The legal status of the right to adequate housing is based on the
following main relevant international human rights provisions:
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS (1948)
- Article 25.1 states that:
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health
and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing,
housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to
security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood,
old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
CONVENTION RELATING TO
THE STATUS OF REFUGEES (1951)
- Article 21 states that: “As
regards housing, the Contracting States, insofar as the matter is
regulated by laws or regulations or is subject to the control of public
authorities, shall accord refugees lawfully staying in their territory
treatment as favourable a s possible and, in any event, not less favourable
than that accorded to aliens generally in the same circumstances.”
CONVENTION
ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (1965)
- Article 5 (e) (iii) obliges States “to
prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all of its forms and to
guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour,
or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the
enjoyment of … (e) … (iii) the right to housing”.
INTERNATIONAL
COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (1966)
- Article 11.1 states that: “The States
Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an
adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate
food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living
conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the
realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential
importance of international cooperation based on free consent.”
INTERNATIONAL
COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (1966)
- Article 17 states that: “1. No one
shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy,
family, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and
reputation. 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against
such interference or attacks.”
CONVENTION
ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (1979)
- Article 14.2 (h) states that: “States
Parties shall undertake all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis
of equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from
rural development and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right
… (h) to enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to
housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and
communications.”
CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE
CHILD (1989)
- Article 16.1 states that: “No child
shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her
privacy, family, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her
honour and reputation.”
- Article 27.3 states that: “States
Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their means,
shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible
for the child to implement this right and shall in the case of need
provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with
regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.”
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE
PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANT WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES
(1990)
- Article 43.1 states that: “Migrant
workers shall enjoy equality of treatment with nationals of the State of
employment in relation to … (d) Access to housing, including social
housing schemes, and protection against exploitation in respect of rents.”
CONVENTION ON THE
RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (2008)
- Article 2 of the
gives the following definition: “"Reasonable accommodation"
means necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing
a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to
ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal
basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
- Article 5.3 states that: “In order
to promote equality and eliminate discrimination, States Parties shall
take all appropriate steps to ensure that reasonable accommodation is
provided.”
- Article 9.1 (a) states that: “To enable
persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in
all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to
ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others,
to the physical environment, (…). These measures, which shall include the
identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility,
shall apply to, inter alia: … (a) Buildings, roads, transportation and
other indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, housing, medical
facilities and workplaces.”
- Article 19 (a) states that: “States
Parties to this Convention recognize the equal right of all persons with
disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and
shall take effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment
by persons with disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and
participation in the community, including by ensuring that: (a) Persons
with disabilities have the opportunity to choose their place of residence
and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are
not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement.”
- Article 22.1 states that: “No person
with disabilities, regardless of place of residence or living
arrangements, shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference
with his or her privacy, family, or correspondence or other types of
communication or to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.
Persons with disabilities have the right to the protection of the law
against such interference or attacks.”
- Article 28.1 states that:
“States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an
adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including
adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of
living conditions, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and
promote the realization of this right without discrimination on the basis
of disability.”
- Article 28.2 (d) states that: “States
Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social
protection and to the enjoyment of that right without discrimination on
the basis of disability, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and
promote the realization of this right, including measures:… (d) To ensure
access by persons with disabilities to public housing programmes.”
DECLARATION
ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (2007)
- Article 10 states that: “Indigenous
peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No
relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent
of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair
compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.”
- Article 21.1 states that: “Indigenous
peoples have the right, without discrimination, to the improvement of
their economic and social conditions, including, inter alia, in the areas
of education, employment, vocational training and retraining, housing,
sanitation, health and social security.”
- Article 23 states that: “Indigenous
peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies
for exercising their right to development. In particular, indigenous
peoples have the right to be actively involved in developing and
determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes
affecting them and, as far as possible, to administer such programmes
through their own institutions.”
- Article 26 states that: “1.
Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources
which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or
acquired. 2. Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and
control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason
of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well
as those which they have otherwise acquired. 3. States shall give legal
recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources. Such
recognition shall be conducted with due respect to the customs, traditions
and land tenure systems of the indigenous peoples concerned.”
- Article 27 states that: “States
shall establish and implement, in conjunction with indigenous peoples
concerned, a fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent process,
giving due recognition to indigenous peoples’ laws, traditions, customs
and land tenure systems, to recognize and adjudicate the rights of
indigenous peoples pertaining to their lands, territories and resources,
including those which were traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or
used. Indigenous peoples shall have the right to participate in this
process.”
- Articles 28 states that: “1.
Indigenous peoples have the right to redress, by means that can include
restitution or, when this is not possible, just, fair and equitable compensation,
for the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally
owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been confiscated,
taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and informed
consent. 2. Unless otherwise freely agreed upon by the peoples concerned,
compensation shall take the form of lands, territories and resources equal
in quality, size and legal status or of monetary compensation or other
appropriate redress.”
- Article 32 states that: “1.
Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and
strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and
other resources. 2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with
the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative
institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to
the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other
resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or
exploitation of mineral, water or other resources. 3. States shall provide
effective mechanisms for just and fair redress for any such activities,
and appropriate measures shall be taken to mitigate adverse environmental,
economic, social, cultural or spiritual impact.”
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)
CONVENTION NO. 161 CONCERNING OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SERVICES (1985)
- Article 5 (b) states that: “Without
prejudice to the responsibility of each employer for the health and safety
of the workers in his employment, and with due regard to the necessity for
the workers to participate in matters of occupational health and safety,
occupational health services shall have such of the following functions as
are adequate and appropriate to the occupational risks of the undertaking:
(…) (b) surveillance of the factors in the working environment and working
practices which may affect workers' health, including sanitary
installations, canteens and housing where these facilities are provided by
the employer.”
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)
CONVENTION NO. 117 CONCERNING BASIC AIMS AND STANDARDS OF SOCIAL POLICY
(1962)
- Article 2 states that: “The
improvement of standards of living shall be regarded as the principal
objective in the planning of economic development.”
- Article 5.2 states that: “In
ascertaining the minimum standards of living, account shall be taken of
such essential family needs of the workers as food and its nutritive
value, housing, clothing, medical care and education.”
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO) CONVENTION
NO. 110 CONCERNING CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT OF PLANTATION WORKERS(1958)
- Article 88.1 states that:” Where
housing is provided by the employer the conditions under which plantation workers
are entitled to occupancy shall be not less favourable than those
established by national custom or national legislation.”
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)
CONVENTION NO. 169 CONCERNING INDIGENOUS AND TRIBAL PEOPLES IN INDEPENDENT
COUNTRIES (1989)
GENEVA
CONVENTION RELATIVE TO THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIAN PERSONS IN TIME OF WAR
(1949)
- Article 49 states that: “Individual
or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons
from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that
of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their
motive. Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may
undertake total or partial evacuation of a given area if the security of
the population or imperative military reasons so demand. (…) The Occupying Power undertaking such transfers or
evacuations shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper
accommodation is provided to receive the protected persons (…).”
- Article 53 states that: “Any
destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging
individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to
other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is
prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary
by military operations.”
- Article 85 states that: “The
Detaining Power is bound to take all necessary and possible measures to
ensure that protected persons shall, from the outset of their internment,
be accommodated in buildings or quarters which afford every possible
safeguard as regards hygiene and health, and provide efficient protection
against the rigours of the climate and the effects of the war. In no case
shall permanent places of internment be situated in unhealthy areas or in
districts the climate of which is injurious to the internees. In all cases
where the district, in which a protected person is temporarily interned,
is in an unhealthy area or has a climate which is harmful to his health,
he shall be removed to a more suitable place of internment as rapidly as
circumstances permit. The premises shall be fully
protected from dampness, adequately heated and lighted, in particular
between dusk and lights out. The sleeping quarters shall be sufficiently
spacious and well ventilated, and the internees shall have suitable
bedding and sufficient blankets, account being taken of the climate, and
the age, sex, and state of health of the internees.
Internees shall have for their use, day and night, sanitary conveniences
which conform to the rules of hygiene and are constantly maintained in a
state of cleanliness. They shall be provided with sufficient water and
soap for their daily personal toilet and for washing their personal
laundry; installations and facilities necessary for this purpose shall be
granted to them. Showers or baths shall also be
available. The necessary time shall be set aside for washing and for
cleaning. Whenever it is necessary, as an
exceptional and temporary measure, to accommodate women internees who are
not members of a family unit in the same place of internment as men, the
provision of separate sleeping quarters and sanitary conveniences for the
use of such women internees shall be obligatory.”
- Article 134 states that: “The High
Contracting Parties shall endeavour, upon the close of hostilities or
occupation, to ensure the return of all internees to their last place of
residence, or to facilitate their repatriation.”
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
during its 45th session adopted a certain proposals regarding workers' housing.
These proposals are formulated in the following recommendation:
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed its
interpretation of the content of human rights provisions on the right to adequate
housing. It has issued the following general comments:
- General Comment n°4: The right to adequate
housing (art.11 (1)), Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese)
- General Comment n°7: The right to adequate
housing: forced evictions (art.11 (1)), Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (English,
French, Russian,
Spanish, Chinese
and Arabic)