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Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- States should eliminate discrimination against women and girls in all matters related to inheritance, so they benefit from inheritance on an equal footing with men and boys. States should ensure that the application of customary law and practice does not interfere with the basic right of women and girls to gender equality, including in matters related to housing and land, such inheritance.
- Body
- 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
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Women who face intersectional discrimination are more vulnerable to losing their homes, and have more difficulty accessing adequate housing in the first place. In the case of women affected by HIV/AIDS, for example, advocates have shown how "One of the greatest obstacles HIV/AIDS infected women confront is their inability to secure property. Women's inability to possess and manage property may result in their impoverishment, particularly in cultures which have a propensity to humiliate or shun HIV/AIDS infected women and girls. In many cases, subsequent to the HIV/AIDS related deaths of male partners or disclosure of their HIV/AIDS status, women are divested of their marital property, inheritance rights, livelihoods, and at times even their children, by relatives who forcibly evict them from their homes." Yet, access to housing and land can also serve as a pivotal means by which to improve the lives of women affected by HIV/AIDS. There is growing evidence to suggest that where women's right to adequate housing is upheld, women are far better able to mitigate the negative impacts of AIDS, and that enjoyment of this right may even help to prevent further spread of HIV/AIDS by promoting women's economic security and empowerment. This example shows how the needs of women who are especially marginalized and disadvantaged must be prioritized.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Indeed, in its recent concluding observations on Kenya, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern over "the situation of women and girls living in urban slums and informal settlements and who are under threat of sexual violence and lack access to adequate to sanitation facilities, which exacerbate their risks of being victims of sexual violence and impact negatively on their health."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- States should ensure that housing includes water points and sanitation facilities available for and accessible to women, ensuring women their rights to water and sanitation, as well as to health. States should also ensure that housing is adequately located in order to provide women with access to employment options, health-care services, schools, childcare centres and other social facilities, such that they are non-discriminatory, adequate, available and fully accessible to women and girls.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- As awareness has grown, many countries have taken steps to amend their laws to ensure that women and girls are able to inherit housing, land and property on an equal basis with men and boys. In Sierra Leone, for example, equality in matters of inheritance is now provided for by a 2007 law, while the Registration of Customary Marriages and Divorce Act of 2007 (amended in 2009) recognizes the right of women to acquire and dispose of property in their own right, and to enter into contracts.
- Body
- 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
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- States should take measures to protect the tenure security and promote inheritance rights of women and girls in the case of the death of a spouse, father, brother, son or other male household member so that they are able to continue residing in the family home. States should also take measures to address the vulnerability of women and children to tenure insecurity due to a breakdown of spousal relations, including as a result of domestic violence. Women and children's security of tenure should be prioritized in these circumstances. Many legal systems authorize the victim of domestic violence to stay in the family home, and order the removal of the perpetrator. For example, in Serbia, the Family Law authorizes the courts to issue an order for the removal of the perpetrator of domestic violence from the family home, allowing the victim to remain in the home, regardless of ownership (art. 198 (2)). When remaining in the family home is not feasible, States should ensure victims have access to alternative adequate housing with secure tenure.
- Body
- 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
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- In order for housing to be adequate it must be situated so as to allow access to employment options, health-care services, schools, childcare centres and other social facilities. However, if these resources are effectively unavailable to women due to gender-based discrimination or lack of gender sensitivity, they are of no practical benefit to women and women remain just as excluded as if those resources were not present. Therefore, housing law, policy and programming must assure that women and girls are also able to benefit on an equal basis from these community resources, such that they are adequate, available and fully accessible to women and girls.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Water points and sanitation facilities must be made available and accessible to women, ensuring women's rights to water and sanitation, as well as to health. In order to ensure that women's needs are adequately reflected in housing law, policy, and programming, a human rights-based approach requires that women be able to participate in all stages of policy and programme development, so that they are able to give input into the kinds of resources most needed by them within their specific social and cultural context. For example, the recent Inter-Agency Standing Committee guidelines on addressing gender issues in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake of January 2010 highlighted that "it is essential that water and sanitation actors consult women and girls on the location of sanitation facilities to ensure that the route is safe; that latrines be well lit, lockable from the inside, and offer privacy."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Women's right to equality in matters of inheritance is also relevant within the context of Sharia law, the application of which particularly affects women in the Middle East and North Africa. While Sharia law generally supports women's rights to acquire, hold, use, administer and dispose of property, women and girls receive a lesser share than their male counterparts when it comes to matters of inheritance (generally half of what a male in the same position would be entitled to receive). Customary practices and traditional structures can also contribute to further aggravating the situation. A prime example is that women are often forced, due to social pressures, to renounce their already reduced share of the inheritance in favour of male members of the family. In order to discourage this practice, in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Deputy Supreme Judge of Palestine of the Head of the Upper Council of Sharia Jurisdictions issued a notice in 2011 in which he instructed relevant authorities to apply certain conditions before legalizing a woman's renunciation of her inheritance share, including that at least four months pass after a person's death before a renunciation of inheritance can be registered. The notice also instructs the relevant authorities to verify the real value of the inheritance share, relying on an official report by three experts authorized by the municipality or local council. This new protocol is aimed at helping women to retain their inheritance shares and protecting women from losses as a result of reduced valuations of those shares.
- Body
- 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Women's right to adequate housing is often denied or ignored within the broader context of family and marriage law. Equality in matters of inheritance is often denied for women and girls on the basis of custom and tradition, whether within the context of the death of a spouse, parent or other relative. This has important ramifications, as inheritance is a primary means by which wealth and resources are transferred within societies, as well as within families. To be excluded from the process of inheritance reinforces women's lack of autonomy and equality, and jeopardizes in a very direct way their right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
10 shown of 10 entities