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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 5 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The right to adequate housing is most clearly recognized by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (article 11). The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights underlined the importance of interpreting the right in broad terms, identifying seven aspects of the right that States must progressively realize: security of tenure; availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; affordability; habitability; accessibility; location; and cultural adequacy. All the aspects and safeguards pertaining to eviction and resettlement derived from the right are relevant to disaster response, as are the human rights principles of participation and non-discrimination and equality. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 34 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | A number of successful rehabilitation and reconstruction initiatives in Honduras, where undisputed land was available at a reasonable distance from livelihood opportunities and facilities, illustrated how settlement development could be an appropriate means to support disaster-affected populations and introduce better practices in areas such as site planning, house design, use and production of building materials, water supply and sanitation and environmental protection. Cases such as El Progreso and Choluteca also included direct involvement by local authorities working in collaborating with other support institutions as well as members of the beneficiary community, all with the help of unprecedented levels of support from donors and relief organizations. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 37 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Given the urgent, crisis nature of post-conflict and post-disaster situations, the approach of collecting and analysing detailed information, and of direct participation by the people affected, may seem difficult to achieve. This approach is likely to contradict powerful humanitarian and political pressures that emphasize speedy resettlement, rebuilding and re-housing. In post-conflict and post-disaster situations, "quick wins" easily become equated with rapid physical delivery, often with scant consideration, or even awareness, of possible counterproductive longer-term consequences. Getting "policy choices" right in the field of land and housing requires, in normal circumstances, the undertaking of complex analytical processes. In the midst of crises, the need for speedy decisions and practical livelihood support-oriented action may run counter to the need for caution and for intensive consultation with those directly affected. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 56 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | From a human rights perspective, investment in upgrading settlements characterized by grossly inadequate living conditions as part of disaster response is not only legitimate but also indispensable, bearing in mind the obligation of non discrimination and attention to the most vulnerable. Moreover, for principled and pragmatic reasons, in a number of contexts it would be important to address the situation from a longer-term perspective: in the context of Haiti, this means a focus on improving conditions in settlements not damaged by the disaster (provided they are not in disaster-prone areas) but with the same urbanistic and vulnerability characteristics as those affected by it. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 57 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Given the lessons of the past two decades, and the institutional reforms already initiated, humanitarian agencies, and one would assume bilateral donors, are now much more aware of the risk of doing unintended long-term harm through well-meaning early action which ends up increasing the vulnerability of the poor. In the area of the right to adequate housing and particularly on the issues of security of tenure, location, cultural adequacy and availability of services, facilities and infrastructure, at least, the time has come for "Do no harm" guidelines to move to a next step where specific tools for timely analysis and proactive interventions ("Do the right thing") are provided at the field level. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 45 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | For low-income households, ensuring a high degree of security of tenure in the private rental market is of the utmost importance since poor tenants cannot afford the costs associated with a change of dwelling or with challenging evictions and cannot compete in a completely unregulated private rental market (even when receiving housing benefits). It is therefore also necessary to ensure that regulation and accountability are respected in order to prevent economic de facto evictions and to enable low-income households to access affordable rental housing in urban areas that are well located. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 54 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The existing gaps are complex and difficult to overcome as they are deeply rooted in culture, discriminatory social attitudes and practices, as well as weak or gender-blind systems which delay progress in the realization of the right, and fail to effectively make visible the existing barriers. Those challenges require more than ordinary efforts to enforce laws and put policies into practice; additional actions directed to provoke those changes in cultural patterns are required, and this can be obtained particularly through the combination of awareness-raising and public education, as well as through legal enforcement and legal aid, and provision of appropriate resources through the adoption of specific budgetary measures. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 64 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stressed that discrimination on the grounds of property status or place of residence is prohibited under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Property status includes those holding real property (for example land ownership or tenure) and those who lack it. The Committee further clarified that the exercise of Covenant rights, such as access to water or protection from forced eviction, should not be conditional on, or determined by, a person's current or former place of residence, or land tenure status, such as living in an informal settlement. Furthermore, the Committee has noted that States parties must give due priority to those social groups living in unfavourable conditions by giving them particular consideration. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 35 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | States should establish, in consultation with communities, a local dispute resolution mechanism, which is socially legitimate and culturally appropriate, to address disputes that arise during these processes. Dispute resolution mechanisms should be impartial, fair, competent, transparent and human rights-compatible, and affordable and accessible to all. Negotiation and mediation between parties to a dispute should be encouraged wherever possible in order to promote mutually beneficial outcomes that secure the tenure rights of all parties. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Reflection on work undertaken in first 14 years of the mandate; outline of opportunities and priorities 2014, para. 67 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Homelessness is at the end of the housing spectrum and must be understood as a prima facie violation of the right to adequate housing (i.e., where any significant number of individuals are deprived of basic shelter or housing, a State is prima facie failing to discharge its international human rights obligations). During her mandate, the Special Rapporteur intends to organize consultations and expert discussions to explore various dimensions of this violation of the right to adequate housing, including the obligation of the State to address homelessness. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 11 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Possession rights. The legal recognition of the rights of those occupying public, private or community land and housing for a prescribed period, through adverse possession of land and housing, above the rights of absentee owners or the State, is an important measure to ensure that land and housing is being used in the most socially productive manner and to fulfil the right to adequate housing for all. For example, article 183 of the Brazilian Constitution recognizes usucapio of urban land used for a home after five years of possession without interruption or opposition, provided that the possessor does not own any other property. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 13 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Use rights. The right of people to use public or private property for their housing needs under certain conditions should be recognized and protected in law and policy. For example, in Trinidad and Tobago, Certificates of Comfort give the holders a right not to be removed from the plot unless resettlement is deemed necessary and an alternative plot is identified and made available. In Mozambique, a right to use and improve State land can be granted to individuals or groups, which allows persons to mortgage or sell their buildings and other improvements on that land. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 53 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Access to social security. Social security is critical to guaranteeing human dignity and the enjoyment of human rights when people are faced with circumstances that deprive them of their capacity to otherwise realize them. Sometimes homeless persons or individuals without a registered address are unable to access social security either owing to eligibility criteria or indirect bureaucratic obstacles. These obstacles amount to discrimination on the basis of tenure status. States should take all necessary steps to remove barriers faced by persons who are homeless or have an ambiguous tenure status in receiving social security, including by ensuring that a registered address and other residence requirements are not a de jure or de facto prerequisite to receiving benefits. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 80 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The urban poor face significant barriers in accessing justice, owing to, inter alia, political influence and corruption in courts and administrative bodies; prohibitive costs of legal representation; absence of legal information; and lack of legal recognition of persons without official identity documentation, including a registered address. States should take all measures to remove these barriers and ensure that the urban poor can access effective remedies through a range of judicial and administrative mechanisms. As an alternative to the courts, land dispute and grievance mechanisms that are inexpensive, accessible, socially legitimate and rule-bound should be established. States should establish, fund and enable legal aid and assistance for the urban poor, in order to address power asymmetries that pervade conflicts over land and obstruct access to justice. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 81 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Remedies for violations of the right to adequate housing may include restitution, reparation, the provision of alternative adequate housing, rehabilitation of housing or livelihoods, financial or non-financial compensation for loss and damage, and punitive sanctions against the perpetrator. An injunction, precautionary measures or other judicial or administrative intervention may be required to prevent imminent forced eviction or other violation. Remedies may also include repeal or amendment of law or policy and quashing of administrative decisions. In this regard, States should ensure that policies and decisions affecting tenure security are subject to administrative and judicial review. In the case of an unjustified failure of the State to adopt appropriate and timely measures to address tenure insecurity taking into account its use of available resources, redress may include an injunction to devise and implement a reasonable plan of action towards security of tenure for aggrieved groups. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 11 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Achieving the objectives of Habitat III will rely on the unique ability of human rights to effect transformative change through the application of universal norms and guiding principles to specific contexts and in response to emerging challenges. This essentially describes the key features and benefits of a human rights approach. Human rights can effect the kind of spatial, geographic, social and attitudinal change required to address the structural causes of exclusion and inequality, so that cities become places of opportunity and well-being for everyone - where adequate housing, food, water and sanitation, education, employment and health are realized as fundamental rights. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 55 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Land administration programmes, housing policies and urban planning. Discrimination on the basis of tenure status is prevalent in land, housing and urban policies. Land administration programmes typically only register freehold rights, while ignoring the multiple other existing tenure forms. Housing policies commonly also promote freehold, with benefits and support, such as access to finance, made conditional on homeownership. Meanwhile, many urban planning processes aim to benefit only those with registered tenure rights and fail to take into account the circumstances of urban poor communities whose arrangements are not legally recognized. These exclusions impair the enjoyment of human rights by those without freehold or other legally recognized tenure rights vis-a-vis other sectors of the population. States should ensure that land administration, housing policies and urban plans protect and secure a variety of tenure arrangements, prioritizing the most vulnerable and marginalized. For example, the Mexico City Housing Improvement Programme offers credit regardless of tenure status. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 56 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Land acquisition. Land occupied by urban poor households with an ambiguous tenure status is disproportionately acquired by States for "public purpose" projects, such as infrastructure development, requiring the eviction of residents. This situation may amount to discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing on the basis of tenure and economic status. In selecting sites for public purpose projects, States should ensure that the urban poor are not disproportionately affected, and that all alternatives have been considered. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 57 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Police procedures. Residents of urban settlements and homeless persons face disproportionate levels of police intervention and use of force without due process. In many countries, police enter homes in poor settlements, sometimes in major operations, without a court order, violating residents' rights to protection against arbitrary interference with their privacy, family and home. Homeless persons, who have no choice but to sleep, eat and conduct other life-sustaining activities in publics spaces are commonly harassed, fined and detained for doing so. Police must follow due process and respect human rights in conducting law enforcement activities, including in urban settlements, and ensure that any use of force is strictly necessary and proportional to lawful objectives. States should decriminalize homelessness and ensure full respect by police of human rights of homeless persons. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Centrality of the right to adequate housing for the development and implementation of the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III in October 2016 2015, para. 31 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Millennium Development Goals had a direct and detrimental impact on the development of a rights-based pro-housing urban agenda. Essential aspects of the right to housing in urban centres were rendered invisible, in particular, security of tenure, homelessness, adequate location and affordability of housing and related services - none of which were referenced in the Goals. The focus on housing structures and bathrooms in target 7.D diverted attention from the critical economic, social, governance and environmental challenges of urbanization identified by Habitat II. Moreover, the Millennium Development Goals lacked accountability mechanisms, with no reference to meaningful engagement with rights holders, access to justice or the realization of the right to adequate housing as would have been the case had human rights been used to unite the Goal under a common framework for their implementation. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 19 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Decentralization has been strongly promoted in the area of housing. The Habitat Agenda, adopted at the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul in 1996, affirmed that "Governments should strive to decentralize shelter policies and their administration to subnational and local levels within the national framework, whenever possible and as appropriate". Proponents of decentralization in housing related programmes have argued that it enables local participation in housing management and decision-making, avoids excessive bureaucracy, allows sensitivity to local needs, draws on local capacities, increases transparency and local control and allows for more creative and innovative programming. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 26 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | As noted by the former Special Rapporteur on adequate housing in the report on her mission to Indonesia (A/HRC/25/54/Add.1), as a result of decentralization, significant powers have been partially devolved to the provinces, districts and municipalities. However, the decentralization of planning and land administration did not appear supported by institutional capacity, resources or organizational tools (paras. 10-11). During her mission she identified many of the obstacles to the implementation of the right to adequate housing associated with decentralization when it is not properly informed by human rights, such as "the fragmentation of programmes between various agencies and the inefficiencies of existing coordinating mechanisms" (para. 25) and the limited capacity of local governments to provide alternative housing to people who had been evicted from their homes (para. 51). | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 16 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 71 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 72 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 52 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 29 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 67 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 56 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Special Rapporteur is concerned that victims of violations of rights to adequate housing by local and other subnational governments are often denied access to justice or effective remedies, even where constitutional provisions exist. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 |