WUNRN
UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR HOUSING REPORT
2012 - WOMEN & ADEQUATE HOUSING
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Excerpts from Introduction:
2.
The recognition and realization of every woman‘s right to adequate housing is
necessary to ensuring that every woman is able to live a life with dignity. For
millions of women, it is the home which is the centre of daily life, and, in
many cultures, it is women who spend the most time at home. For women in
particular, the status of their right to adequate housing is intimately
connected to their security, health, livelihood and overall well-being.
3.
However, adequate housing for women goes far beyond addressing basic material
needs. Because of the close connection that exists between the right to
adequate housing and the right to equality, adequate housing for women goes to
the heart of social inequality and discrimination. When a woman is unable to
access adequate housing and land mainly because she is a woman, she is not only
affected in terms of her immediate material needs, she is also relegated to a
subordinate and dependent position within society because of her gender.
Ensuring that women have access to and control over, vital resources such as
housing and land is essential to challenging and changing gender power
structures and patterns of gender inequality which continue to oppress, exclude
and relegate women to the margins. 