions are independent self-governing bodies with their own rules of procedure and are not directly accountable to the public." Governments relying on the financial system and financialized housing assets to service their own debt are not encouraged by global financial institutions to manage housing systems for compliance with human rights. They are more likely to be urged to cut housing programmes and social protection programmes to comply with the demands and economic theories of financial corporations and credit agencies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Informal settlements in Southern cities are regularly demolished for luxury housing and commercial development such as shopping malls and other high-end services intended for those with expendable incomes. In Lagos, Nigeria, for example, 30,000 residents of the Otodo Gbame community were forcibly removed after their waterfront homes were set alight, allegedly related to luxury developments. Many were left homeless. Elsewhere, when informal settlements are upgraded with infrastructure development and the granting of formal title and credit, they become subject to speculation and rising costs that force existing residents, particularly informal renters, out of the community. The real estate market in Mumbai, India, is now actively engaged in promoting speculative investment in informal settlements, where upgraded housing is attracting real estate speculation and price increases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- There are currently almost 2,500 bilateral investment treaties in force and almost 300 treaties with investment provisions. Provisions in investment treaties generally provide protection for investors from actions by States without imposing obligations on them to uphold human rights. Investors are guaranteed fair and equitable treatment, protection from direct or indirect expropriation and other protections and have access to an investor-State dispute settlement procedure to seek damages for breaches of those provisions. The effect of those protections is that investment in housing and real estate for the purposes of speculation and the accumulation of wealth becomes a protected "right", while government measures to regulate investment to protect the right to housing may be the basis for claims against States by private investors for massive damage awards.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- In that case, the author was able to remain in her home and the Committee did not address the question of whether foreclosure and eviction from housing, potentially into homelessness, was a reasonable remedy in the case of mortgage or rent default or whether it was consistent with State obligations to respect the right to adequate housing. It is hoped that the issue will be subject to consideration and clarification by the Committee and other human rights bodies in future cases. In the Special Rapporteur's view, the all too common practice of depriving people of their homes as a remedy for outstanding mortgage or rental arrears should be subject to more rigorous human rights review than it has received to date from domestic courts and international human rights bodies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Many corporate owners of housing are nameless. In the first fiscal quarter of 2015, 58 per cent of all property purchases over $3 million in the United States were made by limited liability companies rather than named people, and the majority of those purchases were in cash, creating a greater level of anonymity. More than 36,000 properties in London are held by shell companies registered in offshore havens such as Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man and Jersey.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 27
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In other circumstances, however, living with family is not an appropriate or safe option. Persons with disabilities are more likely to be subjected to abuse within families or other households. A study in Uganda found that half of interviewees with psychosocial disabilities reported having been subjected to abuse at the hands of their relatives. Another study found a high incidence of abuse among children with disabilities by someone upon whom they were dependent for survival and well-being. Individuals are sometimes tied or chained up by family members or left locked in isolation. The ability to speak out is limited by the individual’s isolation and dependence upon the perpetrator for support, and, in many situations, there is no one to turn to for help.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 44
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Article 2 (1) of the Convention mirrors the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its provision that each State party shall undertake to take measures to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights enshrined in those instruments. The reasonableness standard has been incorporated into the Optional Protocol to the Covenant. Courts, treaty bodies and commentators have articulated a standard of “reasonableness” in assessing whether the positive measures taken by States meet the requirements of international human rights law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- The incorporation of the human rights-based approach to disability into the understanding of the right to adequate housing is a work in progress. In the formative years of international human rights development, persons with disabilities were often invisible and their right to adequate housing often neglected. Disability was not listed as a ground of discrimination in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Disability began to receive more attention during the International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981 and the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons (1983-1992), but a normative framework was not developed until 1993, when the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities were adopted by the General Assembly.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 62
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The most substantive remedies with respect to the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities have tended to emerge from claims relating to deinstitutionalization and forced evictions. In the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Olmstead v. L.C., the Court recognized that States had an obligation, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, to take reasonable measures to ensure that persons with psychosocial disabilities were able to live outside institutions in the least restrictive environment, with a waiting list for services that moved at a “reasonable” pace. The federal Government, through the Department of Housing Urban Development, has provided guidelines and support to states to encourage the implementation of the decision. In another case under the Act, an appeals court ordered a private landlord to be flexible with respect to employment and income qualifications for rental housing, recognizing their exclusionary effect on persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 63
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In Purohit and Moore v. the Gambia, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights considered a case of forcible institutionalization without due process in the Gambia. The Commission not only found that the legislation itself violated provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, but also took note of the obligation to progressively realize the right to health by addressing violations of socioeconomic rights. The Commission stated that, throughout Africa, poverty rendered persons “incapable to provide the necessary amenities, infrastructure and resources that facilitate the full enjoyment of [the right to health]” and read into the right to health the obligation of States parties to the African Charter “to take concrete and targeted steps, while taking full advantage of its available resources, to ensure that the right to health is fully realized in all its aspects without discrimination of any kind”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- The 2008 global financial crisis revealed the fragility, volatility and predatory nature of financialized housing markets and the potential for catastrophic outcomes both for individual households and for the global economy. In the United States of America, there were an average of 10,000 foreclosures per day in 2008, and as many as 35 million individuals were affected by evictions over a five-year period. Not only had people lost their homes but they faced personal financial ruin.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Housing prices in so-called "hedge cities" like Hong Kong, London, Munich, Stockholm, Sydney and Vancouver have all increased by over 50 per cent since 2011, creating vast amounts of increased assets for the wealthy while making housing unaffordable for most households not already invested in the market. Land prices in the 35 largest cities in China have increased almost five-fold in the past decade and prices for urban land in the top 100 cities in China have increased on average by 50 per cent in the past year.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Corporate finance does not only profit from inflated prices in hedge cities, it also profits from housing crises. The global financial crisis created unprecedented opportunities for buying distressed housing and real estate debt, which was sold off at fire sale prices in countries such as Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. The Blackstone Group, the world's largest real estate private equity firm, managing $102 billion worth of property, spent $10 billion to purchase repossessed properties in the United States of America at courthouses and in online auctions following the 2008 financial crisis, emerging as the largest rental landlord in the country. Other major institutional players invested $20 billion to purchase approximately 200,000 single-family homes in the United States between 2012 and mid-2013. With the recovery of the United States housing market, Blackstone and other private equity firms have sought to take advantage of other buying opportunities in Europe and Asia. Cushman and Wakefield estimated that there was over €541 billion of distressed real estate debt in Europe in 2015, much of it held by public asset management companies such as the National Asset Management Agency in Ireland and the Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria (company for the management of assets proceeding from the restructuring of the banking system) in Spain. The vast majority of that debt is being purchased by giant private equity firms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Research into the financialization of housing has focused on Australia, Europe and North America, where access to credit extends to a large portion of the population and where the majority of the "global cities" attracting capital in unprecedented quantity are located. Caution is needed, therefore, when examining the diverse experiences of financialization, in order to avoid generalizations about global patterns based on the particular circumstances in those cities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- The lack of consistent implementation of accepted methods of surveying persons with disabilities has led to significant variance in data, making comparisons across countries or regions difficult. General surveys and censuses conducted by household often overlook individuals who are homeless or living in unrecognized informal settlements, institutions or group care facilities. When information has been collected on persons with disabilities, narrow definitions have usually been applied and housing concerns ignored.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- In other circumstances, living in an institutional setting or remaining with family may be a decision made by a parent, guardian or family member on behalf of a person with a disability. Institutions that are originally presented as optional may subsequently deny residents the right to leave. Years of living in segregated settings have devastating effects on the autonomy of residents and their ability to exercise independent agency, making it difficult for them to trust or imagine a positive community-based alternative.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (i)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Prioritize and recognize in domestic law the obligation to realize the right to housing of persons with disabilities to the maximum of available resources, tying this legal obligation to the commitment to ensure adequate housing for all by 2030, in accordance with target 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- It is estimated in the World Report on Disability 2011 that persons with disabilities make up between 15.6 and 19.4 per cent of the global population. The percentage is higher in lower-income countries, at 18 per cent of the population, compared with 11.8 per cent in higher-income countries. There are therefore more than 1 billion persons with disabilities around the world, yet little data are publicly available on the housing circumstances of that population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Surveys of the existing housing conditions of persons with disabilities reveal significant inequality in the enjoyment of the right to housing. In such a survey conducted by the Republic of Korea in 2015, it was found that persons with disabilities were far more likely than others to have difficulty paying rent and other housing expenses, less likely to have “suitable” housing and more likely to have housing that did not meet the minimum standards of habitability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- The expanding role and unprecedented dominance of financial markets and corporations in the housing sector is now generally referred to as the "financialization of housing". The term has a number of meanings. In the present report, the "financialization of housing" refers to structural changes in housing and financial markets and global investment whereby housing is treated as a commodity, a means of accumulating wealth and often as security for financial instruments that are traded and sold on global markets. It refers to the way capital investment in housing increasingly disconnects housing from its social function of providing a place to live in security and dignity and hence undermines the realization of housing as a human right. It refers to the way housing and financial markets are oblivious to people and communities, and the role housing plays in their well-being.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- States' human rights obligations are commonly categorized on the basis of a tripartite division of obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. A State must respect the right to housing by refraining from taking any action that would violate that right, protect individuals and communities from violations of the right to housing by third parties and fulfil the right to adequate housing to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively its full realization by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures. The obligation to fulfil the right to housing includes adopting and implementing, in collaboration with stakeholders, strategies for the realization of the right to housing that clarify the responsibilities and roles of all levels of government, institutions and private actors, with goals, timelines, accountability mechanisms, appropriate budgetary allocations and measures to ensure access to justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The tripartite obligations of States in relation to the management of financial markets and the regulation of private actors are often interpreted too narrowly. Under international human rights law, States' obligations in relation to private investment in housing and the governance of financial markets extend well beyond a traditional understanding of the duty to simply prevent private actors from actively violating rights. The assumption, bolstered by neo-liberalism, that States should simply allow markets to work according to their own rules, subject only to the requirement that private actors "do no harm" and do not violate the rights of others, is simply not in accordance with the important obligation to fulfil the right to adequate housing by all appropriate means, including legislative measures.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- States have continued to focus on attracting capital and wealthy investors with reduced taxes and other benefits. Countries like Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain, where harsh austerity measures have been implemented, have enacted policies to entice foreign investors into their domestic markets. One such measure, colloquially known as the "golden visa", allows foreign investors to receive permanent residence or even citizenship in exchange for a minimum amount of investment in property: €500,000 in Spain and Portugal, €300,000 in Cyprus and €250,000 in Greece. Australia has a similar programme for individual foreign investors who purchase $A 5 million in real estate through a real estate investment trust to qualify for an Australian significant investor visa. Programmes of that nature can contribute to housing affordability problems for local residents without providing any evidence of substantial benefits for the broader population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- The amount of money involved in the purchase of housing and real estate is almost impossible to digest. Cushman and Wakefield, an American global real estate services firm engaging in $90 billion worth of real estate sales per year, publishes an annual report entitled "The Great Wall of Money" which includes a calculation of the amount of capital raised each year for trans-border real estate investments. The total in 2015 was a record $443 billion, with residential properties representing the largest single share. The report notes that "cross border flows will continue to transform real estate investment across the globe".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Elsewhere, taxes on luxury properties have been instituted. Singapore imposes an 18 per cent property sales tax and an additional buyer stamp duty on wealthy property owners and investors, with revenues used to subsidize homeownership of low-income individuals. A number of jurisdictions, including China, Germany and Malaysia, have introduced a property speculation tax. Tax in China, announced in early 2013 after renewed speculative activity in the housing market, involves a straight 20 per cent on capital gains, and in Taiwan Province of China, residential property owners are taxed 15 per cent on the sale price of their property if they sell it within one year of purchase and 10 per cent if sold within two years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- In some jurisdictions, foreclosures for mortgage default are not permitted and alternative procedures are limited by statute. Foreclosure was abolished in Ireland following the 2008 financial crisis, with an equivalent procedure to foreclosure provided, however, to the public asset management company, the National Asset Management Agency. In Brazil, foreclosures are prohibited by law where residential properties are used by their owners for dwelling purposes, although creditors have developed ways of circumventing those restrictions. In China, there are provisions for many other options for collecting outstanding debts, with foreclosure only being permitted when all other options have been exhausted. In Spain, however, mortgage arrears are not considered to have been discharged by a foreclosure, which means indebted homeowners are required to continue to make payments on outstanding arrears even after having lost their home.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- In the first case to be considered by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, I.D.G. v. Spain, the Committee considered States' obligations to ensure access to justice in the context of mortgage foreclosure. As a result of a domestic court's lack of diligence, the author of the communication had not received notification of mortgage enforcement proceedings and received no other communication prior to an auction order. In those circumstances, the Committee found that the author's right to access to justice to protect the right to housing had been violated. The Committee found that "such notice in respect of a foreclosure application needs to be adequate, in accordance with the standards of the Covenant applicable to the right to housing". The Committee clarified that Spain should ensure that no eviction takes place without due process guarantees, affirming that "the right to housing should be ensured to all persons irrespective of income or access to economic resources".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 77f
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur suggests that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that States ensure that all investment in housing recognizes its social function and States' human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the State and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation. The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors. In order to create those new conversations and achieve that shift, the Special Rapporteur recommends the following:] States must ensure that courts, tribunals and human rights institutions recognize and apply the paramountcy of human rights and interpret and apply domestic laws and policies related to housing and housing finance consistently with the right to adequate housing;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Business and human rights guidelines in the housing sector must recognize the responsibility of private investors and the obligations of regulators of capital markets to ensure that the needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups are adequately addressed through inclusive investment strategies and to contribute to the realization of the right to housing and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Stigmatizing notions of disability as an abnormality, inferiority or medical condition associated with disease manifest acutely in the housing experiences of persons with disabilities. People with disabilities are often forced to remain in their homes because of stigma and fear of violence. Proposed housing for persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities is frequently subject to neighbourhood opposition, and residents are frequently shunned or ostracized by neighbours. Children with disabilities are frequently hidden away and denied access to extended family, neighbours and other children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 68
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Human rights protection in housing for persons with disabilities varies considerably among States. A growing number of countries have expressly included the right to housing in their constitutions or human rights legislation, and many also enumerate disability as a prohibited ground of discrimination. Some countries rely on universal guarantees of equality and non-discrimination, which are extended to persons with disabilities. In other countries, however, non-discrimination laws regarding disability are written in the context of specific sectors, such as employment, but fail to include non-discrimination and the duty to provide reasonable accommodation in the context of housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 69
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Few States have developed rights-based strategies to address the housing circumstances of persons with disabilities within their jurisdiction, and even fewer have adopted a holistic and systemic approach. Many States continue to rely predominantly on charities and operate within an outdated charitable model in relation to disability. Where rights-based housing strategies and programmes have been developed, they are often not matched with commitments of funds or effective implementation. In other cases, policies may extend to provide support to accommodate physical impairments with respect to housing, but not psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 70
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Information provided by States to the Special Rapporteur for the present report indicates that progress is being made. Mexico reports that its Federal Law for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities of 2011 and its regulation of 2012 explicitly provide for the right to dignified housing (art. 18). The legislation also establishes the right to universal accessibility and housing (art. 16) and is complemented by initiatives and programmes that provide subsidies and lines of credit to make physical alterations to houses to enhance living conditions for persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 71
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The Constitution of Kenya of 2010 prohibits discrimination on the ground of disability, affirms a right to reasonable access to all places, including the built environment and housing, and provides for the right to accessible and adequate housing. In the national disability policy of Kenya, it is recognized that ownership of land, housing and property is a fundamental human right of persons with disabilities, essential to security, self-reliance and livelihood. Through the policy, it is sought to eliminate barriers to acquiring and owning land, housing and property, such as high costs and societal prejudices against the ownership and inheritance of land by persons with disabilities. In all housing schemes, it is required to reserve at least 5 per cent of accessible houses for persons with disabilities, and accessible design standards are applied. In addition, inclusive financial and credit services targeting persons with disabilities are promoted.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- While much has been written about the financialization of housing, it has not often been considered from the standpoint of human rights. Decision-making and assessment of policies relating to housing and finance are devoid of reference to housing as a human right. Issues related to business and human rights have received some attention in recent years. However, the housing and real estate sector - the largest business sector with many of the most serious impacts on human rights - appears to have been mostly ignored.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Constructing human rights accountability within a complex financial system to which Governments are themselves accountable, involving trillions of dollars in assets, may seem a daunting task. However, the global community cannot afford to be cowered by the complexity of financialization. The present report aims to cut through some of the complexity and opaqueness of finance in housing to expose the central relevance and necessity of the human rights paradigm at multiple levels, from the international to the local.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The State must regulate, direct and engage with private market and financial actors, not simply to ensure that they do not explicitly violate rights, but also to ensure that the rules under which they operate and their actions are consistent with the realization of the right to adequate housing. States are obliged under international human rights to ensure that private investors respond to the needs of residents for secure, affordable housing and do not cater only to the wealthy or purchase homes simply to leave them empty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 26
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- For many persons with disabilities, living with family members and relying on informal support is their only option. Family members commonly show strong commitment in their provision of support. Those providing support are usually women, who are frequently abandoned by spouses and required to relinquish possibilities of employment, leading to long-term poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 29
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Inaccessible housing and programmes designed without consideration of the needs of persons with disabilities deprive society of the benefits of the full participation of persons with disabilities in all areas of life and are costly to States. Moreover, reasonable accommodation of individual needs is considerably more costly and difficult than it would be if housing were designed to be accessible or easily modified.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- In the light of the extreme conditions of inadequate housing, institutionalization and homelessness experienced by persons with disabilities around the world and the commitment made by States in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to ensure access to adequate and affordable housing by 2030, the Special Rapporteur considers the incorporation of the disability human rights paradigm into the right to adequate housing to be a matter of the highest priority for States and the international community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 55
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Standards of habitability vary considerably with different impairments and must respond to both the physical and the social dimensions of housing. Persons with disabilities may find it difficult to build habitable homes in informal settlements and face challenges in relation to maintenance and repair. Protection against violence or abuse is also critical to ensuring habitability for persons with disabilities. Physical modifications may be required to ensure habitability, such as sound-proofing of apartments for persons with autism.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45a
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] The extent to which the measures taken were deliberate, concrete and targeted towards the fulfilment of the right;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45b
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether resource allocation is in accordance with international human rights standards;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45c
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether the steps were taken within a reasonable time frame;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 57
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Cultural identity and expression are key to self-realization and inclusion in communities for many persons with disabilities. All the components of adequate housing identified above must be understood in the context of the right to culturally adequate housing. Accessible housing constructed on the basis of “universal” barrier-free design, for example, must respect diverse cultural identities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 59
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The significant potential of the disability human rights paradigm to advance the realization of the right to housing has not yet been fully tested in courts. Courts and human rights bodies have been reluctant to engage with the positive obligation of States to address systemic violations of the right to adequate housing experienced by persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (xiv)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Adopt accessibility requirements that apply to new housing and implement a clear time frame for ensuring accessibility within existing housing stock;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (xvi)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that local governments implement and adhere to the right to housing in all municipal action, including urban planning, zoning, planning of transportation and the production and maintenance of housing;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82b (ii)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [Courts, tribunals and national human rights institutions should:] Ensure access to justice and effective accountability for all aspects of State obligations with respect to the right to housing of persons with disabilities, including budgetary allocations and the effectiveness of strategies and programmes;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 41
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Article 9 should also be read in conjunction with the obligation to progressively realize the right to adequate housing under article 28. As Gerard Quinn observed, “many of these obligations will require resources and extensive systemic change — all subject to the overall obligation of progressive achievement contained in article 4.2 with respect to socioeconomic rights”. The obligations of States under article 9 can be seen as components of the requirement to immediately implement inclusive rights-based strategies for the realization of the right to housing. Both housing strategies and plans for the implementation of accessibility must establish definite time frames, allocate adequate resources, prescribe the duties of the public authorities, including regional and local authorities, and private actors and ensure participation and consultation with those affected. Ensuring that any new housing is developed in accordance with barrier-free design requirements is an immediate obligation of States. States must also adopt, as quickly as possible, legislation and plans to ensure that barriers in existing housing are removed over time.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- There is considerable variation and inconsistency, however, in the way mortgage or rental default is addressed in domestic law and enforced by courts. In many jurisdictions, foreclosure is a common practice for arrears in mortgage payments, regardless of the cause of the arrears and the consequences of foreclosure. Principles of international human rights law requiring, for example, that no eviction take place if it will lead to homelessness, have not generally been properly applied by domestic courts to evictions linked to defaults on mortgages or rent. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that in the area of housing, the "remedy" of eviction from homes is routinely applied in the case of unpaid debts, even though there are many other options available for courts to enforce repayment or restructuring of debts, short of invoking the State power to seize or evict individuals from their home, such as imposing repayment plans or garnishing wages. Foreclosures and evictions have severe effects on health and well-being and may result in the loss of custody of children. Those are unacceptable consequences of default on mortgage or rent payments when other options are available. They are, moreover, generally contrary to international human rights law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- In the Special Rapporteur’s view, the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities must be understood as a dialogue between the jurisprudence and commentary that has evolved over many years and is guaranteed under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the framework for the human rights of persons with disabilities set forth in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The right to housing enshrined in article 11 of the International Covenant has been understood to encompass much more than physical shelter. It is recognized as the right to live in security, peace and dignity. It is fundamentally connected to the rights to life and to non-discrimination and the freedom to choose where to live, as well as to the rights to freedom of expression and association and to participate in public decision-making. It includes security of tenure, the availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure, affordability, habitability, accessibility, appropriate location and cultural adequacy. Those central components of the right to housing have special meaning for persons with disabilities and give rise to particular obligations of States and other actors.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- At the same time, the right to adequate housing must incorporate the transformative understanding of the human rights of persons with disabilities that is encapsulated in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The “disability human rights paradigm” represents a “dramatic change in rights discourse”. It gives new meaning to the concepts of the interdependence and the indivisibility of rights, in particular in relation to the right to live in dignity in a home within a community. It rejects charitable and medical approaches to disability, recognizing that discrimination, inequality and disadvantage are socially constructed responses to diversity and difference. It offers a human rights-based alternative, placing persons with disabilities at the centre of their own lives, as subjects of rights. It recognizes that discrimination often takes the form of programmes and policies designed to meet the needs of dominant groups while ignoring the needs of persons with disabilities. It affirms that dignity, autonomy, independence and participation rely on not only freedom from institutionalization and State control but also positive measures by Governments to support the right to live in the community as one chooses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 81
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- If the immense potential of the integration of the disability rights paradigm with the right to housing is to be realized, States and other actors will have to make a fundamental shift in the way in which they think about and interact with the human rights of persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- In contemporary Chile, the appropriation of land by large scale investors and speculators, accumulating land and luxury properties, has meant that inner-city redevelopment has displaced many traditional residents, exemplifying "the intertwined roles of the state and assorted holders of economic capital in the production, distribution and representation of urban exclusion and segregation".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 53
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Governments have obligations to remove not only physical but also financial and legal barriers to access to adequate housing for persons with disabilities. They must ensure the affordability of rents, utilities and other essential services, by providing the necessary financial assistance, such as through rental subsidies, and addressing barriers relating to rental contracts and access to loans.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45d
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether the precarious situation of disadvantaged and marginalized individuals or groups has been addressed;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45e
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether policies have prioritized grave situations or situations of risk;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 45f
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has identified some indicators of whether a State has satisfied a standard of reasonableness, including:] Whether decision-making is transparent and participatory.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 77g
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur suggests that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that States ensure that all investment in housing recognizes its social function and States' human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the State and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation. The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors. In order to create those new conversations and achieve that shift, the Special Rapporteur recommends the following:] International, regional and national human rights bodies should devote more attention to the issue of financialization and clarify for States, through constructive dialogue during periodic reviews and in consideration of individual cases, their obligations in relation to the financialization of housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 32
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The right to housing is a central part of humanitarian action, from emergency shelter to longer-term accommodation and settlement. Until recently, however, shelter has been provided without consideration of the potential barriers for persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 33
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The unique fusion of civil, political and economic and social and cultural rights in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has immense potential to breathe new life into the right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities. Five central tenets of the disability human rights paradigm are particularly important in understanding the right to adequate housing in that context.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 46
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The standard of reasonableness to assess States’ compliance with the obligation to take measures to realize the right to adequate housing for persons with disabilities runs parallel to the similar standard of reasonableness that is applied in the context of the accommodation of the individual needs of persons with disabilities. The former relies on a standard of maximum of available resources to assess programmatic measures to address the systemic needs of persons with disabilities, while the latter relies on a standard of undue or disproportionate burden in relation to the specific measures required in individual cases. In many cases, however, there is no clear divide between individual needs and needs shared with others in the positive measures taken by Governments to ensure access to accessible housing. As Janet E. Lord and Rebecca Brown note, “the obligation to reasonably accommodate the unique needs of persons with disabilities merges with the obligation under the [International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights] and under the economic, social and cultural rights provisions in the [Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities], to apply the maximum of available resources to realizing the substantive rights in question”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 50
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Security of tenure is a cornerstone of the right to housing. Persons with disabilities are less likely to enjoy security of tenure and often experience catastrophic results owing to displacement and forced eviction. They often lose not only their physical home but also a network of support and contacts, without which they may not survive.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (ix)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that the obligation of reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities is applied to public and private housing providers, financial actors and all aspects of the housing environment;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 64
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Through a number of cases, South African courts have played a leading role in establishing that, in order to meet a test of being “just and equitable”, evictions must not be permitted to render persons homeless, with particular attention to person with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 72
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Under the National Disability Council Act of 2004 of Namibia, a council is established to monitor the implementation of a national policy on disability, including ensuring adequate allowances and pensions for persons with disabilities and developing and providing accessible housing through public schemes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 77
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- A number of jurisdictions have adopted a “housing first” model to address homelessness. The model provides chronically homeless persons, in particular those with psychosocial impairments and/or drug or alcohol addictions, with long-term housing and the necessary forms of support.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 78
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- A number of countries identified their national human rights institutions as having the jurisdiction to oversee the implementation of the right to housing for persons with disabilities, including Finland, Namibia and the Republic of Korea.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82c
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] Civil society and organizations of persons with disabilities should take forward or support legal challenges to structural violations of the right to housing of persons with disabilities and seek systemic remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Patterns of inequality are often starkest in developing countries. In Africa, if current trends continue, the number of households living in informal settlements will continue to increase while the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals is predicted to rise by almost 50 per cent in the next decade.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Financialization is made possible through the legal enforcement of agreements between lenders and borrowers. It relies on legal systems governing property rights, zoning laws and contracts and also on an increasingly complex system of international and regional treaties governing the terms and conditions of investments and government actions that may have an impact on profitability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (x)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that all persons with disabilities can exercise their right to legal capacity in any issue relating to the right to adequate housing, including to have access to and sign contracts for credit and leases;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (xi)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that the necessary support is provided to organizations of persons with disabilities to facilitate effective participation in all areas of housing policy and decision-making;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (xii)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Establish an independent budgetary review mechanism to ensure that budget allocations for housing and related forms of support are consistent with the “maximum of available resources” standard;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The dominant impact of wealth and private investment has also created and perpetuated spatial segregation and inequality in cities. In South Africa, for example, the impact of private investment in the urban core of cities has sustained the discriminatory patterns of the apartheid area, with wealthier, predominantly white households occupying areas close to the centre and poorer black South Africans living on the peripheries of cities. That "spatial mismatch", relegating poor black households to homeownership in peri-urban areas where employment opportunities are scarce, rather than rentals in the urban core, for example, has entrenched their poverty and cemented inequality. Similar patterns of racial displacement from urban centres and segregation in evidence in large cities in the United States have led to more severe impacts of financialization and the mortgage crisis being experienced by African-American households. Financialization also creates gender segregation. In Australia, analysis has shown that average-income single female workers can afford to live in only one suburb of Melbourne and cannot afford to live anywhere in Sydney.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Institutionalization is a clear example of how violations of the right to housing occur when disability is misconstrued as a medical condition. Removing persons with disabilities from the general population and subjecting them to isolation and extreme social control is rationalized on the basis that they are being provided with “treatment” or “care”. Institutionalization often combines the worst living conditions with severe deprivation of liberty and cruel and inhuman treatment, including physical and sexual abuse. Conditions are invariably overcrowded, with limited or no access to sanitation and hygiene facilities, as has been documented in countries including Guatemala, Indonesia and Mexico. Residents in institutions and institution-like settings are often precluded from having outside social or family relations and deprived of choices about activities, social relationships, sexuality and identity. Persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities are at highest risk of being institutionalized forcefully and, outside formal institutions, are often subjected to extreme levels of institution-like control in privately operated rooming houses or “halfway” houses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 48
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur also emphasizes that reasonable accommodation in housing is often linked to systemic patterns of discrimination and imbalances in power “which result in a society being designed well for some and not for others”. The Supreme Court of Canada warned that reasonable accommodation claims should not be allowed to shield systemic discrimination from scrutiny or leave in place imbalances in power that have led to the neglect of the needs or perspectives of marginalized groups in the design of policies. It is important to ask, in each individual case, not only what is required by the individual person with a disability to ensure equality, but also why the housing system created the need for individual accommodation in the first place. Requests for modifications of buildings or housing policies are usually only made because those requirements were not adequately considered when buildings or policies were designed in the first place. Persons with disabilities must be empowered to challenge housing, planning and zoning, social protection and justice systems that fail to meet their needs and thus deny them access to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The report builds on important work undertaken by the previous Special Rapporteur on the right to housing. In her 2012 report on the impact of finance policies on the right to housing of those living in poverty (A/67/286), she warned of emerging trends towards the financialization of housing encouraged by States' abandonment of social housing programmes and increased reliance on private market solutions. She documented attempts by States to rely on the private market and homeownership, which increases inequality and fails to address the housing needs of low-income and marginalized groups. More fundamentally, she called for a paradigm shift through which housing would once again be recognized as a fundamental human right rather than as a commodity. The present report takes up that challenge.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- International and domestic financial institutions and markets are created and sustained by Governments and must be made accountable to States' human rights obligations. Millions of foreclosures, evictions and displacements and more than a billion people living in grossly inadequate housing conditions and homelessness worldwide signal, among other things, the failure of States and of the international community to manage the interaction between financial actors and housing systems in accordance with the right to adequate housing. The absence of any effective human rights monitoring or accountability in that sphere also signals the underestimation on the part of Governments, international and national human rights bodies, domestic courts, lawyers and advocates of the role that domestic, regional and international human rights law could play as a framework for both regulating financial actors and engaging financial systems in the realization of the right to housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- The financialization of housing has its origins in neo-liberalism, the deregulation of housing markets, and structural adjustment programmes imposed by financial institutions and agreed to by States. It is also tied to the internationalization of trade and investment agreements which, as discussed below, make States' housing policies accountable to investors rather than to human rights. The financialization of housing is also the result of significant changes in the way credit was provided for housing and more specifically, of the advent of "mortgage-backed securities".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Prior to the advent of mortgage-backed securities in the 1980s, the provision of credit for a housing purchase was generally an individualized contractual relationship between a single lender, usually a bank or a savings and loan institution, and a single creditor or homeowner. Mortgage-backed securities were promoted as a means of attracting additional lenders into the mortgage market by reducing the reliance on local financial institutions. They allowed for portfolios of mortgages to be bundled together, in order to distribute the risk more evenly among all of the mortgages, and sold to investors in the form of bonds or investment instruments on secondary bond markets. That created new conditions for global capital to be invested in housing finance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Many expected that the global financial crisis and its impact on the human rights of millions of households would act as an alarm bell, forcing States and international financial institutions to reassess the value of unbridled financialization and introduce reforms to ensure that the financial system addressed rather than exploited the housing needs of low-income households. Unfortunately, it seemed to have the opposite effect. Individuals and families who were affected by the crisis were often blamed for taking on too much debt and new rules and regulations were put in place to restrict their access to mortgages. Austerity measures cut programmes on which they had relied for access to housing options, and the march towards the financialization of housing continued. The States that were the most severely affected by the crisis assumed responsibility for billions of dollars' worth of distressed debt (high-risk mortgages) and arranged for them to be sold off to private equity funds, thereby increasing rather than decreasing the role and power of corporate finance in national housing systems.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Experiences of financialization in emerging economies demonstrate many commonalities with experiences in global cities. In Malaysia, for example, the national mortgage corporation, Cagamas, originally established to promote access to affordable housing as a social policy, has been transformed into the single largest issuer of asset-backed securities in Malaysia, with more than 50 per cent of the market share, and with the goal to establish itself as a "leading securitization house in the region". It has been at the centre of a significant expansion of homeownership modelled on the United States institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- In Mexico, mortgage securitization and other aspects of financialization have been adopted, beginning in 2003, with the active involvement of the World Bank. The housing market experienced a boom with increased mortgage lending and a tripling of the amount of residential mortgage-backed securities to over US$ 6 billion in 2006. However, the benefits of the housing boom and securitized mortgages have not extended to the households that are most in need. Measures taken by the Government to stabilize the financial sector proved attractive to financial corporations, pension funds and private equity firms, which have become more significant actors in the Mexican housing market.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Those types of programmes or agreements must be properly designed and monitored in order to be effective. For example, definitions of "affordability" do not always reflect actual income levels of those in housing need and accountability mechanisms to ensure that developers deliver are rarely in place. Additionally, agreements to include affordable housing within developments have sometimes resulted in the stigmatization of tenants occupying the affordable units. Referred to as the "poor door" phenomenon, low-income tenants are segregated from the more affluent residents, compelled to use separate, less attractive entrances and segregated services, such as laundry facilities and waste bins.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- Despite the positive elements of some States' policy responses, overall responses have tended to be sporadic and reactive, addressing overheated markets or providing limited initiatives to expand access to credit. The broader systemic issues of financialization and commodification of housing remain largely unaddressed. What is lacking is for States to reclaim the governance of housing systems from global credit markets and, in collaboration with affected communities and with cooperation and engagement by central banks and financial institutions, redesign housing finance and global investment in housing around the goal of ensuring access to adequate housing for all by 2030.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- Many States have been too deferential to the dynamics of unregulated markets and have failed to take appropriate action to bring private investment into line with the right to adequate housing. By providing tax subsidies for homeownership, tax breaks for investors, and bailouts for banks and financial institutions, States have subsidized the excessive financialization of housing at the expense of programmes for those in desperate need of housing. There seems to be a gross imbalance between the attention, mechanisms and resources that States have developed to support the financialization of housing and the complete deficit of housing for the implementation of the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 77c
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur suggests that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that States ensure that all investment in housing recognizes its social function and States' human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the State and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation. The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors. In order to create those new conversations and achieve that shift, the Special Rapporteur recommends the following:] Trade and investment treaties should recognize the paramountcy of human rights, including the right to housing, and ensure that States are fully empowered to regulate private investment so as to ensure the realization of the right to housing;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- A significant portion of investor-owned homes are simply left empty. In Melbourne, Australia, for example, 82,000 or one fifth of investor-owned units lie empty. In the affluent boroughs of Chelsea and Kensington in the city of London, prime locations for wealthy foreign investors, the number of vacant units increased by 40 per cent between 2013 and 2014. In such markets, the value of housing is no longer based on its social use. The housing is as valuable whether it is vacant or occupied, lived in or devoid of life. Homes sit empty while homeless populations burgeon.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Financialized housing markets respond to preferences of global investors rather than to the needs of communities. The average income of households in the community or the kinds of housing they would like to inhabit is of little concern to financial investors, who cater to the needs or desires of speculative markets and are likely to replace affordable housing that is needed with luxury housing that sits vacant because that is how best to turn a profit quickly. Financialized housing thus precipitates what has been referred to as "residential alienation", the loss of the critical relationship to housing as a dwelling and the diverse set of social relationships that give it meaning. In financialized housing markets, those making decisions about housing - its use, its cost, where it will be built or whether it will be demolished - do so from remote board rooms with no engagement with or accountability to the communities in which their "assets" are located.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 77e
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur suggests that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that States ensure that all investment in housing recognizes its social function and States' human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the State and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation. The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors. In order to create those new conversations and achieve that shift, the Special Rapporteur recommends the following:] States should review all laws and policies related to foreclosure, indebtedness and housing, to ensure consistency with the right to adequate housing, including the obligation to prevent any eviction resulting in homelessness;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 25
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The experiences of persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities living in informal settlements and homeless encampments vary. In some cases, communities develop impressive informal networks to provide the necessary support and ensure inclusion in the community, providing community living that avoids institutionalization and segregation. In other situations, however, as observed first-hand by the Special Rapporteur on mission, informal settlements duplicate societal patterns of discrimination and isolation, exacerbated by deprivation of the most basic necessities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 28
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Most housing and development is designed as if persons with disabilities do not exist, will not live there or deserve no consideration. Housing programmes and urban planning are rarely vetted for barrier-free design, and international development assistance for housing rarely includes requirements or resources for accessible housing. Housing funding and individual housing subsidies provided by many Governments are based on what are considered “normal” expenditures on food, housing and other necessities, without consideration of the higher expenditure requirements of persons with disabilities. Eligibility for credit or for rental contracts is usually assessed on the basis of the “normal” ratio of credit or rent to income, which would be unattainable and certainly not “normal” for persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- For persons with disabilities, choosing where and with whom to live, being part of a community and having access to adequate and accessible housing are central to a life of dignity, autonomy, participation, inclusion, equality and respect for diversity. The indivisibility and interdependence of the right to adequate housing with other human rights are at the heart of the lived experience of persons with disabilities. Access to safe and secure housing, to water and sanitation in the home and to community life with access to services and forms of support is often the difference between life and death, security and abuse, and belonging and isolation. Yet the right to adequate housing is frequently absent from initiatives promoting the human rights of persons with disabilities. It is imperative that the right to adequate housing be accorded the same centrality in the implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities as housing occupies in their lives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 47
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- For the Special Rapporteur, it is critical that both dimensions of States’ positive obligations be implemented on the basis of a robust standard of reasonableness. That means adopting reasonable measures to address the systemic need for adequate and accessible housing of persons with disabilities by implementing necessary programmes and budgetary allocations while also meeting the immediate obligation to accommodate individual needs. The requirement of reasonable measures in both contexts should be seen as a rigorous standard to be met, never as a defence for inaction.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 51
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The obligations of both public and private housing providers with respect to security of tenure must be interpreted and applied in the light of the overriding obligation to ensure the right of persons with disabilities to live in adequate and secure housing within the community, with access to services and support. States must ensure legal protection against forced evictions in all forms of housing tenure, from ownership and formal rental agreements to informal settlements. No eviction should be permitted that would result in the loss of housing or necessary forms of support for persons with disabilities. Where relocation is unavoidable or agreed to by those affected, alternative housing must be provided that meets all requirements for accommodation of disability and ensures access to community support. Persons with disabilities should not be required to move from the centres of cities, where there are services and opportunities for participation in social networks and employment, to outlying areas, where opportunities for meaningful social participation are fewer, leading to isolation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 54
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The availability of services is essential to independent living and agency over where and how to live in the community. Access to water and sanitation is a priority issue for many persons with disabilities. In addition to the core services identified in general comment No. 4, States must ensure that persons with disabilities have access to a diverse range of services linked to living autonomously, as articulated in article 19 of the Convention, including in-home, residential and community support services. Services should be matters of free choice for persons with disabilities, not linked to security of tenure or residency.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 60
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In only one communication considered under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has a violation of article 28 been alleged. In the case of H.M. v. Sweden, a municipality refused to grant an exception to a development plan to allow the claimant to build a hydrotherapy pool required for the treatment of her health condition. Having found that the refusal of reasonable accommodation violated the claimant’s right to non-discrimination, as well as her rights under article 19, the Committee declined to decide whether that denial also violated article 28. It is noteworthy, however, that the Committee extended the remedy beyond the author’s individual circumstances, recommending that the State party ensure that “its legislation and the manner in which it is applied by domestic courts is consistent with the State party’s obligations under the Convention”. This is an example of the manner in which reasonable accommodation claims can give rise to individual as well as systemic and/or legislative remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 61
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Under its inquiry procedure, the Committee responded to concerns about violations of the right to adequate housing raised by persons with disabilities in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and by the previous mandate holder after her mission. The Committee documented the extremely punitive and damaging effects of austerity measures, including the removal of the spare-room subsidy and a reduction of the housing benefit for working-age social housing tenants. In Scotland, the reform affected 82,000 households, 80 per cent of which were households with adults with disabilities. The Committee concluded that the impact of those measures constituted “grave or systematic violations” of the rights of tenants of social housing with disabilities, including the rights to reasonable accommodation and non-discrimination, to independent living and being included in the community, to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing, to social protection and to employment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 49
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 4 (1991) on the right to adequate housing, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights identified key factors to be considered in determining if housing is adequate. The following is a consideration of those factors as they apply to persons with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 58
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- States have an obligation to provide housing in a manner that allows persons with disabilities to express their cultural identity and participate meaningfully in the development of culture within their communities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 73
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Under the Persons with Disabilities Act (2012) of Zambia, an agency is established that coordinates consultation with organizations of persons with disabilities, State institutions and other civil society actors to integrate a disability perspective into national policies, plans and decision-making sectors, and that can make representations on behalf of or provide legal assistance to persons with disabilities in proceedings relating to the rights of persons with disabilities (art. 20 (2) (e)).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 77a
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur suggests that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that States ensure that all investment in housing recognizes its social function and States' human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the State and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation. The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors. In order to create those new conversations and achieve that shift, the Special Rapporteur recommends the following:] New initiatives should be developed in order to bridge the worlds of corporate and government finance, housing, planning and human rights. The Special Rapporteur recommends that an international high-level meeting of States, international financial institutions, human rights bodies, civil society organizations and relevant experts be organized to design a strategy for engaging financial regulatory bodies and actors in the realization of the goal of adequate housing for all by 2030;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The right to adequate housing is, at its core, the right to a place to live in dignity and security. It is interdependent with other human rights, particularly the right to equality and non-discrimination and the right to life (see A/71/310). It is against those core human rights values that the actions of States in relation to financial actors and housing systems are to be assessed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- A leading framework for the human rights responsibilities of business enterprises is the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework. It is grounded in three pillars: (a) the obligation of States to protect against human rights abuses committed by companies; (b) the responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights, and thus avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts; and (c) the obligation of States to provide victims with access to effective remedies when rights are breached. A similar framework is applied in the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the first two of which commit businesses to support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and to refrain from complicity in human rights abuses. The Principles for Responsible Investment, launched in 2006 by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and the Global Compact, provide a voluntary framework for the incorporation of environmental, social and governance issues into decision-making and ownership practices. Over 1,200 investment institutions have become signatories, with approximately US$ 45 trillion assets under management.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Nonetheless, a number of subnational and national governments have started to address the effects of excess capital flows and financialization on affordability and access to housing for low-income households. Initiatives have been advanced at both national and subnational levels providing a number of tools that can at least curb the excesses of financialization and mitigate its effects.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- A range of initiatives has also been introduced in a number of States and cities to provide access to credit for low-income households based on alternative, community controlled models of microfinancing. Growing either from non-governmental organizations or microenterprise lenders, microfinance allows low-income households to finance construction over time, often in unplanned areas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (ii)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that non-discrimination provisions are based on substantive equality, recognizing positive obligations to address the systemic inequality in housing experienced by persons with disabilities;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (iii)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that all persons with disabilities are able to live free from institutionalization and that access to adequate housing, the requisite services and appropriately trained support is provided in the community;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (iv)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure access to justice and effective accountability mechanisms for claims to the right to adequate housing by persons with disabilities, including when States have failed to adopt reasonable programmatic measures to realize the right;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (vi)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Design and implement both qualitative and quantitative data collection about the housing circumstances of persons with disabilities, disaggregated on the basis of the standard survey questions of the Washington Group on Disabilities;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (vii)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Address homelessness among persons with disabilities on an urgent basis and prioritize measures to address the circumstances of those living in informal settlements and homeless encampments;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (viii)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that security of tenure and other legal protection in housing are developed and applied in a manner that recognizes the distinctive needs of persons with disabilities;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (xiii)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Provide adequate financial and other support to persons with disabilities in a manner that ensures choice as to where to live and how support will be provided and that covers the full cost of housing and related expenses;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 77b
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur suggests that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that States ensure that all investment in housing recognizes its social function and States' human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the State and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation. The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors. In order to create those new conversations and achieve that shift, the Special Rapporteur recommends the following:] Strategies developed by States and local governments to achieve target 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda should include a full range of taxation, regulatory and planning measures in order to re-establish housing as a social good, promote an inclusive housing system and prevent speculation and excessive accumulation of wealth;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The most recent estimates available indicate there may be 100 million children living in the streets. This is the result of dire situations: abuse at home, extreme poverty, family break-up, and displacement or homelessness. They live perilous lives under a constant threat of violence from the public as well as from police authorities. They are malnourished, have no access to sanitation facilities and often sleep rough. Their vulnerability to sexual exploitation brings with it many threats to life, including sexually transmitted diseases. The indignity and suffering that homeless people and street connected children experience in their daily lives cannot be overestimated. In several studies, children in street situations express a grave bleakness about their lives, indicating that they feel they have no future at all.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Violence
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- Housing First has recently emerged as a dominant model for responses to homelessness in countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The model is straightforward, providing chronically homeless people, for example, those with psychosocial disabilities, with housing and support as needed. There are obvious benefits of keeping people in their communities as opposed to providing treatment services without housing, and this model offers easily measured outcomes. At the same time, concerns have been raised that Housing First may not serve as a generalized model as it tends to focus on visible forms of homelessness and does not address systemic causes of homelessness or ensure rehabilitation and production of affordable housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- It is also important to supplement data on services used by homeless people with estimates of those who are homeless but do not access services. When homelessness is assessed by counting the number of people sleeping in shelters or using services, improvements in those services may appear to increase the number of homeless, when in fact lower numbers simply reflect some improvements in meeting emergency needs. On the other hand, some cities have denied services as a punitive means of attempting to reduce the numbers of homeless in their jurisdiction. In those cases, lower numbers of people in homeless shelters is evidence of a serious violation of human rights. It is always important, therefore, to look behind numbers. Policies and accountability measures based exclusively on raw numbers are inadequate or incomplete from a human rights standpoint. Raw numbers may perpetuate exclusion and invisibility and fail to identify changes in the nature or experience of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Dichotomies of legal/illegal, formal/informal and deserving/undeserving applied in the global South parallel the criminalization of homelessness in northern countries. The urban poor are made "illegal" and "encroachers" by the denial of fair access to land and legal status or title. People who have been rendered homeless in urban centres are relocated to city peripheries and deprived of economic opportunities and social networks, a process that has been labelled "socio-spatial stigmatization".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 17b
- Paragraph text
- [In light of these considerations, the Special Rapporteur proposes the following three-dimensional approach anchored in human rights:] The second dimension considers homelessness as a form of systemic discrimination and social exclusion, recognizing that being deprived of a home gives rise to a social identity through which "the homeless" is constituted as a social group subject to discrimination and stigmatization;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Japan has yet to recover and continues to see ever-growing numbers of homeless people. Unemployment rates tripled in a 10-year period in Argentina, resulting in a large number of households being unable to pay their mortgages, rent or utility bills. In Spain, Ireland and Greece, thousands of low-income and poor individuals suffered foreclosures or debt-related evictions and were thus forced out of their homes into encampments or into overcrowded accommodation with relatives and friends, or were left homeless. In these circumstances, increased suicide rates are not uncommon. In the United States, suicides spurred by severe housing stress - evictions and foreclosures - doubled between 2005 and 2010. Europe also saw a 6.5 per cent increase in suicides between 2007 and 2011. In States where social programmes were made available to those affected, similar spikes in suicide rates were not seen.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- For women and children victims of domestic violence the home ceases to be the safe haven it is meant to be and becomes the most dangerous place, in some cases leading to their death. Factors such as overcrowded residences, poor habitability and lack of accessible services (water, electricity and sanitation) increase the incidence of domestic violence. Many women in such situations are unable to remove the perpetrator from the house, owing to a lack of family, community and State supports. Further, many women are prevented from leaving violent situations because alternative housing and financial supports are unavailable. Those who do manage to leave home become vulnerable to homelessness and consequently may suffer further violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- There are numerous ways in which the housing conditions of people with disabilities collide with their right to live in dignity and security and to life itself. Independent living requires that persons with disabilities have a choice as to where and how they live. The failure of States to provide the supports required for independent living has meant that people with disabilities often live in deplorable conditions. They may be compelled to live with family members in circumstances of abuse or isolation, where they may be ostracized by their communities. When living in informal settlements, they often have no access to sanitation facilities, or have to use facilities without adequate supports or equipment, putting them at risk of disease. For those with limited mobility, lack of adequate supports results in their being virtual prisoners, trapped in their homes, a potentially lethal situation, particularly in natural disasters and emergencies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Many people with disabilities live in institutions because community supports to ensure independent living are unavailable. Many are institutionalized without their consent. Conditions in such institutions are invariably overcrowded. Residents are often prevented from having outside social or family relations and, in some cases, are forced to remain in isolation cells for long periods (see A/HRC/28/37). In some countries, such as the Republic of Moldova (see A/HRC/31/62/Add.2, paras. 48-52 and 61-72), residents are "controlled" through the use of physical restraints and the administration of large doses of psychiatric medications and tranquilizers. Some residents are forced to sleep in locked "cage beds" (hospital beds turned into small cages). Violence is commonplace. Together, these conditions heighten the risk of death.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 4 on the right to adequate housing, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights rejected definitions of adequate housing that focused on physical shelter and instead adopted a definition linked directly to the right to life. The Committee stated the following: The right to housing should not be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with, for example, the shelter provided by merely having a roof over one's head or views shelter exclusively as a commodity. Rather it should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- However, these advances towards a more inclusive paradigm are negated in other parts of the draft comment. The draft states that although article 6 imposes both short-term and long-term obligations, claims under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant can only invoke the former. Communications would be restricted to circumstances where the right to life is directly violated by acts or omissions of States, or where there is an imminent prospect of a direct violation. In other words, the draft bifurcates the right to life into two categories: justiciable rights and unenforceable policy aspirations. These restrictions would limit access to adjudication and effective remedies for those whose right to life has been violated by systemic patterns of neglect that require longer-term strategies and programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 34
- 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.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Yet the negative rights framework in which the Human Rights Committee has articulated the convergence between rights in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the right to adequate housing continues to restrict State accountability to situations where homelessness results from State action such as deportation or eviction. It allows States to ignore, with impunity, their obligations to address living conditions such as those in the Roma settlement in the Georgopoulos case, described as "an insult to our humanity". This means that a child rendered homeless by deportation or eviction is considered a victim of a violation of rights and entitled to an effective remedy, but a child born into the same circumstances of homelessness may not be. It is critical, therefore, that violations not be restricted to circumstances of direct "interference". Those whose right to life is denied by conditions of socioeconomic deprivation must also be entitled to effective remedies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- A refusal to hear, adjudicate and provide remedies for the category of claims to the right to life arising from systemic deprivations such as homelessness has immense consequences extending beyond the United Nations treaty monitoring system. It reinforces a negative rights practice which continues to deny access to justice for many of the most serious violations of the right to life in many jurisdictions. Often, the negative rights framework limits the types of cases for which victims are likely to have access to legal counsel, affects the kinds of arguments that lawyers are likely to advance, determines the cases courts are likely to hear and limits the remedies that might be sought and granted.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- The narrowing of the right to life to a negative rights framework has deprived millions of already disadvantaged individuals of the full protection of this core right. In many domestic contexts, the right to housing may not be enshrined in law and cannot be claimed directly, whereas the right to life appears in most constitutions. In this context, a narrow interpretation of the right to life may prevent someone who is homeless or suffering severe housing inadequacy from making any human rights claim whatsoever. On the other hand, where the right to adequate housing is explicitly protected as a self-standing constitutional right, it is more effectively enforced by courts when connected to the right to life. Making this connection allows courts to better assess whether adequate resources have been allocated and reasonable measures taken in accordance with core human rights values.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- From a human rights perspective, the Special Rapporteur advocates a flexible and contextual approach to defining homelessness that recognizes experiences and understandings of homelessness among different groups and in diverse circumstances. A human rights definition should focus attention on the most desperate situations while ensuring that those who are homeless identify those circumstances themselves, define their needs and are recognized as actors in effecting change to fully realize their right to adequate housing. The social dimensions of homelessness are also central to a human rights definition.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Those who are homeless are constructed as a social group. Worldwide, their identity is created and then reinforced by people who have more money, more power or more influence. It is a vicious circle. Laws, policies, business practices and media stories depict and treat homeless people as morally inferior, undeserving of assistance and authors of their own misfortune, and blame them for the social problems they come to represent. Once stigmatized, their needs are further neglected and inequality and discrimination further entrenched.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Homeless people are subject to constant intimidation and harassment by authorities and the general public; they are denied access to basic services or places to shower, urinate or defecate; they are rounded up and forced out of cities and relocated to uninhabitable places; they are walked over and passed by; they are subject to extreme forms of violence, including hate crimes and sexual violence; and they are often the subject of vilification. At the same time, some forms of homelessness remain totally invisible and neglected, in particular in parts of the global South, where homelessness remains relatively unacknowledged or where the distinction between very precarious housing conditions and homelessness may not be easily drawn.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The humiliation homeless people suffer in their daily lives cannot be underestimated. Take for example, the experience of women who lack adequate sanitation facilities, especially during menstrual cycles, or of families who are treated like "human waste", forced to establish their households on or next to a garbage dump. Homeless people have told the Special Rapporteur, often through tears, that more than any material security, what they yearn for is to be "seen", to be recognized and treated by society as human beings with inherent dignity and respect.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- National and local laws often make homeless people into lawbreakers, rather than protecting their rights. Laws are created to render homeless people invisible, to displace them from land or housing and destroy their makeshift shelters. In many places punitive measures such as fines or incarceration are imposed for activities linked to basic survival, including constructing any kind of shelter out of cardboard. Laws enable authorities to "rescue" street-connected children, depriving them of their liberty without due process or respect for the social networks upon which they rely.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Such laws are often framed under the guise of public health and safety but, in reality, the aim is to "beautify" an area for the promotion of tourism and business or to increase property values. Examples are countless: in Zimbabwe, an operation to "sweep out the rubbish" through demolitions of shanty towns in 2005 left up to 1.5 million people homeless in the middle of the winter. In June 2014, the Mayor of Honolulu introduced new measures to crack down on homelessness because tourists want to see "their paradise, not homeless people sleeping". In Medellín, Colombia, during the World Urban Forum, the homeless population was transported outside of the city. In Australia, "move on" laws permit authorities to "disperse" homeless people "where a person's mere presence could cause anxiety to another person or interfere with another's 'reasonable enjoyment' of the space".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- The favouring of profit over people's human rights through the unequal allocation of land, property, housing and related services in cities is a major driver of homelessness. Unregulated or underregulated financial and other market forces, and unfettered land and property speculation resulting in escalating land values, all contribute to the inequality of wealth distribution and homelessness. These systemic inequalities are compounded by direct discrimination against people who are poor, often pushing them to precarious housing conditions, including into informal settlements or on occupied land, and ultimately into homelessness. Many municipalities use planning and zoning laws or regulations to prevent construction of shelters or affordable housing in their communities. Homeless people are often denied opportunities to live in central locations; instead, they are compelled to live in remote, isolated and poorly serviced areas where there are no jobs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Homelessness is caused by the interplay between individual circumstances and broader systemic factors. A human rights response to homelessness addresses both. It understands that homelessness may be linked to individual dynamics such as psychosocial disabilities, unexpected job loss, addictions or complex choices to become street-connected, and that a major cause of homelessness is the failure of governments to respond to unique individual circumstances with compassion and respect for individual dignity. A human rights approach must also, however, address the overarching structural and institutional causes of homelessness - the cumulative effect of domestic policies, programmes and legislation, as well as international financial and development agreements that contribute to and create homelessness. In her consultations, the Special Rapporteur found that inequality and the conditions that breed it are the most consistently identified causes of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Rapid global urbanization has resulted in an astonishing accumulation of wealth for a few, accompanied by increasing poverty for many. Reliance on private market housing supply to respond to urbanization needs has meant that new housing supply has targeted mostly the rich, creating inflated real estate values, speculation and significant deficits of affordable housing. People who move to cities often have no choice but to live in informal settlements where millions suffer, in varying degrees, from poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water, overcrowding and makeshift structures. Instead of ensuring access for people in need of housing, land regulations, planning and zoning have rendered informal settlements "illegal", favoured commercial development over housing and failed to respect the social function of land as a public good. The legacy of colonialism in some countries has embedded inequality in land and property.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 49f
- Paragraph text
- [State obligations in relation to homelessness have been clearly articulated and can be summarized as follows:] States have a firm legal obligation to regulate and engage with non-State actors so as to ensure that all of their actions and policies are in accordance with the right to adequate housing and the prevention and amelioration of homelessness. Regulation of private actors should include requirements on developers and investors to address homelessness and work in partnership to provide affordable housing in all developments;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Discrimination is both a cause and a consequence of homelessness. Those who face discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, place of origin, socioeconomic status, family status, gender, mental or physical disability, health condition, sexual orientation and/or gender identity and age are more likely to become homeless and, once homeless, experience additional discrimination. The intersections of other grounds of discrimination with homelessness vary in different countries. In some, for example, racial inequality intersects strongly with homelessness. In Brazil, African-Brazilians make up only 7 per cent of the population of wealthy areas and yet make up the majority in informal settlements. In the United States of America, black families are seven times more likely to be homeless than white families.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The ongoing legacy of discriminatory customary and statutory laws on divorce, inheritance and matrimonial property - as well as social practices that attribute housing to male heads of households and the resultant poverty - deprive women of security of tenure and render them particularly vulnerable to homelessness. When women are widowed, separated or divorced, need to leave violent households or flee situations of armed conflict or natural disasters, or are evicted from their homes, they face significant risks of becoming homeless. Divorced and widowed women in Bangladesh and Lebanon, for example, are reported to be living in dilapidated shacks in dangerous informal settlements and women fleeing violence in Kyrgyzstan and Papua New Guinea are left with few housing options.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have developed important jurisprudence recognizing the obligation of the State to protect the special relationship between indigenous peoples and land in addressing violations in which, for example, members of indigenous communities have been "violently forced from their homes and traditional lands into a situation of ongoing displacement". In addition, in considering the plight of street-connected children, the Court has explained that the right to life requires States to take positive measures to ensure access to the conditions needed to lead a dignified life, recognizing that the right to life belongs "at the same time to the domain of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has affirmed that the right to adequate housing is implied in the African Charter by its articles 14 on the right to property, 16 on the right to highest attainable standard of mental and physical health and 18 (1) on protection accorded to the family. It considers that forced evictions leading to homelessness are contrary to the Charter, and has urged all States to report on measures taken to address homelessness and to appoint an independent national body to monitor State compliance with the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Beyond national measures of homelessness, there is also a need for global indicators. Addressing homelessness should be a central part of global development goals. While the Sustainable Development Goals omit any explicit reference to homelessness, target 11.1 of the Goals commits States to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrading slums by 2030. Measuring and committing to reduce and eliminate homelessness with clear benchmarks and timelines will be critical to the successful realization of this target.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- There are, however, serious challenges in measuring homelessness, both within States and globally, that need to be addressed. It has proven difficult to secure accurate and comparable data from all States in order to develop reliable global data. The Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs has noted that data on the number of homeless households is scarce in all regions. Initiatives to count the number of homeless people have often emerged organically from local communities and address variable local conditions and challenges in different ways. Local governments, service providers, ombudspersons and human rights institutions can play important roles in ensuring that data are accurate and inclusive. This, however, makes it challenging to develop common measures across cities and internationally.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- For this reason, the Special Rapporteur underlines the critical importance of qualitative evidence, including, for example, oral testimony, photographs or videos. A human rights-based measurement of homelessness should focus on prevention and on addressing underlying causes, and qualitative information capturing actual experiences often reveals more about how to prevent or solve it than numbers alone. It is also vital to understand the trajectories into and out of homelessness, with longitudinal analysis of how people become homeless, how long they are homeless and how they escape from it to supplement point-in-time counts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Strategies to address homelessness are, ironically, often tainted with prejudice and stigmatization. For example, in August 2015, the office of the Mayor of New York introduced a mobile telephone application called Map the Homeless that allowed users to take snapshots of homeless people and report them to the police. Social media hashtag labels included #AggressivePanhandling and #Violent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Widespread and severe discrimination and stigmatization on the ground of homelessness has rarely been addressed effectively by national human rights institutions or subjected to effective judicial or administrative remedies, and only rarely recognized in domestic legislation as a prohibited form of discrimination.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- The proliferation of trade and investment agreements has dramatically altered State accountability, with the interests of large corporate investors prioritized over obligations to protect human rights and ensure the sustainability of local enterprises and communities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur's consultations suggested that, while effective policy responses depend on particular circumstances, effective strategies must always be multi-pronged, engage a range of policies and programmes and address simultaneously social exclusion and housing deprivation. Most importantly, strategies must be led by stakeholders, combining social mobilization with legislative and policy reform.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- There are diverse models for ensuring participation of stakeholders in strategies to address homelessness. Brazil, for example, has created a participatory model for social policy that relies on policy councils of stakeholders. In Munich, Germany, special units for the prevention of homelessness have provided support in preventing evictions or repossessions. In Europe, FEANTSA has organized and advanced rights claims on behalf of homeless people in a wide range of legal and political forums.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- Homelessness is one of the least examined consequences of unabated inequality, unfair distribution of land and property and poverty occurring on a global scale. It is a result of State acquiescence to real estate speculation and unregulated markets - a result of treating housing as a commodity rather than as a human right. It is rooted in a global privileging of wealth and power, and scapegoating and scorning of those who do not have a home.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 91i
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the present conclusions, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to States:] National and local governments must re-engage and recommit to their role of providing social protection and ensuring access to affordable housing for marginalized and vulnerable groups, reaffirming that housing is a human right rather than a commodity. Subnational governments must have access to adequate resources to meet their allocated responsibilities;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The European Committee of Social Rights has consistently emphasized that the "right to shelter is closely connected to the right to life and to the right to respect of every person's human dignity". In this context, it has not only addressed violations of rights linked to State action, such as evictions, but has issued far-reaching decisions regarding systemic violations and affirmed obligations to develop and implement national strategies and legislation to address homelessness and inadequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 91f
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the present conclusions, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to States:] Homeless people must be recognized as a protected group in all relevant domestic anti-discrimination and hate-crime laws, including where relevant in national Constitutions, national and subnational human rights legislation and in city charters;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 92b
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to other actors:] Humanitarian assistance must not be conditional on place of residence prior to conflict or natural disaster. Property titles or other documents that are often not available to people who are homeless should not be a barrier to receiving emergency and longer-term humanitarian assistance;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Some States have also been reluctant to collect and provide reliable data, perceiving it to be contrary to their interests, particularly if they are seeking to attract development or tourism or to host mega events. Data collected by governments need to be supplemented by information that may only be available to non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations working directly with homeless populations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- National homelessness strategies have relied on legislation to clarify government obligations. Scotland enacted the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act in 2003, which includes the commitment to make housing a legal right by 2012. In keeping with this, an order was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2012 that ensures that all individuals assessed to be "unintentionally homeless" have a right to settled accommodation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has only started to grapple with communications addressing issues of grossly inadequate housing, lack of support for community living, institutionalization and lack of accessible housing which characterize the housing circumstances of millions of people with disabilities. In its periodic reviews, however, the Committee has emphasized the importance of States' obligations to take positive steps to implement inclusive, effective strategies to realize the right to housing and social protection and to address the particular issues affecting women, migrants and young people with disabilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Another rich source for understanding the right to life and the right to adequate housing in international human rights law is article 7 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It affirms that indigenous individuals "have the rights to life, physical and mental integrity, liberty and security of person" and that indigenous peoples have "the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples". The development and application of these rights has the potential to enhance the understanding of the social dimensions of the right to life and the interplay between the collective and individual dimensions of that right; it may also prompt a response to violations of rights to lands, territories or resources.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- The Court has applied the vida digna principle in a number of other contexts, including indigenous peoples' claims to their ancestral lands. For example, in Sawhoyamaxa v. Paraguay, an indigenous community was displaced from its lands and left to live on the side of a road. Without access to adequate housing and basic services, including potable water, sanitation and health care, many died of preventable illnesses associated with displacement and homelessness. The court found a violation of the right to life in the light of the physical conditions in which the members of the Sawhoyamaxa Community had been living, and still lived as well as the death of several persons due to those conditions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- The European Court of Human Rights has adopted a somewhat more restrictive approach to the right to life. This may be attributable to the fact that it is bound by the wording of article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which refers to deprivations of the right to life which are intentional and suggests that the provision primarily addresses the use of force by the State. Even within these confines, however, the Court has affirmed that article 2 ranks as one of the most fundamental provisions in the Convention and "enjoins the State not only to refrain from the intentional and unlawful taking of life, but also to take appropriate steps to safeguard the lives of those within its jurisdiction". In the case of Önery?ld?z v Turkey the Court found that the failure of the authorities to do everything within their power to protect inhabitants of an informal settlement near a garbage dump from the immediate and known risk of a methane gas explosion gave rise to a violation of the right to life.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- The Supreme Court of India has affirmed that the right to life "includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes along with it, namely, the bare necessities of life, such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter". The High Court of New Delhi initiated a case on its own motion to consider whether the demolition of a temporary homeless shelter in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games had violated the right to life. The loss of the shelter resulted in the death of one former resident. The Court ordered the Delhi government to rebuild the shelter and to stop evicting homeless persons in winter.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 49e
- Paragraph text
- [State obligations in relation to homelessness have been clearly articulated and can be summarized as follows:] States have an immediate obligation to ensure that every decision or policy is consistent with the goal of the elimination of homelessness. Any decision that results in homelessness must be regarded as unacceptable and contrary to human rights. Policy and planning must apply the maximum of available resources, including unused or vacant lands and housing units, with a view to ensuring access to land and housing for marginalized groups;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- The Constitutional Court of South Africa ordered the Government to devise and implement a comprehensive and coordinated programme to realize the right to adequate housing that prioritizes those in most urgent need. In the context of forced evictions, the Court has implemented a number of protections for those threatened with homelessness, including imposing on all levels of government a duty to meaningfully engage with communities involved in resettlement and recognizing the obligations of private landlords to ensure that no one is evicted into homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- In Argentina, the non-governmental organization Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales has integrated test-case litigation to advance the right to adequate housing for homeless people with political initiatives, in order to change the way land, property and housing is distributed and ensure broader access to justice. The newly adopted Law for the Province of Buenos Aires on Access to Dignified Habitat affirms a number of guiding principles, including the right to the city, the social function of property, meaningful democratic participation and equitable sharing of benefits of urbanization.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur is encouraged by the proliferation of locally based initiatives to create more robust human rights frameworks, programmes, policies and laws, whether they take the form of new constitutional rights, charters on the right to the city/human rights city, local ordinances or enhanced mandates for human rights institutions and ombudspersons. Much more is needed, however. The implementation of a human rights framework for governance at all levels is the most critical component of any strategy for the elimination of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 91j
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the present conclusions, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to States:] Any evictions that may result in homelessness, including those intended to render homeless people less visible, such as to promote tourism or facilitate mega events, must be recognized under domestic law as gross violations of human rights and be immediately stopped. Forced evictions must not occur without prior meaningful consultation with affected groups, an exploration of all alternatives, including in situ upgrading, and the implementation of agreed-upon resettlement options for those affected;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 92c
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to other actors:] Lawyers and advocates must work closely with homeless people and their representatives to ensure that homelessness is addressed as a human rights violation through any available avenues. The judiciary must develop its capacity and commitment to adjudicating these claims, including where the claims seek a remedy requiring positive measures. In this context, States must refrain from adopting positions in litigation that are contrary to international human rights law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- The starting point for understanding the scope of the right to life should be what rights holders are entitled to, not the cause of the deprivation. Homelessness and grossly inadequate housing may be the result of actions leading to eviction and deportation, but equally may result from inaction - a failure to address long-term systemic patterns of social exclusion and deprivation. Nevertheless, the deprivation experienced is essentially the same: preventable illnesses, a shortened lifespan and deprivation of dignity and security.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- All levels of government should design and implement policies, laws and strategies to prevent and remedy homelessness. Failure to do so reflects that homelessness has neither been recognized nor addressed as a violation of human rights. What is lacking at all levels is a shared commitment to ensuring the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing - and related rights such as life and health. As the Consortium for Street Children has stated, "the greatest challenge for all street-connected children is being identified and treated as a rights holder".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- Since ensuring the enjoyment of human rights is a firm legal responsibility of all levels of government, policymakers can be compelled to incorporate human rights into their laws, policies and programmes, such as: consulting with homeless people throughout the policy development and implementation process; incorporating measureable goals and timelines into strategies; including monitoring and review mechanisms to ensure successful outcomes; and providing homeless people with a mechanism through which to claim their rights and with access to remedies. These are essential requirements for there to be meaningful inclusion of homeless people in the human family, restoring to them dignity, respect and protection under the rule of law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- An estimated one third of deaths worldwide are linked to poverty and inadequate housing and the immense impact of substandard housing and homelessness on the rights to life, security and dignity for the most vulnerable populations is undeniable. The following examples, focusing on the lived experiences of particular groups in particular circumstances, offer a deeper understanding of the intersections between the right to housing and the right to life.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- In many countries, national human rights institutions are able to investigate allegations of human rights violations related to homelessness and make recommendations to relevant authorities to design public policy and to remedy those violations. For the first time, the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City held a public hearing with groups of homeless people, then issued a report that focused on their human rights situation, including discrimination, criminalization and other human rights issues.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Article 9 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families affirms that the right to life of migrant workers and members of their families shall be protected by law. The Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers drew attention to violations of the right to life in the context of forced evictions of migrants from a public park in Buenos Aires which resulted in two deaths (see CMW/C/ARG/CO/1, para. 19).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Lived experience illustrates that adequate housing, dignity, security and life are so closely intertwined as to be essentially inseparable. The same is true in international human rights law. The right to life cannot be separated from the right to a secure place to live, and the right to a secure place to live only has meaning in the context of a right to live in dignity and security, free of violence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- For anyone who is homeless or street involved, living in security and dignity is near impossible. The death rate among homeless people ranges from two to ten times higher than for those who are not homeless. In eight states in India, between 2010 and 2016, approximately 24,000 homeless people died as a result of their living conditions, such as from infectious diseases, road accidents, and exposure to the elements. The interim findings of a study undertaken in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for example, showed that homeless women can expect to live for just 43 years, compared to 80 years for women in the general population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Of particular note is the recognition by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that the implementation of the right to adequate housing in domestic law often relies on courts and governments recognizing that the right to life is indivisible from the right to housing and other socioeconomic rights. The Committee has emphasized that, in circumstances where the right to adequate housing does not enjoy explicit constitutional protection but the right to life does, governments and courts are obliged to interpret the right to life so as to ensure access to effective remedies for Covenant rights (see E/C.12/CAN/CO/6, paras. 5 and 6).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has implicitly relied on the interdependence of the right to life and the right to adequate housing to identify deprivations of rights that must be addressed on a priority basis. The Committee has applied the concept of the "minimum core content" of rights, introduced in its general comment No. 3, to identify "minimum essential levels" of Covenant rights, such as essential foodstuffs or basic shelter. The Committee has stated that in circumstances of systemic deprivations of these essential levels, the State is "prima facie, failing to discharge its obligations under the Covenant".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The concept of "minimum core content" has engendered considerable debate and discussion. Some courts have expressed doubts about its practical implementation. Yet there is general agreement that where significant numbers of people are denied basic requirements of life, such violations demand urgent responses. In the Special Rapporteur's view, an emphasis on the intersection of the right to life and the right to adequate housing in order to identify needs that must be addressed on an urgent basis would help to clarify State obligations to address the most serious deprivations, even in circumstances of scarce resources. Such an approach does not require attempting to define universally applicable minimum requirements of adequate housing and would rely instead on a contextual assessment of lived experience in relation to core human rights values.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- In its periodic reviews, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has linked the rights to life, survival and development to the right to adequate housing and to protection of children from evictions, particularly if they may lead to homelessness (see CRC/C/IDN/CO/3-4). The Committee has also addressed the particular vulnerability to violations of the right to life and the high suicide rate of children in street situations (see CRC/C/FJI/CO/2-4). The Committee has identified the right to life as a key provision in the draft general comment on children in street situations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- The right to life and dignity are core values informing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 3 indicates that the purpose of the Convention is to promote respect for the inherent dignity of person with disabilities. Article 10 makes specific reference to positive obligations with respect to the right to life. It provides that States parties reaffirm that every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others. All of the articles in the Convention must be interpreted in a manner consistent with those core values, including article 9 (accessibility), article 11 (situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies), article 19 (living independently and being included in the community) and article 28 (Adequate standard of living and social protection).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- The indivisibility of the right to life and the right to housing is also heightened in situations of conflict, particularly where homes and residential areas are targeted. House demolitions, shelling and bombing in residential areas and the destruction of infrastructure (water, sewage and electricity systems, for example) are frequently used as acts of aggression in conflict situations, rendering entire areas unfit and inadequate for life. For example, in the 2014 incursion into Gaza, 160,000 housing units were destroyed or suffered major or minor damage. Eighteen months after the war, the reconstruction or repair of the homes of 74 per cent of Palestinian families who were displaced had not even begun, leaving approximately 90,000 people displaced or homeless.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Experiences at the domestic level suggest that the right to adequate housing is most effectively claimed and adjudicated when it is linked to the right to life and other core human rights principles. Even in jurisdictions in which the right to adequate housing is recognized as a self-standing right, the effective claiming and adjudication of this right has usually relied on recognition of its inherent connection to dignity and to the right to life. The Constitutional Court of South Africa, for example, abandoned a deferential approach to adjudication and committed itself to assessing the reasonableness of positive measures taken by governments when it was confronted with the "intolerable conditions" in which Irene Grootboom and her community were living (under plastic tarpaulins on a sports field with no water or sanitation), which were in stark contrast to the constitutional values of dignity, equality and freedom.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- A human rights approach to effective measurement must involve genuine consultation with stakeholders. For some groups, statistical invisibility or being excluded from a census is experienced as marginalization and likely to lead to neglected needs in programmes and legislation. For other groups, however, such as street-connected young people or irregular migrants, being identified by government authorities may be threatening. Homeless people are best placed to ensure that methods of measurement are accurate and inclusive and at the same time sensitive to their circumstances.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has focused on the need for comprehensive housing strategies to address homelessness, framed around the right to housing and ensuring monitoring and accountability with goals, timelines and complaints procedures. Similarly, in the case of street children, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights advocates a holistic approach that recognizes rights as interdependent and interconnected, through a coordinated approach across government departments and with the involvement of family and community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- There is a unique quality of empathy, humanity and commitment to justice in some of the judgments of the Supreme Court of India, as it has engaged directly with the lived realities of claimants in order to consider whether their right to life has been violated. By interpreting the right to life as including the right to housing, courts have responded to social movements and at the same time have acted as a catalyst for political inclusion. Those judgments are striking for their ability to bring to life the central ambition of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- The Norwegian Refugee Council has canvassed a number of housing alternatives to prevent and address homelessness for internally displaced persons. Options include incremental housing - providing land or a basic house for the recipient to upgrade over time; housing purchase certificates; social housing; the transfer of public buildings to private ownership; rental support; incremental tenure - starting from administrative recognition then legal recognition, developmental recognition to establishment of towns or districts; neighbourhood upgrades; and support for municipalities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- People on the move, especially international migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons, are also at significant risk of homelessness. Those groups suffer multiple discrimination and numerous obstacles in securing temporary or permanent housing. In many countries, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, public shelters do not accommodate migrants or only accommodate them for limited periods of time. Migrants are consequently forced to settle in slums, shacks and derelict or unfinished buildings; migrant domestic workers have reported being forced to sleep in hallways, unprotected living spaces or closets of the homes in which they work.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- Assessing whether States have violated rights in these circumstances does not only mean considering whether actions of States caused a deprivation of life but also, and more fundamentally, whether there are actions which States can reasonably be expected to take to address such deprivations. Some violations of the rights to life and adequate housing may be subject to immediate remedy; others may require longer-term solutions but, regardless, access to justice must be ensured and the rights to life and adequate housing must be realized.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- The Institute of Global Homelessness has brought together researchers and civil society organizations working on homelessness from around the world to take up these challenges, urging a renewed commitment to achieving the most useful global measures through the adoption of a standard approach based on collaboration with governments. The Special Rapporteur is hopeful that collaborative initiatives such as this will provide a foundation for significant advances in understanding global patterns and challenges in relation to homelessness and enhanced accountability to the obligation to eliminate it.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Under article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, States parties recognize the inherent right to life of every child and the obligation to ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child. The chair of the drafting committee for the Convention explained this unique provision by noting that, while the approach to the right to life in other conventions was more negative, the committee's approach should be positive and take into account economic, social and cultural conditions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 91k
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the present conclusions, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations to States:] Special attention must be directed to homelessness among indigenous peoples caused by displacement from land and resources and the destruction of cultural identity. Indigenous peoples should be provided with resources to implement programmes to address homelessness in both urban and rural contexts, consistent with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 17c
- Paragraph text
- [In light of these considerations, the Special Rapporteur proposes the following three-dimensional approach anchored in human rights:] The third dimension recognizes those who are homeless as rights holders who are resilient in the struggle for survival and dignity. With a unique understanding of the systems that deny them their rights, homeless people must be recognized as central agents of the social transformation necessary for the realization of the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Many societal changes without adequate State responses contribute to homelessness. For example, the break-up of traditional family structures is a prevalent cause of homelessness. Men who move to cities for economic reasons often forgo shelter in order to save money to send back to their families in rural areas. In many States, long traditions of extended family support and kinship responsibility at the community level have been eroded. Illness, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, is both a major cause and effect of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- The global economic crisis has had a distinct impact on women's homelessness. In Spain, for example, many single mothers were overindebted from home purchases. In many cases, former partners or husbands who shared mortgages refused to negotiate with banks for debt restructuring, relief or cancellation. When their homes were repossessed, they were left with significant debt, often living in insecure housing - at severe risk of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- National human rights institutions should jointly commit themselves to renouncing the false division between categories of rights and review their mandates and programmes to ensure that full attention is given to violations of the right to life linked to socioeconomic deprivation, including homelessness and inadequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- The precariousness of informality and the prevalence of development-based evictions continue to be major structural causes of homelessness. Informal neighbourhoods are wiped out and replaced with high-end tourist attractions, shopping malls or entertainment districts. Land contamination and mismanagement compound these effects. Evictions without adequate resettlement, as is common, invariably lead to homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Other treaty monitoring bodies and human rights mechanisms have articulated legal standards with respect to remedies in the context of homelessness. In A.T. v. Hungary, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women addressed the link between violence against women and homelessness, recommending as part of an effective remedy to "ensure that A. T. is given a safe home in which to live with her children".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- Human rights organizations and human rights funders should conduct audits of their priorities and programmes to assess whether adequate attention and resources have been provided to those whose right to life and right to housing have been violated. More attention should be paid to an assessment of whether States have taken reasonable measures to respond to systemic violations of the right to housing and the right to life. Strategic litigation and other initiatives should be developed and funded to advance, on a systematic basis, better recognition, advancement and protection of the rights claims of those living in extreme poverty and in grossly inadequate housing, or who are homeless.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- The negative rights framework structures political and public responses to homelessness and inadequate housing as well. When systemic homelessness and grossly inadequate housing are not considered human rights violations by courts and are not given equal attention by international human rights funders, the media, non governmental organizations and human rights institutions, it is difficult to prompt rights-based responses at the political or societal levels. On the other hand, when courts and human rights bodies truly engage with the lived experience of those who are without homes or decent housing, this can create a mobilizing effect for rights-based advocacy in the political realm.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- The drafting by the Human Rights Committee of a new general comment (No. 36) on the right to life provides an important opportunity to reaffirm a commitment to a more inclusive understanding of the right to life. The Committee received submissions from many civil society organizations as well as from former Special Rapporteurs emphasizing the indivisibility and interdependence of the right to life with the rights to adequate housing, food, health and other economic, social and cultural rights and affirming the need for positive measures to address systemic violations. The Committee also generously set aside time to meet with the Special Rapporteur to discuss the particular relationship between the right to life and the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Failures of States to take positive measures to address systemic deprivations of the right to life tied to poverty, grossly inadequate housing and homelessness, as described in section II above, have not generally been addressed as violations. In this sense, the now rejected distinction between "first" and "second" generation rights, between justiciable rights and aspirational goals - a legacy of false dichotomies between the two covenants - has been perpetuated in the interpretation and application of the right to life as it intersects with the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Other treaty monitoring bodies can also play a critical role in elaborating a more inclusive understanding of the right to life. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, for example, is responsible for interpreting and applying the right to adequate housing and other rights in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Rights as indivisible from and interdependent with the right to life. In its general comment No. 7 on forced evictions, the Committee noted that evictions may violate the right to life and in periodic reviews it has made important contributions to an understanding of the interplay between the right to adequate housing and the right to life.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Worldwide, there is evidence of a consistent pattern: governments have abandoned their critical role in ensuring social protection, including affordable housing, have cut or privatized social benefits and have deferred to the private market, allowing private actors and elites with access to power and money to control key areas of decision-making. As a result, real estate and speculative capital have guided land use and urban development. Even where there has been large-scale investment in affordable housing, such as in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the interests of speculative capital have dominated. Labour market deregulation, reduced rates of taxation on wealthier individuals and corporations, displacement by extractive industries, dams and other developments, the privatization of infrastructure and services, predatory lending and many other factors have all emerged from the abandonment of the central role of governments.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Fiscal crises around the world have resulted in significant increases in homelessness and have given rise to a new category of homeless - highly educated individuals who had a good standard of living but who, due to an economic crisis, experienced unemployment and ultimately homelessness. The 2008 crisis, for example, and the accompanying austerity measures, caused a massive rise in homelessness in several European countries. Evidence suggests, however, that widespread homelessness did not occur in the aftermath of the global economic crisis in countries where governments were careful to ensure that reactive measures did not undermine social protection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
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Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 34
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- The causes of homelessness vary among particular groups. Street-connected children come from families with a wide range of experiences, including death, dislocation, disease, isolation, poverty, mental illness, domestic violence, child abuse and drug use. Women are forced into homelessness because of violence, unequal access to land and property, unequal wages and other forms of discrimination. Persons with disabilities are made homeless by lack of work, livelihoods and accessible housing. Young people are often denied access to housing and services in cities if they do not have appropriate government-issued documentation or identity cards. Conflict results in massive displacement and migration, as has been evidenced clearly by the waves of refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia and the Syrian Arab Republic escaping from conflict, widespread violence and insecurity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 37
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- Natural disasters, such as the 2004 tsunami in South-East Asia and the 2008 earthquake that struck Sichuan Province, China, result in homelessness by destroying housing, infrastructure and livelihoods and setting back housing strategies. The earthquake in Nepal in 2015 left thousands homeless, with 320,000 children sleeping rough in the immediate aftermath. Informal settlements are often located in disaster-risk areas. International responses to natural disasters tend to focus on immediate emergency needs for medical care and shelter, sometimes requiring proof of prior residence or tenure arrangements in order to provide services - which homeless people lack - and neglecting the need for longer-term strategies to address the resulting legacy of homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The common denominator in virtually all structural causes of homelessness is government decision-making inconsistent with human rights - neglecting or failing to respond adequately to the needs of the most disadvantaged in response to crises or economic developments and allowing unregulated market forces to render large numbers of people homeless. Homelessness is created when apparently external structural causes converge with the systemic patterns of social exclusion and discrimination and when governments fail to address new challenges within a human rights framework.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
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Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 50
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- It is of critical importance that courts and international human rights bodies engage more actively with the need for access to justice and protection of human rights of those who are homeless. Access to effective remedies was the subject of the first case under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding foreclosure procedures in Spain, where an estimated 400,000 mortgage foreclosures took place between 2008 and 2012. The Committee clarified that ensuring effective judicial remedies for the right to adequate housing is an immediate obligation of States, since "there cannot be a right without a remedy to protect it", and held that the State had violated the obligation to provide effective remedies in the context of foreclosure procedures.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 52
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- In its 2014 concluding observations on the United States, the Human Rights Committee noted that criminalization of homeless people raises concerns of discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It recommended that the federal Government engage with State and local authorities to abolish discriminatory laws and policies criminalizing homelessness; intensify efforts to find solutions for people who are homeless; and offer incentives for decriminalization to local authorities.. The federal Government recently announced that it is implementing the recommendations, including by linking access to federal housing grants to the repeal of local laws that criminalize homelessness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Regional human rights systems have also, to various extents, offered avenues for effective remedies for those who are homeless. The revised European Social Charter, in its article 31, includes the obligation "to prevent and reduce homelessness with a view to its gradual elimination". In European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) v. France, the European Social Rights Committee held that "the measures currently in place to reduce the number of homeless are insufficient, both in quantitative and qualitative terms", and constituted a violation of article 31.2 of the Charter.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
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Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 43
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- Homelessness among children and young people has reached critical proportions. Factors that push children into leaving home include parents' unemployment and poverty; family disintegration and parental abuse; parental drug and alcohol addictions; and being orphaned owing to HIV/AIDS, Ebola, armed conflict or natural disaster. Some families, unable to support children because of extreme poverty, abandon or send them to urban areas to work. Children raised in residential institutions often find themselves homeless when they reach the age at which institutional care ceases. Identified "pull" factors include "spatial freedom, financial independence, adventure, city glamour and street-based friendships or gangs".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- The Constitutional Court of Colombia has also made significant advances in the understanding of the connection between the right to life and the right to adequate housing. In its historic T-025 decision on the constitutional obligation to address the needs of internally displaced persons, the Constitutional Court affirmed that the right to life requires positive measures, many of which can only be implemented over a period of time, to address the needs of internally displaced persons in the fields of housing, access to productive projects, health care, education and humanitarian aid.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- Advances in the understanding of the right to life and the right to adequate housing by regional bodies and domestic courts provide a solid platform for a reunified approach to these rights at the international level, consistent with the principles of universality, indivisibility and interdependence. More importantly, rights holders living the connection between the right to life and the right to adequate housing must have their claims heard and responded to. The international human rights system must lead, not resist, the move towards a more inclusive understanding of these rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 88
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- Instead of being treated as a group of rights bearers whose rights have been systematically violated, homeless people have become a stigmatized group subject to criminalization, discrimination and social exclusion. To be homeless is to experience acts of violence, a shortened life span and ill-health and to be criminalized for survival strategies for eating or sleeping in public space. Homeless people are rendered voiceless and invisible, banished to the peripheries of cities and towns, out of sight. Their humanity and dignity are rarely considered in legislation, public policies and strategies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 90
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- From a human rights perspective, State obligations in relation to homelessness are well established and have been clearly articulated. These include the following immediate obligations of States: (a) to adopt and implement strategies to eliminate homelessness, with clear goals, targets and timelines; (b) to eliminate the practice of forced eviction, especially where it will lead to homelessness; (c) to combat and prohibit in law discrimination, stigma and negative stereotyping of homeless people; (d) to ensure access to legal remedies for violations of rights, including for the failure of States to take positive measures to address homelessness; and (e) to regulate third-party actors so that their actions are consistent with the elimination of homelessness and do not discriminate either directly or indirectly against homeless people.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 18
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- A human rights definition of homelessness undermines "moral" explanations of homelessness as personal failures to be solved with acts of charity and instead reveals patterns of inequality and injustice that deny those who are homeless their rights to be equal members of society.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 89
- Paragraph text
- Failures to measure and document homelessness effectively, including in its less visible forms and in its more qualitative dimensions, have contributed to the lack of State-led or global responses. The absence of any reference to homelessness in development goals attests to the continued marginalization of homeless people.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Different definitions of homelessness serve different purposes. A universally applied definition with common measurement, as proposed by the Institute of Global Homelessness could play an important role in promoting enhanced State accountability and informing development goals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Measuring the extent of homelessness among different groups helps to assess priorities, ensure effective design and implementation of policy responses and determine whether States are meeting their human rights obligations. According to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States have an obligation to measure the extent of homelessness, using data disaggregated by gender, race and other relevant characteristics, and to establish effective means of monitoring progress.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Homeless people are subject to constant intimidation, discrimination and harassment; they are denied access to places to shower, urinate, defecate or eat; they are rounded up and forced out of cities and relocated to remote locations where no one wants to live; and they are subject to extreme forms of violence (A/HRC/31/54, para. 21). Homeless women often have their children taken away from them by government officials on the basis that they cannot provide them with a life of security and dignity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The failure of States to address conditions in informal settlements creates multiple threats to life, dignity and security. Accidents are routine. Fires break out as a result of unauthorized electrical connections, of cooking on open flames indoors or of the use of highly flammable construction materials such as cardboard and plastics. Settlements are commonly built on treacherous land. Simple accidents become fatal when emergency services either cannot reach the site or are unwilling to enter the site.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Unregulated real estate and land speculation, predatory mortgage lending and deregulated global flows of capital have resulted in economic crises in countries around the world. The real estate "bubble" of the mid-1980s to 1990 in Japan, the financial crisis in Argentina in the 2000s and the 2007 mortgage crisis in many States, including the United States of America and several States in Western Europe, have all had devastating effects on low-income and poor households.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In spite of the obvious convergence of the right to life and the right to adequate housing, the separation of these human rights in two covenants has tended to impoverish understanding of the interplay between the two rights. In order to conform with traditional notions of justiciable civil and political rights, violations of the right to life have been addressed primarily in cases where direct action or deliberate omissions by States have deprived or threatened to deprive individuals of life.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- A similar paradox has emerged in the consideration under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of homelessness resulting from evictions and the demolition of housing. The catastrophic effects of homelessness on the right to life have been addressed as human rights violations, but only in the context of interference with the home. States' positive obligations to address circumstances of grossly inadequate housing in order to protect and ensure the right to life have not been addressed. In Georgopoulos et al. v. Greece (see CCPR/C/99/D/1799/2008) the Committee considered the case of a Roma family living in a settlement with no access to electricity or sanitation and only two taps providing running water for the settlement. The settlement was described by the Prime Minister's Advisor on Quality of Life, as the worst in Greece and "an insult to our humanity" (ibid., para. 2.1). All attempts to improve the community's living conditions or to relocate the residents to a better settlement had been abandoned because of hostility towards the Roma. When the Georgopoulos family left their shed for a period of time to seek seasonal employment, municipal officials demolished it and prevented the construction of a replacement. The Committee held that the demolition of the authors' shed and the prevention of construction of a new home amounted to a violation of articles 17 (interference with the home), 23 (protection of the family) and 27 (right to enjoy one's culture).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph