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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
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. 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. 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
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
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. 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. 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. 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
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
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. 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
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
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. 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
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. 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
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
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. 71
- Paragraph text
- Fifty years after the separation of international human rights into the two covenants, the United Nations is well situated to retrieve a unified and inclusive understanding of human rights and to affirm that the right to life includes the right to a place to live in dignity and security, free of violence. The Human Rights Committee has the opportunity to affirm this integrated understanding of the right to life in the ongoing preparation of its general comment No. 36. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has the opportunity under its Optional Protocol to highlight the connection between the rights to life and adequate housing in lived experience. Other treaty monitoring bodies have the opportunity to ensure that the understanding of the rights to life and adequate housing is informed by the experiences and unique claims of people with disabilities, women, children, migrants, racial minorities and indigenous peoples, among others.
- Body
- 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
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to life and the right to adequate housing: the indivisibility and interdependence between these rights 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- There are approximately 232 million international migrants (Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, 2013) and 740 million internal migrants (United Nations Development Programme, 2009) in the world today. In many instances, migrants face discrimination and social exclusion in new communities, denying them access to a secure place to live. Migrants find themselves living in "first generation" informal settlements made up predominantly of recent arrivals, particularly in rapidly growing cities and megacities. These settlements tend to have the most deplorable conditions, lacking any official recognition by State authorities. Residents can be found living on a long-term basis in tents or other non-durable housing, with the constant threat of eviction, without adequate access to food or livelihoods and without any basic services, including water, sanitation, electricity and garbage collection. In Accra, Ghana, for example, a study revealed that 94 per cent of migrants in a settlement did not have toilet facilities.
- Body
- 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- 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. 32
- Paragraph text
- With the assignment of the right to life to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Human Rights Committee was charged with interpreting its universal meaning and clarifying State obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to life. Recent human rights treaties include the right to life as it applies to particular groups, specifically children, migrants and persons with disabilities. No doubt the interpretation of these provisions by treaty bodies will advance the understanding of the right to life in a manner that is informed by the lived experience of these different groups. To date, however, only the Human Rights Committee has adopted a general comment on this right, and all of the substantive jurisprudence on the right to life at the international level adjudicating allegations of violations of the right to life has emerged from cases under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In the light of this leading role, the Committee's jurisprudence requires considered attention.
- Body
- 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
- Persons on the move
- 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. 18
- Paragraph text
- Migrants constitute the majority of construction workers for mega-sporting event projects, tending to live in labour camps with deplorable conditions, at the mercy of private contractors and developers. Amnesty International has documented the conditions in labour camps in Qatar, finding unsanitary, overcrowded accommodations subject to flooding because of poor drainage, and a lack of safety measures such as fire alarm systems or fire extinguishers. Workers have no opportunity to have their conditions redressed. Migrant domestic workers have reported being forced to sleep in hallways, unprotected living spaces or closets of the homes in which they work. In some developed countries public shelters have refused to accommodate migrants or will only do so for limited periods of time. In these cases, migrants settle in slums, shacks and derelict or unfinished buildings.
- Body
- 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
- 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. 19
- Paragraph text
- Since 2008, an average of 26.4 million people each year have been displaced by natural disasters, including mudslides, earthquakes, floods, typhoons and tsunamis. The likelihood of being displaced by a disaster today is 60 per cent higher than it was four decades ago. Not surprisingly, a key factor of vulnerability is rapid, unplanned and poorly governed urbanization. The poorest and most precariously housed are disproportionately affected by natural disasters, often experiencing tragic consequences; they are also the least able to recover.
- Body
- 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
- 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. 65
- Paragraph text
- The new Constitution of Kenya (2010) includes both the right to life and the right to accessible and adequate housing as justiciable rights. Kenyan courts have affirmed an integrated understanding of the relationship between the two rights under the new Constitution. In the Garissa case, for example, a claim was filed on behalf of 1,122 people who were brutally evicted from land they had occupied since the 1940s. The High Court observed that the Constitution of Kenya recognizes all human rights as justiciable, noting that "people living without the basic necessities of life are deprived of human dignity, freedom and equality". The court found that the evictions violated the rights to life and to adequate housing and issued an injunction compelling the State to return the claimants to their land and to reconstruct their homes or provide alternative housing and other facilities. Similarly, in the Santrose Ayuma case, another large-scale eviction, the High Court found that evictions carried out without meaningful engagement with those affected and without provision of alternative shelter violated the rights to life and to adequate housing. The court insisted that resettlement plans be consistent with the right to a dignified 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)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- Seoul, in the Republic of Korea, has named itself a human rights city, having adopted an ordinance in 2012 to protect and promote human rights for its citizens. The ordinance establishes a Human Rights Division within the city government, human rights policies, a Committee on Human Rights and a Human Rights Ombudsperson to ensure access to remedies for rights violations. The Ombudsman has become a model for other local governments in the country. With respect to housing, Seoul has adopted measures and guidelines, particularly on forced evictions, to protect its residents. The guidelines are based on general comment No. 7 on forced evictions of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and prohibit evictions in winter or at night and require civil servants to be present to monitor any human rights violations when executing an eviction and to provide adequate remedies to those who are evicted, among others.
- Body
- 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
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 21d
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has identified a number of common challenges experienced at the local level with respect to the implementation of the right to adequate housing:] Protectionism and discrimination: When communities define themselves around a local identity, there can be a tendency to exclude perceived "outsiders", such as migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and ethnic, religious or other minorities. That often leads to discriminatory barriers in accessing and maintaining adequate housing and related programmes. Scapegoating, stigmatization and discrimination against homeless people can also be more pronounced at the local level, where communities may define themselves as homogeneous and coalesce to drive disadvantaged groups out of local 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 on the move
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph