 The right to adequate housing (as a component of the right to an
adequate standard of living) is enshrined in many international
human rights instruments. Most notably among these are the Universal
Declaration of
Human Rights (art. 25.1) and the International Covenant on
Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (art. 11.1). During the 1990s, the
right to adequate housing gained further increasing recognition
among the human rights community, and many governments adopted or
revised housing policies to include various dimensions of human
rights.
 The Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat
II) in 1996 harnessed this momentum. The outcomes of the Conference,
the Istanbul
Declaration and the Habitat Agenda, constitutes a framework
where human settlements development is linked with the process of
realising human rights in general and housing rights in particular.
The Habitat Agenda, particularly in its paragraph 61, clarifies
actions and commitments of governments and other stakeholders in
order to promote, protect and ensure the full and progressive
realization of the right to adequate housing.
Subsequently, the Commission on Human Settlements adopted
resolution
16/7 on ‘the realization of the human right to adequate housing’
in May 1997. The resolution recommended that UN-HABITAT and OHCHR
elaborate a joint programme to assist States with the implementation
of their commitments to ensure the full and progressive realization
of the right to adequate housing.
More recently, the Commission on Human Rights in April 2001 adopted
resolutions 2001/34 and 2001/28. The latter, on adequate housing as
a component of the right to an adequate standard of living,
requested the two agencies to strengthen their cooperation and to
consider developing a joint housing rights programme.
These resolutions constitute the main mandate for the establishment
of the United Nations Housing Rights Programme.Why housing rights?
Current rates of population growth and urban-rural migration,
particularly in developing countries, have serious impacts on
living conditions in human settlements. By the beginning of the
third millennium, it is estimated that 1.1 billion people live in
inadequate housing conditions in urban areas alone. In many cities
of developing countries, more than half of the population live in
informal settlements, without security of tenure and in conditions
that can be described as life and health threatening. Among an
estimated 100 million homeless people around the world, available
data suggest that increasing proportions are women and children.
The annual need for housing in urban areas of developing countries
alone is estimated at around 35 million units (during 2000-2010).
The bulk of these, some 21 million units, are required to cater
for the needs of the increasing number of households. The rest is
needed to meet the requirements of people who are homeless or
living in inadequate housing. In other words, some 95,000 new
urban housing units have to be constructed each day in developing
countries to improve housing conditions to acceptable levels.
While increasing housing production and improving existing housing
stock are very important in every society, these activities must
run parallel with actions that specifically address and focus on
the human rights aspects. A rights-based approach to development
in the housing sector can:
- Empower the poor and the homeless
- Promote security of tenure, particularly for women and vulnerable
groups in inadequate housing conditions;
- Strengthen protection against forced evictions and discrimination
in the housing sector; and
- Promote equal access to housing resources and remedies in cases
of violations of housing rights.
Source: United Nations Habitat Programms |
