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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
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- There is a strong risk that when confronted with the challenge of addressing economic insecurity the human rights system will proceed in zombie mode. It will keep marching straight ahead on the path mapped out long ago, even as the lifeblood drains out of the enterprise. Its supervisory and monitoring organs will address themselves ever more insistently to State actors that have made themselves marginal, and they will continue to demand respect for standards that have long since been overtaken by the grim realities of global supply chains. For the most part, the human rights machinery is cumbersome, lacking in agility, and poorly placed to develop new thinking in such contexts. But it will need to do so if it is to remain relevant.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Corruption and the right to health 2017, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The lesser form of corruption, namely, petty corruption, is quite common in the health sector and includes informal payments from patient to health-care provider, absenteeism of health personnel and preferential treatment. These forms of corruption are also sometimes called “survival corruption”, as they are exacerbated by a lack of resources in health-care settings, poor working conditions, low pay, and hierarchical structures, which drive people to engage in such acts. There is evidence that this “microform” of corruption has a particularly negative effect on the poor in society, as they are often unable to pay the bribes necessary for a certain service.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 66a
- Paragraph text
- [Criteria and indicators should be strengthened in accordance with the benchmarks and indicators for ensuring trafficking-free supply chains proposed by the Special Rapporteur (A/HRC/23/48/Add.4, appendix I) and should include at a minimum the following indicators:] All workers have the freedom to terminate employment at any time, without penalty, by means of reasonable notice, in accordance with national law or collective agreement;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the context of business activities 2017, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The present general comment could also assist workers’ organizations and employers in the context of collective bargaining. A large number of States parties require workplace procedures for the examination of grievances brought by workers, individually or collectively, without threat of reprisal. Social dialogue and the availability of grievance mechanisms for workers could be more systematically relied upon, particularly for the implementation of articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 97
- Paragraph text
- States should ratify all relevant international instruments prohibiting trafficking in persons, forced labour, slavery and slavery-like practices, including the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, align their domestic legislation with international standards, criminalize all forms of trafficking in persons and impose adequate penalties for violations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- The starting point is to acknowledge that economic insecurity represents a fundamental threat to human rights. It is not only a threat to the enjoyment of economic and social rights, even though they are a principal concern. Extreme inequality, rapidly increasing insecurity, and the domination of politics by economic elites in many countries, all threaten to undermine support for, and ultimately the viability of, the democratic systems of governance upon which the human rights framework depends.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- The neoliberal policies encapsulated in the 1980s-era Washington Consensus can be seen, especially in retrospect, to have greatly exacerbated economic insecurity, whether or not that was the intent. The State was assumed to be intrinsically inefficient and corruption-prone, and this led to constant pressure to shrink all those parts of it that provided social and basic economic services to the populace, while vindicating and reinforcing the State in its role as the regulator facilitating and legitimizing the privatization of the economy. Social security and social protection was transformed, including through the explicit policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, into a minimalist notion of “social safety nets” designed to avoid the very worst outcomes and make the State look beneficent while empowering officials dedicated to devising ever more efficient “targeting” mechanisms and to rooting out overinclusion while playing down underinclusion. The objectives of promoting tax reform and prudent fiscal policies turned into a race to the bottom to set the lowest individual and corporate tax rates, attracting businesses through expensive exemptions, turning a blind eye to illegal or unconscionably evasive tax practices, and eliminating estate taxes and other measures that would bring about even minimal redistribution. Privatization was promoted even in relation to what were once seen as basic State functions, such as prisons, education and security. In some States, even the justice system has been partly privatized, whether through onerous court fees for the poor or the channelling of consumer and other complaints into private arbitration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the context of business activities 2017, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to protect means that States parties must prevent effectively infringements of economic, social and cultural rights in the context of business activities. This requires that States parties adopt legislative, administrative, educational and other appropriate measures, to ensure effective protection against Covenant rights violations linked to business activities, and that they provide victims of such corporate abuses with access to effective remedies.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extra-custodial use of force and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 2017, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur specifically welcomes prohibitions and restrictions introduced on the trade in certain goods that could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by European Council Regulation No. 1236/2005 of 27 June 2005 and encourages other States to take similar initiatives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- 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. 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
State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the context of business activities 2017, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to fulfil requires States parties to take necessary steps, to the maximum of their available resources, to facilitate and promote the enjoyment of Covenant rights, and, in certain cases, to directly provide goods and services essential to such enjoyment. Discharging such duties may require the mobilization of resources by the State, including by enforcing progressive taxation schemes. It may require seeking business cooperation and support to implement the Covenant rights and comply with other human rights standards and principles.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 106
- Paragraph text
- States should ensure workers have access to free, comprehensive and accurate information regarding their rights and the conditions of their recruitment and employment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 66p
- Paragraph text
- [Criteria and indicators should be strengthened in accordance with the benchmarks and indicators for ensuring trafficking-free supply chains proposed by the Special Rapporteur (A/HRC/23/48/Add.4, appendix I) and should include at a minimum the following indicators:] Workers are not physically confined to the workplace and do not face restrictions, including psychological intimidation and/or verbal threats, on their freedom of movement outside working hours and in related premises, such as dormitories or residences;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Similarly, formal sanitation service providers, whether urban or rural, typically do not report data to regulatory authorities. While a regulatory framework and standards for sewerage networks are generally available, they are not always effectively put in place and monitored. Sewerage systems often raise affordability concerns for the State, the service provider and the user and require careful monitoring. Connection charges may prevent poorer households from making use of this service, unless appropriate regulation is in place to ensure affordability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- 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
State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the context of business activities 2017, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Whereas States parties would not normally be held directly internationally responsible for a violation of economic, social and cultural rights caused by a private entity’s conduct (except in the three scenarios recalled in para. 11 of the present general comment), a State party would be in breach of its obligations under the Covenant where the violation reveals a failure by the State to take reasonable measures that could have prevented the occurrence of the event. The responsibility of the State can be engaged in such circumstances even if other causes have also contributed to the occurrence of the violation, and even if the State had not foreseen that a violation would occur, provided such a violation was reasonably foreseeable. For instance, considering the well-documented risks associated with the extractive industry, particular due diligence is required with respect to mining-related projects and oil development projects.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Regulation must provide a multifaceted and contextual interpretation of affordability, in line with the human rights framework. National standards must ensure that water and sanitation services, whether privately or publicly provided, are affordable for all, including the poorest, and that water and sanitation tariffs do not compromise or threaten the realization of other rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains 2017, para. 103
- Paragraph text
- States should ensure that there is an effective and sufficiently resourced labour inspectorate, and that its staff is empowered and trained to investigate and intervene at all stages of the recruitment process and employment for all workers and all enterprises, and to monitor and evaluate the operations of all labour recruiters.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 89d
- Paragraph text
- [In line with the above, the Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Ensure that regulatory frameworks provide a multifaceted and differentiated interpretation of affordability, capturing the specific needs of those living in vulnerable situations;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Second, the right to work, the right to social security, and above all the right to an adequate standard of living need to be given a prominent place on the human rights community’s agenda. If these rights are marginalized, the overall agenda will become increasingly less relevant to the most pressing and urgent questions of the day.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Therefore, in regulating water and sanitation services, it should be recognized, as a starting point, that water and sanitation are human rights derived from the right to an adequate standard of living (see art. 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and are inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (see art. 12 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), as well as to the right to life (see art. 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and the right to human dignity (see arts. 1 and 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). According to international human rights law, the human right to water entitles everyone, without discrimination, to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use. The human right to sanitation entitles everyone, without discrimination, to have physical and affordable access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, that is safe, hygienic, secure and socially and culturally acceptable and that provides privacy and ensures dignity. From a human rights perspective, the ultimate objective of regulation is to give practical meaning to the normative content of these rights, as follows:
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 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. 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
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- In their key areas of action, which include standard-setting, monitoring and ensuring accountability for service provision, regulatory actors are bound by the principle of progressive realization, but also by the immediate obligation of non-discrimination and the obligation to take steps towards the full realization of these rights. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights underscores that the enjoyment of the human rights to water and sanitation without discrimination of any kind can be compromised not only through direct action or omission by States, but also through State institutions or agencies at the national and local levels, which includes regulatory actors. For regulatory actors to meet their immediate obligations of equality and non-discrimination, they must, when regulating tariffs, consider those who do not have the economic ability to pay for services, and implement mechanisms for their protection; they must also ensure that service providers deliver services to poorer neighbourhoods and informal settlements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Service regulation and human rights to water and sanitation 2017, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- Promoting the affordability of services, together with a level of cost recovery that meets the requirements for financial sustainability, is a major challenge for regulatory frameworks. Regulatory actors must strike the fine balance between enabling service providers to adequately perform operational and maintenance activities, considering infrastructural, environmental and resource costs, and ensuring affordability. Economic perspectives and human rights perspectives are possible to reconcile, requiring from regulatory actors innovative approaches and a redesign of economic instruments in some situations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The Special Rapporteur's vision of the mandate 2017, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur will cooperate with international organizations both inside and outside the United Nations system, in particular ILO, while being mindful of paragraph 5 (g) of Human Rights Council resolution 15/21, according to which her tasks include undertaking activities “such that the present mandate will not include those matters of specific competence of the International Labour Organization and its specialized supervisory mechanisms and procedures with respect to employers’ and workers’ rights to freedom of association, with a view to avoiding any duplication”.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Third, contrary to the orthodoxy promoted by economic institutions and corporate actors in recent years, there needs to be a resurgence of support for the central role of the State, and recognition of the importance of fair and progressive fiscal policies, and of the indispensability of policies to ensure redistributive justice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph