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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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The Constitutional Court of Colombia has also made important advances in that area. In 2004, in a ground-breaking ruling on the economic, social and cultural rights of internally displaced persons, the court ruled that there was an "unconstitutional state of affairs" as a result of the internal conflict. The Court also held the deteriorating housing conditions of internally displaced persons to be prima facie contrary to the Constitution. The national Government was ordered to implement a number of measures, including a housing plan that ensured local institutions provided equal benefits for displaced persons. In a follow-up ruling in 2006, the Court ordered relevant municipalities to organize a working group to review the housing policies in each jurisdiction, and to develop plans and programmes with direct participation of displaced persons, and with representatives of the National Human Rights Institution. The Court remained seized of the case, receiving trimestral reports from the different levels of government.
- Body
- 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
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reflection on work undertaken in first 14 years of the mandate; outline of opportunities and priorities 2014, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- The causes of homelessness and inadequate housing are multifarious, interrelated and complex. They include not only forced evictions and conflict, but also many other structural issues, such as inadequate services and infrastructure; barriers to access to credit; land speculation and zoning; displacement and migration; environmental degradation; and rapid urbanization and the development of megacities. Tackling the causes of homelessness often requires a multifaceted approach that relies on comprehensive and coordinated strategies, and is implemented in a collaborative fashion with various levels of government and relevant stakeholders. What is needed, as a starting point, is the articulation of key principles through which multiple policies and programmes can achieve a unified purpose and a coherent approach. The Special Rapporteur believes that a human rights approach to adequate housing and homelessness has much to offer in this regard and, if implemented, can be transformational, resulting in real change rather than a temporary fix.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
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. 40
- Paragraph text
- In some cases, survival strategies of those who are homeless or have no access to land have been criminalized (see A/66/265). Public space has become contested space: rather than being designed to meet the needs of those who are homeless as well as others, public spaces have been designed to drive out the homeless. In many developed countries it has become common to enact legislation prohibiting, and sometimes criminalizing, activities such as "loitering", "panhandling", outdoor charity food services and sleeping in public spaces. Park benches are even designed to prevent homeless people from lying down. Marginalized groups - particularly street children and those who are homeless - are "cleared" from urban areas in order to attract new businesses, tourists and investors or to host mega events (see A/HRC/13/20). In these ways, many of those who have come to cities as a result of displacement or discrimination find themselves revictimized by further displacement and discrimination.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
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. 34
- Paragraph text
- In the Special Rapporteur's view, there is a real risk that the implementation framework for the sustainable development goals will remain exclusively focused on statistical measurement and assessment without the meaningful accountability, participation, legislative action or access to justice that is required for the realization of all human rights. International human rights standards regarding development-based displacement, allocation of maximum of available resources, the adoption of national and urban housing and homelessness strategies and the obligation to take immediate steps to address discrimination and inequality - all of which are key to the enjoyment of the right to housing - have thus far not received much attention in discussions. In general, the continued neglect of the right to adequate housing in the sustainable development goals creates well-founded concern that commitments made to the right to adequate housing at Habitat III might very well be sidelined.
- Body
- 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
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The impact of housing finance policies on the right to adequate housing of those living in poverty 2012, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The discrepancy between income levels and soaring housing and rental prices coupled with unemployment led to increased payment default, foreclosures and homelessness. These processes were exacerbated by the adoption of legal and institutional adjustments aimed at facilitating foreclosure, which have been promoted in recent years as "imperatives for developing a housing finance system". The paradigm that promoted homeownership as the most secure form of tenure has been proven false, as increasing foreclosure rates have been one of the main results of the recent crises. In Spain, more than 350,000 foreclosures have occurred since 2007 and in 2011, about 212 foreclosures and 159 evictions occurred daily. The crisis has disproportionately affected the poorest and most vulnerable, who were the "last" to join the mortgage markets and the first to suffer the consequences of the crises owing to their low resilience to economic shocks and low repayment abilities. Recent research indicates that the majority (70 per cent) of defaults in Spain are related to the unemployment crisis and that 35 per cent of the foreclosed properties belong to migrants.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- This recognition of a multiplicity of legitimate tenure forms, together with the obligation to offer protection to those holding them, is of great importance in developing responses to housing destruction or the displacement of residents. Security of tenure is essential for the realization of the right to adequate housing and has a great impact on location as another fundamental element of adequacy. Paradoxically, the absence of such security is often a pre-existing contributory cause of conflict and vulnerability to disaster. In trying to address housing rights in post-disaster and post-conflict situations, it is therefore important to investigate the tenure security challenges presented by those situations. Post-crisis responses to housing destruction and/or displacement that fail to take this into account are likely to be counterproductive, and could even themselves become drivers of future conflicts, dispossession and exacerbation of vulnerabilities. On the other hand, timely and decisive responses built on informed assessment and analysis of those underlying challenges can contribute significantly to strategies for restoration, reconstruction and development.
- Body
- 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Migrant domestic workers often live in their house of employment. Sometimes their visa requirements legally bind them to reside with their employers. In this context, migrant women are known frequently to endure unsafe and unhealthy living conditions and substandard accommodations, without essential facilities, insufficient space and lack of privacy or security. In some cases migrant workers are forced to sleep in the bathroom, kitchen or closet. Concerns have also been raised about the vulnerability of migrant domestic workers to domestic violence, sexual harassment, forced confinement and other abuse in their place of residence. Migrant women are all the more vulnerable when fear of eviction or deportation and lack of awareness about their rights prevent them from denouncing violence or unhealthy living conditions. When domestic workers report these abuses, the police have been known to dismiss their claims and return them to their employers. Migrant women victims of trafficking suffer further forms of abuse, often being confined in their workplace in degrading conditions, forced to work 20 hours a day, prevented from any external contact and receiving no salary (see also A/HRC/14/30, para. 55).
- Body
- 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
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- The living conditions of migrants housed by their employers, described above, fully applies to undocumented migrants in similar conditions. Indeed, because of their legal status, undocumented migrants are more likely to find themselves in this kind of working arrangement. Moreover, they are on many occasions subject to exploitative working conditions. Lacking formal recognition in the country of destination, undocumented migrants are unaccounted for and can often become victims of trafficking and slavery-like conditions. Cases have been widely reported of migrants whose employers steal their passports or national identity cards and force them to work and live in sweatshops, where they are housed in small overcrowded rooms and barred from leaving the premises. For example, in Argentina, migrants from neighbouring countries and their children have been found locked up and sleeping in small storerooms in the clandestine cloth factories in which they worked. It is worth recalling the responsibility of States to protect migrants who become trafficking victims from these hideous practices, as well as to prosecute and sanction the perpetrators and provide redress to the victims.
- Body
- 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
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
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. 66
- Paragraph text
- Human rights must be accorded a status of paramountcy within urban law so as to guide the design, interpretation and application of all other laws, policies and programmes. Paramountcy of human rights means that decision makers are legally required to consider and apply the right to housing in their areas of responsibility. Planners must recognize in situ rights of those living in informal settlements. A tribunal or court reviewing intended evictions needs to consider all possible alternatives and, if evictions are unavoidable, ensure that those being displaced have been fully consulted and engaged and provided with adequate and appropriate alternative housing. Zoning laws, property rights or urban development plans must be developed in consultation with and with the participation of those who will be directly affected and assessed in terms of their effect on marginalized or vulnerable groups. Any officials engaged in administering laws or policies linked to the right to housing should be provided with training in the meaning and application of the right to housing in their areas of responsibility.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
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. 46
- Paragraph text
- While the structural causes of migration and displacement must be addressed by all levels of government and by the international community, the need of new arrivals for housing and related services, as well as their related need to retain their cultural practices, identity and sense of community, must be met in cities. Local governments are increasingly responsible for addressing housing needs linked to migration and displacement to cities, yet they often lack the necessary resources and capacity to provide adequate housing and services. Moreover, local governments may themselves respond in a discriminatory and punitive fashion to migrants or the internally displaced. It has become alarmingly common for foreign migrants, especially those who are undocumented, to be deprived of social protection, including emergency shelters, in cities - sometimes at the insistence of national-level Governments that provide funding for housing and social protection programmes. Such discrimination and the resulting homelessness among migrants impose further costs on cities. Ensuring that migrants have a secure place to live, can access rental accommodation and can choose to live in the most appropriate and affordable neighbourhoods is essential to combatting their exclusion and imbuing in them a sense of belonging in the city.
- Body
- 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
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Administrative and judicial procedures for the recognition of adverse possession should be simple, prompt and affordable. Both individual and collective adverse possession should be recognized. Where owners have been forcibly displaced or forced to flee their homes, caution should be exercised to ensure that one's right of adverse possession does not obstruct others' right to return.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reflection on work undertaken in first 14 years of the mandate; outline of opportunities and priorities 2014, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- There are a number of issues that are global or transnational in scope and that have a direct impact on the right to adequate housing in many countries. Global actors such as transnational corporations and multilateral or bilateral financial institutions, and United Nations agencies play significant roles in relation to the right to adequate housing. The actions of transnational extractive industries or development projects, sometimes initiated and overseen by multiple partners, including international financial institutions, may have far-reaching effects on the right to adequate housing, including large-scale displacements, the destruction of sources of livelihood and forced evictions. Similarly, trade and investment agreements and investor dispute mechanisms increasingly involve important issues of public policy and often fail to ensure the consideration of fundamental rights such as the right to adequate housing. These problems have led to important work to assess and clarify issues of corporate accountability, extraterritorial obligations and human rights in relation to trade and investment agreements. The Special Rapporteur expects to be actively engaged with respect to these emerging issues as they relate to 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
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reflection on work undertaken in first 14 years of the mandate; outline of opportunities and priorities 2014, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Work that has been done on equality and non-discrimination in relation to other groups, such as persons with disabilities and migrants, has also advanced understanding of the intersection of equality and non-discrimination with economic, social and cultural rights, including 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
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 97
- Paragraph text
- Recognition and protection of security of tenure is one of the most compelling challenges of today's world and is fundamental to preventing the most egregious forms of eviction, displacement and homelessness. Furthermore, security of tenure, as the cornerstone of the right to adequate housing, is essential for human dignity and to sustain an adequate standard of living.
- Body
- 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
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 95
- Paragraph text
- Progress has been made in recent years, with some humanitarian actors explicitly addressing issues of tenure for the most disadvantaged. For instance, several agencies have worked to record rights to housing and land at an early stage of displacement; to upgrade and regularize IDP settlements; and to support the most vulnerable through legal aid on housing, land and property issues, both in statutory and customary law contexts.
- Body
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- Conflicts and natural disasters tend to exacerbate tenure insecurity for affected populations, in particular displaced persons, and heighten the risks of forced evictions. Displacement resulting from conflict or disaster creates risks for forced evictions, confiscation, land grabs, abusive or fraudulent sale or occupation of land and 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)
- Environment
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Conflicts and natural disasters, including those exacerbated by climate change, also trigger displacement and can undermine security of tenure. Over 26 million people were internally displaced at the end of 2011 due to armed conflicts, violence or human rights violations, while nearly 15 million were displaced due to natural hazards.
- Body
- 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
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Where evictions are lawful under international human rights law, at no time shall acts of violence and harassment against women be tolerated. As the basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement underscore, States must ensure "that women are not subject to gender-based violence and discrimination in the course of evictions."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- The case of post-conflict Rwanda illustrates the use of a top-down developmental approach to land allocation, resettlement and housing in an effort to deal with the legacy of dispossession and displacement in the years leading up to and immediately following the 1994 Genocide. The majority of Rwandans had experience of forced displacement, either within the country or to a second or even third country, a reality which has shaped all subsequent efforts to manage land issues and to realize housing rights. From 1997 the Government attempted to implement the imidugudu (villagization) model nationwide, requiring the entire rural population of Rwanda to be concentrated in rural villages instead of the traditionally scattered settlement patterns. Any further construction outside of dedicated village sites would be forbidden, while people were forced by the authorities to abandon and destroy their homes near their fields. Justified and pursued as an emergency shelter policy to deal with successive waves of approximately 2.5 million "old case" and "new case" refugees returning home after 1994, the imidugudu model had longer-term demographic, economic and governance goals. In the north-west of the country, it also served as a counterinsurgency measure in the context of incursions from ex-FAR and Interahamwe in Congo and violent reaction from Government troops.
- Body
- 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
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- LMPAP was able to accomplish a number of its goals including the development of key parts of the legal framework and the issuing of around 1.3 million land titles. However, "despite these achievements, the failure of the project to tackle fundamental inequities in the control and management of land meant that it did not improve tenure security for the segments of Cambodian society that are vulnerable to displacement." Those who had less formal rights saw their security of tenure undermined: "The recognition of possession rights in the 2001 Land Law, including the right to convert possession into full ownership through title, was intended as a mechanism to incorporate this pre-existing tenure system into the formal centralized system….[However these] legal possessors are accused of being 'illegal squatters' because they do not have 'hard' formal title, and this in turn has become a common justification for eviction….By expanding the reach of the formal titling system, LMAP has increased the actual and perceived superiority of hard titles issued under the project vis-à-vis soft titles issued under the pre-existing tenure system. LMAP has thus unwittingly weakened the tenure status of those households who have been excluded from the formal system and must continue to rely on their 'soft titles' as proof of their rights to the land."
- Body
- 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
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Another significant post-conflict case is Cambodia, a country still recovering from the destructiveness of the Khmer Rouge era. Among other things, the Khmer Rouge systematically destroyed the prior land tenure system, forcibly evicted millions of people from their homes (including emptying the city of Phnom Penh), and destroyed land ownership records. Despite the passage of new land laws, weaknesses in the rule of law and lack of institutional capacity have allowed a culture of corruption and have facilitated land-grabbing, often by elites at the expense of the poor. A recent claim to the World Bank Inspection Panel, brought on behalf of people threatened with eviction from their homes near Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh, illustrates some of these problems. The claimants challenged the design and implementation of the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which was designed to support the Land Law of 2001. The project, funded primarily by the World Bank, "aimed at developing a land policy and regulatory framework, building capacity of the relevant Government agencies, developing a land registration system and a titling program, strengthening mechanisms for land disputes and developing State land management."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The right to adequate housing can be severely compromised by disasters and conflicts, through damage and destruction, loss of records and the displacement of individuals, families and communities. While the numbers of people affected are often staggering, the impact of conflicts and disasters on this right should not be measured simply in terms of numbers of physical assets destroyed and people displaced. It should also and perhaps primarily be understood in terms of the extent of disruption of social relationships, networks and assets; destruction of home-centred livelihoods built up over many years; and the undermining of complex, multi-layered land tenure rights. Destruction of housing as a physical asset can be addressed through repair, rehabilitation and reconstruction. This is an urgent and difficult enough task in the aftermath of disasters and conflicts. Destruction of housing as a social asset, on the other hand, requires more multi-faceted and longer-term responses based on a deeper understanding of the tenure systems and histories of the affected settlements and, in particular, of their poorer and marginalized residents. It also requires vigilance in the course of the restoration and reconstruction to ensure that previously held tenure rights are not undermined or diminished in any way but are, instead, protected and where possible strengthened.
- Body
- 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- There are similarities and differences between post-disaster and post-conflict contexts. While conflicts and disasters often result in large-scale human displacement, deliberate destruction of land records and systems is far more likely in post-conflict than in post-disaster contexts, as is the extent of secondary occupation of homes of those displaced. Housing rights issues in post-conflict situations arise mainly as a consequence of International Humanitarian Law or International Human Rights Law violations committed during the conflict. In post-conflict situations there is therefore the question of how to redress the situation, how to guarantee justice to the victims and support the reconciliation process. Peace agreements and the establishment of transitional justice law frameworks and mechanisms can constitute an opportunity to address the right to adequate housing during post-conflict situations but everything depends on if and how these questions are addressed by these mechanisms and frameworks. The fact that conflicts can last for a long time also implies important differences between post-conflict and post-disaster situations. While taking account of such differences, this report will mainly focus on common issues and questions that arise in both contexts.
- Body
- 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
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 64.3
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations:] All affected persons and groups should have access to information and be able to participate meaningfully in the planning and implementation of the various stages of the disaster response.
- Body
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Post-disaster situations are likely to be characterized not only by massive damage to housing but also by mass displacement, disruption of social networks and relationships, damage or lack of access to basic services and loss of livelihoods, employment, assets, or land, which are all key factors that have an impact on enjoyment of the right to adequate housing. However, reconstruction and efforts to ensure durable solutions have too often focused on the most tangible aspects of housing (the physical structures). International organizations and Governments are prone to assume that housing reconstruction is the main priority for affected persons, rather than livelihoods or neighbourhood infrastructure. When housing is assessed it is assessed as a technical or economic sector rather than as a human right, and the focus is on building and construction standards and materials, and on the quality of emergency and transitional shelters. In some cases the focus on property restitution has also been to the detriment of rebuilding and improving the broader social, political or economic conditions required to support sustainable return - jobs, basic services and infrastructure, and security. A commentator stated that, the "house" had become the measure of success of the return process rather than the actual welfare of the people displaced from their homes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Such examples could be seen as "constructive forced evictions". In such cases, international standards pertaining to forced eviction or arbitrary displacement apply. When forced eviction has been proved, people should have access to remedies, including to a fair hearing, access to legal counsel and to receiving reparation, such as housing or land restitution, adequate compensation, or alternative housing/land if they so choose.
- Body
- 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
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph