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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
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- States have an immediate obligation to ensure non-discrimination in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to adequate housing, regardless of their level of development, in order to reduce existing inequalities (see E/1991/23, annex III, para. 1). The obligation of non-discrimination requires the equitable allocation of resources and services to ensure the realization of the right to adequate housing to all, and is not subject to progressive realization. It entails prioritizing the needs of marginalized and disadvantaged groups; eliminating laws, policies and practices that disproportionately affect the right to adequate housing of certain groups; incorporating equality and non-discrimination principles in all legislation and policies; and adopting special measures to counter embedded discrimination and inequalities against particular groups. States have no justification for not protecting vulnerable groups from housing-related discrimination, as the obligation to prohibit discrimination is binding on all States even in times of severe resource constraints (see E/1991/23, para. 12, and E/C.12/GC/20, para. 13).
- 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
- All
- 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. 37
- Paragraph text
- The Committee's recognition in these cases that deportation into homelessness may constitute cruel and inhuman treatment or punishment, and that victims of homelessness in this context are entitled to a remedy, is significant. It is equally important, however, to ensure access to adjudication and remedy for those who experience the same deprivations of homelessness resulting from inaction or neglect within a State's own borders. In A.H.G and Jasin, the Committee considered the effects of widespread and systemic violations of the right to security and dignity. However, this consideration remained within the negative rights framework of prohibited "treatment" or "punishment". That framework is not conducive to hearing the substantive claim to a life of dignity, security and inclusion advanced by people with disabilities or women escaping violence, who do not see the fulfilment of their human rights merely as freedom from treatment or punishment but more fundamentally as a right to a place to live in dignity and security.
- 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
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- 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 adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 48
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur also emphasizes that reasonable accommodation in housing is often linked to systemic patterns of discrimination and imbalances in power “which result in a society being designed well for some and not for others”. The Supreme Court of Canada warned that reasonable accommodation claims should not be allowed to shield systemic discrimination from scrutiny or leave in place imbalances in power that have led to the neglect of the needs or perspectives of marginalized groups in the design of policies. It is important to ask, in each individual case, not only what is required by the individual person with a disability to ensure equality, but also why the housing system created the need for individual accommodation in the first place. Requests for modifications of buildings or housing policies are usually only made because those requirements were not adequately considered when buildings or policies were designed in the first place. Persons with disabilities must be empowered to challenge housing, planning and zoning, social protection and justice systems that fail to meet their needs and thus deny them access 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
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 41
- Original document
- Paragraph text
- Article 9 should also be read in conjunction with the obligation to progressively realize the right to adequate housing under article 28. As Gerard Quinn observed, “many of these obligations will require resources and extensive systemic change — all subject to the overall obligation of progressive achievement contained in article 4.2 with respect to socioeconomic rights”. The obligations of States under article 9 can be seen as components of the requirement to immediately implement inclusive rights-based strategies for the realization of the right to housing. Both housing strategies and plans for the implementation of accessibility must establish definite time frames, allocate adequate resources, prescribe the duties of the public authorities, including regional and local authorities, and private actors and ensure participation and consultation with those affected. Ensuring that any new housing is developed in accordance with barrier-free design requirements is an immediate obligation of States. States must also adopt, as quickly as possible, legislation and plans to ensure that barriers in existing housing are removed over time.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing of persons with disabilities 2017, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Institutionalization is a clear example of how violations of the right to housing occur when disability is misconstrued as a medical condition. Removing persons with disabilities from the general population and subjecting them to isolation and extreme social control is rationalized on the basis that they are being provided with “treatment” or “care”. Institutionalization often combines the worst living conditions with severe deprivation of liberty and cruel and inhuman treatment, including physical and sexual abuse. Conditions are invariably overcrowded, with limited or no access to sanitation and hygiene facilities, as has been documented in countries including Guatemala, Indonesia and Mexico. Residents in institutions and institution-like settings are often precluded from having outside social or family relations and deprived of choices about activities, social relationships, sexuality and identity. Persons with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities are at highest risk of being institutionalized forcefully and, outside formal institutions, are often subjected to extreme levels of institution-like control in privately operated rooming houses or “halfway” houses.
- 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
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The dominant impact of wealth and private investment has also created and perpetuated spatial segregation and inequality in cities. In South Africa, for example, the impact of private investment in the urban core of cities has sustained the discriminatory patterns of the apartheid area, with wealthier, predominantly white households occupying areas close to the centre and poorer black South Africans living on the peripheries of cities. That "spatial mismatch", relegating poor black households to homeownership in peri-urban areas where employment opportunities are scarce, rather than rentals in the urban core, for example, has entrenched their poverty and cemented inequality. Similar patterns of racial displacement from urban centres and segregation in evidence in large cities in the United States have led to more severe impacts of financialization and the mortgage crisis being experienced by African-American households. Financialization also creates gender segregation. In Australia, analysis has shown that average-income single female workers can afford to live in only one suburb of Melbourne and cannot afford to live anywhere in Sydney.
- 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)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- 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. 55
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has had the opportunity to consider in its jurisprudence the obligation of States parties to address threats to women linked to lack of housing. In Ms. A.T. v. Hungary, the Committee considered the circumstances of a woman with two children who was viciously beaten by her husband and who feared for her life. She was unable to move to a shelter because there were no spaces available to accommodate her child, who had a disability. The domestic courts refused to grant A.T. possession of her home, in consideration of the property rights of her husband. The Committee held that women's human rights to life and to physical and mental integrity could not be superseded by other rights, including the right to property and the right to privacy. The Committee recommended that Hungary take positive measures to remedy the situation of A.T., to ensure better protection for women more generally and to ensure that A.T. was given a safe home in which to live with her children, as well as child support, legal assistance and reparation for the violations of her 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
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- 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. 36
- Paragraph text
- Similarly, in Jasin v. Denmark (see CCPR/C/114/D/2360/2014) the Committee considered the effects of homelessness in the context of a single mother facing deportation to Italy. Osman Jasin had fled for her life from a violent husband in Somalia and was rescued by the Italian Coastguard while crossing the Mediterranean. In Italy, she tried without success to find housing, lived in the street with her one-year-old daughter, sleeping in railway stations and marketplaces. Ms. Jasin and her daughter left Italy to seek asylum in the Netherlands, but were returned to Italy, where she again lived in the street with her two-year-old daughter, sleeping in railway stations during a pregnancy. She was denied medical assistance during the birth of her second child because she had no address. When she was unable to pay to renew her Italian residency permit, she travelled to Denmark. The Committee found that returning her and her children to Italy would constitute cruel and inhuman treatment because they would likely become homeless again.
- 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
- Children
- Families
- 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. 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
Responsibilities of local and other subnational governments in relation to the right to adequate housing 2015, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Over the last 15 years, the "human rights city" has emerged as an important initiative involving mayors, city officials, civic and human rights non-governmental organizations and experts and community-based organizations in cities across the world. The Gwangju Declaration on Human Rights City, adopted in 2011, defined a human rights city as "both a local community and a socio-political process in a local context where human rights play a key role as fundamental values and guiding principles". Accordingly, local government, parliament, civil society, private sector organizations and other stakeholders work together to improve the quality of life for all inhabitants in a spirit of partnership based on human rights standards and norms. The Declaration emphasizes that a legal basis - city ordinances and legal instruments such as human rights charters and legal organizations - should be established. Human rights cities also acknowledge that implementation is more important than policymaking and that effective accountability mechanisms need to be developed to make city government accountable to its commitments.
- 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
- N.A.
- 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. 46
- Paragraph text
- Housing is an area of concurrent national and provincial competence in South Africa, but the Constitution requires the national and provincial governments to assign responsibilities to a municipality "if that matter would most effectively be administered locally and the municipality has the capacity to administer it". Within that context, the Constitutional Court established that measures taken to realize the right to adequate housing must be "reasonable" - that they must be comprehensive, coherent, flexible and effective; have due regard for those in poverty and deprivation; utilize available resources; be free of bureaucratic inefficiency or onerous regulations and ultimately be capable of realizing the right to adequate housing. The Court also emphasized the fact that responsibilities must be clearly allocated to the different spheres of government with appropriate financial and human resources, and that local governments have an obligation to ensure that services are provided in a sustainable manner. The Court held that the housing programme had failed to adequately prioritize those in the greatest need.
- 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
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 29
- Paragraph text
- In that regard, States have developed internal procedures for engaging subnational governments in periodic reporting on housing rights and related issues. In some cases, local governments have made direct written submissions to treaty bodies. National human rights institutions have also played an increasingly important role in periodic reviews, acting as catalysts for improved engagement of subnational governments with review processes. Where subnational representatives have participated directly in periodic reviews, they have been welcomed. Overall, however, subnational governments may experience the treaty review process only indirectly and remotely. While they may be asked by national Governments to provide information for reports, they often receive little direct feedback on positive measures they have adopted and may not hear about concerns and recommendations relevant to their areas of responsibility once the review is completed. As a participant in the expert consultation noted: "The more local the government, the further it is from Geneva".
- 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
- N.A.
- 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. 21a
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has identified a number of common challenges experienced at the local level with respect to the implementation of the right to adequate housing:] Inadequate resources: The scarcity of financial resources, or the limited ability to tap into other funding sources besides national budget allocations, is a primary concern for local authorities with respect to the implementation of the right to adequate housing. While the responsibility for housing has been put in the hands of local or other subnational governments, resources to meet their housing rights obligations have not similarly flowed. Moreover, funding from national governments for local programmes is often not responsive to changing needs or crisis situations at the local level. Lack of resources can lead subnational governments to make decisions that negatively affect the realization of the right to adequate housing. For example, at the municipal level it is not uncommon for available land or property to be used as an asset for real estate development rather than for the provision of 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
- N.A.
- 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. 20
- Paragraph text
- The experiences of decentralization in relation to human rights and the right to adequate housing, however, have been mixed. As Paul Lundberg noted, "the issue of human rights has not figured prominently in the ongoing discussion on decentralization". Reference to human rights obligations or the right to adequate housing is conspicuously absent, even from the International Guidelines on Decentralisation and Access to Basic Services for all and the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Decentralization and local governance initiatives from international or regional financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme, as well as from associations of local governments, have focused on economic and political dimensions and participatory rights linked to decentralization. However, they have largely ignored the question of how States' human rights obligations in relation to the right to adequate housing are to be applied to local governments that have taken on key responsibilities for programmes and policies.
- 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
- All
- N.A.
- 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. 65
- Paragraph text
- Obligations of States to maintain the rule of law are too often considered primarily in relation to legal protections of existing title to property or contractual economic relationships. Under the rule of law, however, fundamental human rights must be guaranteed, including the right to adequate housing. An urban rights agenda will require a more inclusive approach to the rule of law in cities than has been applied in the past, focused on the need to effectively address the circumstances of those who have had no access to legal title to land, housing or property. The right to housing must be fully incorporated within urban law as a right not only to physical and environmental aspects of housing but also to the equal protection of the law, with full protection of security of tenure, health and safety and entitlement to basic services, livelihood and cultural life. Laws and policies must be subject to ongoing review so as to adjust to emerging patterns of exclusion or to address previously unrecognized circumstances.
- 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
- All
- 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. 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
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. 29
- Paragraph text
- Housing, however, was a clear outlier in the seven Millennium Development Goals. Housing or homelessness were nowhere specifically mentioned. The only housing-related target (Target 7.D: "By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers") was placed under the goal of environmental sustainability in Goal 7. The target suffered from vagueness and damaging interpretations. It allowed national assessment reports to reference almost any improvement, even if only marginal; and a focus on data regarding the proportion of the urban population living in slums as a key indicator encouraged forced evictions that were in fact contrary to human rights law. The target of 100 million was a drop in the bucket compared to the more than one billion people living in inadequate or slum-like conditions and it was detached from key human rights concerns, such as ensuring access to adequate housing, including security of tenure for all.
- 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 14
- Paragraph text
- Housing is a major component of any city. However, it seems to have largely fallen off the public policy agenda. At the international level, for example, the right to adequate housing has not been a focus of development goals. Also, the lending priorities within the World Bank have shifted dramatically away from low-income housing, even as the problems of inadequate housing and homelessness have become more widespread and severe. In the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s more than 90 per cent of total shelter lending was allocated to low-income housing, compared to about 10 per cent since the mid-1990s. Moreover, a much smaller share has gone to low-income countries (20 per cent, down from about 40 per cent from the mid 1970s to the mid-1980s). In short, there is little evidence of the commitment to the realization of the right to adequate housing that was articulated in the Habitat Agenda. What went wrong and how can we ensure that a similar commitment made in 2016 is more successfully implemented?
- 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
- All
- 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. 34
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur will also consider ways in which the mandate can support access to justice in relation to all aspects of the right to adequate housing. She recognizes that ensuring access to justice, particularly with respect to claims involving the obligation of States to take positive measures towards the realization of the right to adequate housing, presents new challenges. Courts and human rights bodies need to be provided with reliable evidence concerning resource constraints and competing needs. More participatory approaches to the adjudication of rights need to ensure that all stakeholders, including marginalized groups, are able to have their voices heard. Governments need to put accountability mechanisms in place, and to work in partnership with claimants and other stakeholders to improve policies and ensure effective remedies. Researchers and international monitoring groups need to further develop methodologies for providing statistics and reliable indicators of compliance with all aspects of the right to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- At a more fundamental level, the above issues may require a paradigm shift away from correlating security of tenure with a property rights regime and towards the grounding of security of tenure solidly in the human rights framework. Related to this is the need to protect the right to adequate housing when it comes into conflict with the right to property. For instance, in the case of Modder East Squatters and Another v. Modderklip Boerdery (Pty) Ltd, involving an informal settlement located on private land, the Supreme Court of South Africa reconciled this conflict of law by ordering the State authorities to compensate the owner of the land for the costs associated with its occupation by the informal settlement until such time as the State authorities could provide alternative land for the residents of that settlement, thereby recognizing the rights of the community to adequate housing and to protection against illegal eviction. Modderklip demonstrates how individual property rights can interfere with, rather than enhance, tenure rights of others. It also demonstrates how such a conflict of rights can be reconciled. Such conflicts also take place between the rights of landlords and those of tenants.
- 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
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Although not all types of collective organizations are accessible to the poorest segments of society, there are numerous advantages to such a form of tenure, including: (a) the use of community leverage to compete with existing housing market forces; (b) cooperative and collective forms of tenure are inextricably linked to enhanced democratic participation, better access to information, and community-led governance; (c) both cooperatives and community funds provide their members with financial strength (through community loans or savings that enable low-income households better access to housing finance); (d) as opposed to the individual finance schemes detailed above, community organizations also have the ability to control land and housing affordability by controlling land prices (community land trusts), providing increased economic resilience (through financial support to households that temporary encounter financial difficulties (Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives), protecting low-income households from the housing market volatility and by limiting economic displacement and gentrification.
- 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
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Analysis of two alternative housing policies: rental and collective housing 2013, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Evidence indicates that both demand- and supply-side subsidies for the private rental sector are more cost effective and less costly then subsidies for homeownership and are therefore more compatible with the obligation of States to make use of the maximum available resources in order to ensure the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing. A regulated and effective housing benefit system is necessary to ensure various aspects of the right to adequate housing, including affordability, non-discrimination and habitability, while also enhancing the opportunities for individuals to exercise a number of other human rights, including the right to work, the right to education and the right to health. In addition, the private (formal and informal) rental sector is better targeted to lower-income households (compared with housing finance schemes that mainly assist middle-income households) and therefore may assist States in complying with the obligation to give due priority to social groups living in unfavourable conditions. Policies and legislation should correspondingly not be designed to benefit already advantaged social groups at the expense of 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- For women, habitability of housing has been linked to protection against violence within the home. Therefore, the notion of habitability for women must itself be interpreted in a gender-sensitive way, ensuring that housing is safe for women. The notion of habitability must also be sensitive to women's disproportionate caregiving roles. These roles must be considered in the design of housing law, policy and programming. For example, in many parts of the world, it is women who cook and prepare meals. When cooking over open fires or traditional stoves fuelled by wood, animal dung or charcoal, it has been shown that women breathe in a mix of toxic pollutants and are particularly vulnerable to developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). For women, this indoor smoke is responsible for half a million deaths each year, and millions more have their health suffer due to impaired breathing and respiratory disease. In the case of COPD, for example, one study in Xuanwei, China, where rates of lung cancer and COPD are strongly associated with household use of coal fires, researchers showed that simple measures, such as installing a chimney, dramatically reduced the incidence of COPD among women.
- 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
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- In many countries, women are denied not only rights related to inheritance, but also their equal rights over marital property, effectively denying them any legal claim to housing whatsoever. The idea that rights over housing, land, property and inheritance fall exclusively within the male domain must be challenged. When looking at what works best for women, researchers have found that a full or modified community of property regimes which recognize joint rights with equal powers between spouses best protects women's right to adequate housing and to equality. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in its recent concluding observations on Sri Lanka underscored this point when it noted "that discriminatory practices prevent women from acquiring ownership of land since only the 'head of household' is authorized to sign official documentation such as land ownership certificates and receive pieces of land from Government." In that case, the Committee urged the Government to abolish the concept of "head of household" in administrative practice and recognize joint or co-ownership of land, and to amend its national legislation to ensure joint or co-ownership.
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and their right to adequate housing 2012, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- One area in which new policies adopted in recent years have increasingly protected women's right to adequate housing is within the context of domestic violence. In Europe, for example, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe issued a recommendation on the implementation of the right to housing in 2009, advocating the adoption and implementation of national housing strategies by all Council of Europe member States. Section 4.3.6. of the recommendation deals explicitly with women and women victims of violence, calling upon States "to protect women victims of violence through specific legal and policy initiatives including the provision of specialized emergency shelters and other alternative housing." Section 5 also urges States to adopt national housing strategies that "apply a gender perspective, identify disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and include positive measures for ensuring their effective enjoyment of the right to housing," and also to "adopt anti-violence provisions in housing legislation and policies and ensure that domestic violence laws include provisions to protect women's right to housing, including the right to privacy and security."
- 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
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- 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