Right to Adequate Housing Housing Rights is simplified

Right to Adequate Housing • Housing Rights is simplified reference to Right to Adequate Housing as a component of the Right to Adequate Standard of Living. • “Housing Rights” and “the Right to Adequate Housing” are interchangeable. • Enshrined in UDHR (Article 25) – customary law - and in ICESCR (Article 11) – treaty law • Soft law: CESCR General Comments, Pinheiro principles, etc. 20/04/2015 1

Right to Adequate Housing DEFINITION: Not 4 walls and a roof but…. THE RIGHT TO LIVE SOMEWHERE IN SECURITY, PEACE ANDDIGNITY Main elements: • Security of tenure • Availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure • Affordability that doesn’t threaten or compromises the occupants’ enjoyment of other human rights • Habitability that guarantees physical safety, provides adequate space and protection against the cold, damp, heat, rain, wind, other threats to health and structural hazards • Accessibility for disadvantaged and marginalized groups • Location close to employment opportunities, health-care services, schools, childcare centers and other social facilities and not located in polluted or dangerous areas • Cultural adequacy that enables the expression of cultural identity (OHCHR/UN HABITAT FACT SHEET 21) 20/04/2015 2

Right to Adequate Housing • Additional dimensions include: - non-discrimination (i. e. zoning, exclusionary laws or rules, denial of security of tenure, etc. ): States have an obligation to ensure de jure and de facto equality in access to adequate housing and protection against forced evictions - Women and children special protection ( inheritance laws, single mothers) (OHCHR/UN Habitat Fact Sheet 21) • United Nations Housing Rights Program (UNHRP) was launched jointly by OHCHR and UN-Habitat in 2002 in order to support the efforts by Governments, civil society and national human rights institutions towards the realization of the right to adequate housing” (RTAH Factsheet: 36). 20/04/2015 3

… in a nutshell! The Right to Adequate Housing: • Does not mean: Government to provide housing for everybody • It does mean: Government has to plan for security of tenure • It does mean: forced evictions are prohibited, unless exceptional circumstances and according to IL criteria • It does mean: protection from arbitrary interference with ones’ home and privacy • It does mean: equal and non-discriminatory access to property and adequate housing of all social groups • It does mean: people’s participation in housing-related decision-making at national and community levels (OHCHR/UN Habitat Fact Sheet 21) 20/04/2015 4