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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
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
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
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
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
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The optimal means for determining housing or land claims for the purpose of reconstruction and return will depend on the particular context, in terms of tenure or property arrangements, formality and registration, and resources. As discussed, formal administrative or judicial property restitution mechanisms might not be applicable or appropriate in a number of situations, in particular those characterized by multiple tenure arrangements. The Protocol on the Property Rights of Returning Persons of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region offers a more comprehensive approach than the Pinheiro Principles in this regard, by providing that both administrative and traditional authorities should address property disputes, thereby acknowledging the importance of traditional and customary systems with regard to land. The Protocol also envisages alternative and informal community-based mechanisms for resolving disputes, using requirements of proof of ownership based upon testimony. In practice, organizations supporting return of refugees or displaced persons have often relied on customary law and traditional conflict resolution mechanisms to solve land disputes. Caution must however be exercised so that women or others particularly vulnerable to discrimination are not excluded or disadvantaged in these processes.
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Instead, most initiatives to address disasters from a human rights perspective have taken place with respect to specific groups, notably internally displaced persons and refugees. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement are essential in this regard. They have been recognized as a significant international framework for the protection of internally displaced persons in both post-conflict and post-disaster situations. While attention was at first geared to the protection of internally displaced persons in conflict and post-conflict situations, in recent years policy and operational guidelines have also been developed with respect to natural disasters, expanding the scope of application to all persons affected by disasters, including but not limited to internally displaced persons. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee Operational Guidelines on the Protection of Persons in Situations of Natural Disasters (Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines) is an important document in this regard. The Guidelines and the above-mentioned Guiding Principles recognize the right of persons displaced by conflict or disaster to durable solutions, namely, a return to their homes or places of habitual residence (and, as key condition for durable return, to have housing or land restored to them), relocation elsewhere or local integration.
- 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
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Several countries have adopted regulations to criminalize homeowners who accommodate undocumented migrants and legislation restricting the ability of non nationals to purchase private residences. These practices have an immediate detrimental effect on the right of migrants to adequate housing. By deliberately imposing limitations on the access to housing of non-citizens, States are interfering with the rights of migrants under their jurisdiction.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- In Singapore, for example, landlords can be convicted for housing undocumented migrants. Similarly, in Italy, homeowners renting to undocumented migrants may face up to three years' imprisonment. In this context, it is worth recalling that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in its resolution 1509 (2006), stressed that adequate housing and shelter guaranteeing human dignity should be afforded to irregular 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
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- For example in the Netherlands, African and Eastern European migrants are often housed with relatives or co-nationals, and a network has been created in the country to support and provide counselling to host families. In Belgium, local authorities in East Flanders and Brussels established shelters for undocumented migrants under the condition that they agree to register or prepare to return to their countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 82a (xv)
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- [In that regard, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations:] [In consultation with persons with disabilities and their organizations, States should:] Ensure that refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants with disabilities enjoy their right to adequate housing, notably by including the relevant international human rights provisions in the forthcoming global compact on refugees and the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
- 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. 54
- Paragraph text
- Article 9 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families affirms that the right to life of migrant workers and members of their families shall be protected by law. The Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers drew attention to violations of the right to life in the context of forced evictions of migrants from a public park in Buenos Aires which resulted in two deaths (see CMW/C/ARG/CO/1, para. 19).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- International human rights mechanisms have discussed the particular tenure situation of some groups and individuals, such as Roma or women, but have offered little guidance with respect to other groups. For instance, commentary in relation to the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) focuses only on a few issues (primarily housing or property restitution) and countries, and would thus warrant further elaboration. Other groups whose tenure needs require clarification are asylum seekers and 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)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Concerns have also been expressed over what has been called "the business of reconstruction", whereby the planning, financing and implementation of reconstruction are outsourced to private companies. In some cases, outsourcing reconstruction without putting adequate safeguards in place has been associated with negative impacts on the adequacy and affordability of reconstruction as well as on people's ability to participate in and benefit from reconstruction efforts. In Chile, following the earthquake and subsequent tsunami of February 2010, the private sector reportedly played a central role in the reconstruction of urban centres and coastal areas. Following one of the main principles of the national reconstruction plan, families have the choice to decide whether to rebuild their homes on the same sites of the collapsed buildings or to acquire a previously existing or a newly built house. However, as housing reconstruction was supported mainly by subsidies attached to individual property, private constructors preferred to rebuild housing in new areas on the outskirts of towns, rather than the central areas from which many people had been displaced, where land and housing prices were much higher. Real estate companies were also said to pressure families to sell land and housing at very low prices in a moment where they were very vulnerable, in order to make way for private redevelopment. This shows that if left only to the market, new housing for the poorest will likely be in the peripheries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- Transparency in the allocation of private housing is equally essential to ensure the appropriate treatment of migrants in the private housing sector. Besides monitoring the behaviour of the housing market in terms of rent prices and guarantees of fair and equal treatment, it is recommended that States establish mechanisms for the registration and regulation of private landlords, thus allowing for more effective monitoring of the allocation of housing 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
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- In addition to the more obvious requirements, within the framework of human rights, to ensure that housing developers exercise due diligence, comply with safety standards and adopt policies of non-discrimination, for example, States may also be required to ensure that investment in housing complies with a rights-based housing strategy and with the target of ensuring adequate housing for all by 2030. Private actors may be required to take particular steps to ensure access to credit for disadvantaged households and to address the needs of residents of informal settlements, women, migrants and people with disabilities. The obligation of States to facilitate the realization of the right to housing by establishing a coherent strategy at both the national and international levels with clearly allocated roles and responsibilities is central to the commitments made by States in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- International and domestic financial institutions and markets are created and sustained by Governments and must be made accountable to States' human rights obligations. Millions of foreclosures, evictions and displacements and more than a billion people living in grossly inadequate housing conditions and homelessness worldwide signal, among other things, the failure of States and of the international community to manage the interaction between financial actors and housing systems in accordance with the right to adequate housing. The absence of any effective human rights monitoring or accountability in that sphere also signals the underestimation on the part of Governments, international and national human rights bodies, domestic courts, lawyers and advocates of the role that domestic, regional and international human rights law could play as a framework for both regulating financial actors and engaging financial systems in the realization of the right to housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Elsewhere, financialization is linked to expanded credit and debt taken on by individual households made vulnerable to predatory lending practices and the volatility of markets, the result of which is unprecedented housing precarity. Financialized housing markets have caused displacement and evictions at an unparalleled scale: in the United States of America over the course of 5 years, over 13 million foreclosures resulted in more than 9 million households being evicted. In Spain, more than half a million foreclosures between 2008 and 2013 resulted in over 300,000 evictions. There were almost 1 million foreclosures between 2009 and 2012 in Hungary.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have developed important jurisprudence recognizing the obligation of the State to protect the special relationship between indigenous peoples and land in addressing violations in which, for example, members of indigenous communities have been "violently forced from their homes and traditional lands into a situation of ongoing displacement". In addition, in considering the plight of street-connected children, the Court has explained that the right to life requires States to take positive measures to ensure access to the conditions needed to lead a dignified life, recognizing that the right to life belongs "at the same time to the domain of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
- 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. 66
- Paragraph text
- The Constitutional Court of Colombia has also made significant advances in the understanding of the connection between the right to life and the right to adequate housing. In its historic T-025 decision on the constitutional obligation to address the needs of internally displaced persons, the Constitutional Court affirmed that the right to life requires positive measures, many of which can only be implemented over a period of time, to address the needs of internally displaced persons in the fields of housing, access to productive projects, health care, education and humanitarian aid.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- Seoul, in the Republic of Korea, has named itself a human rights city, having adopted an ordinance in 2012 to protect and promote human rights for its citizens. The ordinance establishes a Human Rights Division within the city government, human rights policies, a Committee on Human Rights and a Human Rights Ombudsperson to ensure access to remedies for rights violations. The Ombudsman has become a model for other local governments in the country. With respect to housing, Seoul has adopted measures and guidelines, particularly on forced evictions, to protect its residents. The guidelines are based on general comment No. 7 on forced evictions of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and prohibit evictions in winter or at night and require civil servants to be present to monitor any human rights violations when executing an eviction and to provide adequate remedies to those who are evicted, among others.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Though the focus of concluding observations has remained predominantly on the national level Government, treaty bodies have identified recurrent problems regarding the implementation of the right to adequate housing at the subnational level. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, for instance, has identified a number of concerns with respect to local and other subnational governments, such as: discrimination against migrants and minority groups; failure or inability of municipal social housing providers to provide sufficient housing to marginalized groups; municipal expropriation of land that fails to comply with international legal norms on displacement and forced evictions; the need for coordinated national funding to local governments for adequate housing; and the need to include the right to adequate housing in subnational law and to make that right legally enforceable at the subnational level.
- 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
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. 48
- Paragraph text
- At the national level, relevant jurisprudence has also emerged. In case T-025 in Colombia, for example, the Constitutional Court required the implementation of effective programmes to respond to the unconstitutional state of affairs confronting internally displaced persons, where 63.5 per cent of the displaced population had inadequate housing and 49 per cent lacked access to appropriate public utilities. In Bhim Prakash Oli et Al. v. Government of Nepal et al, a case involving internally displaced persons, relying on international human rights law, the Supreme Court of Nepal held that the State was required to implement and monitor non discriminatory, holistic plans and programmes to integrate displaced populations into existing housing priorities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- 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. 54
- Paragraph text
- The collection of official data. Individuals without legally recognized tenure, including those living in urban settlements, homeless and displaced persons, are often not covered in censuses and other official data collection. When their information is ignored, their lack of legal tenure status effectively denies them official recognition as members of society. This exclusion exacerbates their invisibility in policy design and budget allocations essential to the realization of their human rights. States should ensure that such individuals are counted and included in all official data collection processes.
- 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
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph