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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
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
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
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- While people from all economic groups suffered from the effects of the hurricane, the damage disproportionately affected the most marginalized sectors of the population - poor women, peasants, indigenous groups. Significantly, many of these had been living under insecure tenure conditions in irregular settlements and inadequate housing, located in vulnerable areas exposed to strong winds, flooding and landslides. Although evacuation orders were issued, many refused to leave their homes for fear of losing their belongings, with disastrous and often fatal consequences. Vulnerability and in particular tenure insecurity was both the cause and effect of the disaster for such families. In the absence of officially recognized tenure rights, people ended up living on the fringes in dangerous areas, which due to their location were often worst affected by the hurricane. Any post-disaster response measures intended to form the basis for longer-term recovery would therefore have needed to address pre-existing insecurity, in order to provide a basis for the full realization 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)
- Environment
- Humanitarian
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Financialization of housing and the right to adequate housing 2017, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- A leading framework for the human rights responsibilities of business enterprises is the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework. It is grounded in three pillars: (a) the obligation of States to protect against human rights abuses committed by companies; (b) the responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights, and thus avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts; and (c) the obligation of States to provide victims with access to effective remedies when rights are breached. A similar framework is applied in the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the first two of which commit businesses to support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and to refrain from complicity in human rights abuses. The Principles for Responsible Investment, launched in 2006 by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and the Global Compact, provide a voluntary framework for the incorporation of environmental, social and governance issues into decision-making and ownership practices. Over 1,200 investment institutions have become signatories, with approximately US$ 45 trillion assets under 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)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Homelessness as a global human rights crisis that demands an urgent global response 2016, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Rural homelessness has been the result of decreasing food security from household production, climate change, corporatization of agriculture, loss of land through subdivision at inheritance, declining civil security in rural areas, extreme poverty, unregulated resource exploitation and natural disasters. Rural homelessness usually leads people to migrate to urban areas in search of work and housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 59
- Paragraph text
- Similar approaches have been adopted in the African system. In the Pretoria Declaration on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights States parties to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights agreed that socioeconomic rights, including the right to housing, must be read into the Charter in the light of references to the right to life, stating: The social, economic and cultural rights explicitly provided for under the African Charter, read together with other rights in the Charter, such as the right to life and respect for inherent human dignity, imply the recognition of other economic and social rights, including the right to shelter, the right to basic nutrition and the right to social security. The Pretoria Declaration drew on the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the case of Social and Economic Rights Action Center and Center for Economic and Social Rights v. Nigeria. The Commission found that environmental degradation had "made living in Ogoniland a nightmare" and that destruction of land and farms "affected the life of the Ogoni society as a whole". The Commission concluded that "the most fundamental of all human rights, the right to life, has been violated".
- 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
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 30
- Paragraph text
- Upon their adoption, the Millennium Development Goals appeared to sweep over processes already under way to implement the Habitat Agenda (see para. 13 above). The vague and inadequate target regarding slum dwellers appears to have been conflated with a commitment to the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing as articulated in the Habitat Agenda. Although originally intended as an international reference tool to highlight some issues, the Millennium Development Goals evolved into a blueprint for progress and prioritization at the national level, shaping financing for development agendas. They were widely used in national policymaking and in budget discussions, relegating issues not included in the Millennium Development Goals to the status of secondary priorities, with resources and political will divested accordingly. Statistical targets became confused with the realization of rights. As a result, it was not a surprise that the target of improving the lives of a tiny proportion of those living in slum-like conditions was soon reached when, in reality, substandard housing conditions and homelessness continued to increase around the world.
- 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
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- All potentially affected persons have the right to information about risks to health and safety or the environment, and should be afforded opportunities for active participation in the process of exploring alternatives to in situ solutions and decision-making. Any decision to resettle households should be subject to judicial review.
- 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
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Professional technicians, including surveyors, planners and notaries, and the use of technology, such as satellite imagery and global positioning systems, should serve to facilitate community mapping and tenure-recording processes, and not pose an obstacle to the establishment of accessible and affordable land administration systems.
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- In addition, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation legislation, and measures such as planned relocation, natural hazard risk mapping and land zoning for residential housing, have been used to bypass eviction protections or may be phrased in a manner that could be misused to forcibly evict people.
- 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
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- Conflicts and natural disasters tend to exacerbate tenure insecurity for affected populations, in particular displaced persons, and heighten the risks of forced evictions. Displacement resulting from conflict or disaster creates risks for forced evictions, confiscation, land grabs, abusive or fraudulent sale or occupation of land and housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Such tensions are apparent in a model suggested originally by UN-Habitat and the Global Land Tool Network, and used by other agencies since, called the "continuum of land rights". While the continuum was intended to express the range and diversity of tenure situations, it is illustrated by a linear diagram, with an arrow going from left (informal land rights) to right (formal land 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)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Conflicts and natural disasters, including those exacerbated by climate change, also trigger displacement and can undermine security of tenure. Over 26 million people were internally displaced at the end of 2011 due to armed conflicts, violence or human rights violations, while nearly 15 million were displaced due to natural hazards.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- The crisis manifests itself in many forms and contexts. Forced evictions are its most visible and egregious sign. Displacement resulting from development, natural disasters and conflicts, land grabbing, and the growing number of urban dwellers living under insecure tenure arrangements worldwide are further manifestations of the crisis.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. B. 3
- Paragraph text
- In their examination of State reports and country visits, United Nations human rights mechanisms should assess and make recommendations on the enjoyment of specific human rights in natural disaster situations, as well as the extent to which disaster prevention, relief and recovery efforts contribute to their enjoyment.
- 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
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. B. 2
- Paragraph text
- [Further work should be conducted on:] The access to use and control over land in situations of natural disasters, including conditions for land requisition and acquisition for shelter/settlement.
- 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
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. B. 2
- Paragraph text
- [Further work should be conducted on:] The mechanisms to support the fast-track determination of tenure rights, including community mapping and enumeration, drawing lessons from existing practices to advise on their essential features and application in post-disaster situations.
- 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
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 64.3
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations:] The tenure rights of "non-formal owners", namely those without individual, formally registered, property ownership, should be honoured: All pre-disaster tenure rights, including in disaster damage and needs assessments, should be assessed and recorded.
- 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
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 64.2
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations:] No harm should be caused by or to others in respecting and protecting the right to adequate housing, including tenure security: Housing, land and property should be protected from further damage or destruction.
- 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
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Vulnerability is widely recognized as an important element in disaster risk reduction and management. The most vulnerable, such as those living in poverty or with insecure tenure, are more likely to live in disaster-prone land; they are also at greater risks of displacement and loss of livelihood in the event of a disaster; and they will recover with more difficulty from the disaster.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 64.5
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations:] Communities and settlements, not just houses, should be rebuilt or resettled: Community structures and networks, to the extent that they respect international human rights standards including on gender equality, should be deliberately preserved and supported.
- 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
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2011
- 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. 15
- Paragraph text
- The failure of States to address conditions in informal settlements creates multiple threats to life, dignity and security. Accidents are routine. Fires break out as a result of unauthorized electrical connections, of cooking on open flames indoors or of the use of highly flammable construction materials such as cardboard and plastics. Settlements are commonly built on treacherous land. Simple accidents become fatal when emergency services either cannot reach the site or are unwilling to enter the site.
- 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
- Humanitarian
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Guiding Principles on security of tenure for the urban poor 2014, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Where a genuine risk to health and safety or the environment exists, prior to any decision to evict being made, States must explore all feasible alternatives in consultation with affected persons. Specifically, States should use all resources at their disposal, including through international assistance, to explore in situ alternatives to mitigate and manage risks, regardless of the tenure status and housing standards of inhabitants unless the inhabitants prefer to be resettled to alternative 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)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Reflection on work undertaken in first 14 years of the mandate; outline of opportunities and priorities 2014, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- A second global event of particular relevance for the mandate holder is the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) to be held in 2016. The Special Rapporteur intends to contribute to that process on the understanding that human rights can be a central and transformative component of strategies for addressing urbanization and sustainability, which present themselves now, more than ever before, as immense challenges and opportunities.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- However, numerous obstacles often stand in the way of rapid return, recovery and reconstruction. These can include dangers (e.g. damage to buildings, health risks, unstable ground); difficulty of access; inability of the authorities to provide services to the area; and lack of resources. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the relevant authorities to take measures to overcome such obstacles with a minimum of delay. According to IASC guidelines: "After the emergency phase, persons displaced by the natural disaster should be granted the opportunity to choose freely whether they want to return to their homes and places of origin, to remain in the area to which they have been displaced, or to resettle to another part of the country. Their right of choice may not be subjected to any restrictions except those which are provided by law, and are necessary to protect national security, the safety and security of affected populations, public order (ordre public), safety, public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others. In particular, the return of persons displaced by the disaster to their homes and places of origin should only be prohibited if these homes or places of origin are in zones where there are real dangers to the life or physical integrity and health of the affected persons. Restrictions should only last as long as such dangers exist and only be implemented if other, less intrusive, measures of protection are not available or possible."
- 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
- Equality & Inclusion
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate housing in disaster relief efforts 2011, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Sixteen months after the earthquake, there were still 634,000 people in over 1,000 camps. Observers noted that the camp populations were declining more slowly than in 2010, suggesting that people had nowhere else to go or had decided that however precarious their situation in the camps, it was still better than their situation of origin. The earthquake thus highlighted long-entrenched patterns of discrimination and neglect. Disasters elsewhere have had similar effects.
- 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
- Equality & Inclusion
- Year
- 2011
- 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. 27
- Paragraph text
- In order to understand where we are on the road to Habitat III, it is instructive to look back as well as to look ahead. The Millennium Development Goals were adopted just four years after Habitat II and influenced dominant approaches to human development, which in turn affected the implementation of Habitat II.
- 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
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Housing and land issues should be addressed in peace agreements and where necessary institutions to deal specifically with property claims should be established.
- 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
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Post conflict and post disaster reconstruction and the right to adequate housing 2011, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- IASC has further asserted that "Human rights have to be the legal underpinning of all humanitarian work pertaining to natural disasters. There is no other legal framework to guide such activities, especially in areas where there is no armed conflict". This shift is also about longer-term sustainability. It helps the relevant actors to plan for what follows beyond the initial relief and stabilization operations.
- 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
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph