State recognition of right to housing vital to healthy living

State recognition of right to housing vital to healthy living

JAKARTA (JP): The lack of adequate housing is one of the most
pressing problems facing humanity. The United Nations Center for
Human Settlements estimated in 1995 that over a billion people
worldwide live in inadequate housing and that the world's
homeless population totals over 100 million. The World Health
Organization has stressed that housing is the single most
important environmental factor associated with disease conditions
and life expectancy. In many nations around the world, lack of
adequate housing has been linked to epidemics, crime and social
unrest.

Global government expenditures for housing are remarkably low
compared to other areas. The United Nations Development Program
estimates that in 1990 government expenditure for housing was
3.32 percent of overall public funds available. Education, by
contrast, received 15 percent, and health care 6.4 percent.

The need for adequate housing is described in various
international human rights instruments, including the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (article 25), the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (article 11),
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination (article 5), the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (article
14) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (article 27).
The Declaration on the Right to Development also contains a
relevant reference (article 8). The implementation at the
national level of these covenants and conventions is monitored by
expert committees on a continuous basis.

During the debate at the 15th session of the Commission on
Human Settlements and the Preparatory Committee II in Nairobi in
April-May 1995, all countries agreed that adequate shelter for
all is an important goal towards which to strive. However, some
countries disagreed on whether the right to housing exists as a
human right recognized by international law.

In Nairobi, many United Nations member states expressed the
view that housing is an essential component of the foundation
needed by every individual to participate fully in, and thereby
benefit, society. Without it, individuals would not be able to
take advantage of many of the human rights recognized by the
international community. The right to privacy, the right to be
free from discrimination, the right to development, the right to
environmental hygiene and the right to the highest attainable
level of mental and physical health, among others, are dependent
on access to adequate housing.

Many countries supported the view that the human right to
adequate housing is recognized in various international human
rights instruments. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which was adopted in 1948, states in its article 25.1: Everyone
has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of 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.

One of the most widely ratified of all United Nations human
rights texts, the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination, includes, in its Article 5,
the obligation of States parties to guarantee the right of
everyone, without distinction as to race, color, or national or
ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the
enjoyment of... economic, social and cultural rights, in
particular... the right to housing...."

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, which was adopted in 1979, draws
attention to the housing needs of rural women. Article 14.2
states that "States Parties shall take 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 women the right to enjoy adequate
living conditions, particularly in relation to housing...."

The special needs of children are addressed in the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted in 1989. Article 27
provides for the right of children to an adequate standard of
living, under which "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 case of need provide
material assistance and support programs, particularly with
regard to... housing".

While acknowledging the importance of adequate shelter for all
as an important goal to strive for, some countries argue that it
would be counter-productive to regard the need for adequate
housing as a universally recognized human right. They believe
that to do so would place too great a demand on the resources of
States, opening them to third-party adjudication and possibly
sanctions if found guilty of not upholding the right. Adequate
shelter is proposed as an alternative, explicit goal for the
international community.

These countries believe that international energies are better
spent defending clearly established rights. They hold that it has
not been clearly established that the right to housing has
international legal status and that the Global Plan of Action
proposed for the Second United Nations Conference on Human
Settlements (Habitat II), to take place in Istanbul, Turkey, from
June 3 to 14, 1996, is not the appropriate mechanism for doing
so.

The May 1995 meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human
Settlements in Nairobi was marked by much discussion of this very
point. The head of the United States delegation to the
conference, David Hales, insisted that while there was no
substantive disagreement on the goal of adequate shelter for all,
the USA was concerned by the international legal implications of
an explicit right to housing.

"It is a very simple, legal, technical concern that has to do
with the use of words," he said. "In the United States, we have
legally established rights. If at an international level we agree
to housing as a right, this implies that a third party could be
called in to adjudicate and intervene if such rights are being
violated. This could also imply sanctions against a country not
upholding the right. What we are saying is that we should not
confuse clearly established rights with needs and aspirations and
goals."

On the other hand, Miloon Kothari, co-director of the Center
on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), a non-governmental
organization based in the Netherlands, believes that it is
essential to explicitly state that housing is a human right. He
said: "It is not just a legal, technical issue. The right to
housing is a powerful, mobilizing tool for women's groups, street
children and so on. Denying this right would be a great step
backwards."

Recognition of the right to housing as a human right has broad
implications for the international community, including all State
Governments and international agencies. Articles 55 and 56 of the
Charter of the United Nations and several precedents under
international law oblige all States to cooperate in the
protection and promotion of economic, social and cultural rights.
This responsibility is particularly incumbent on States that are
in a position to assist others. UNCHS (Habitat) believes that any
attempt to improve housing conditions must rely largely on an
"enabling approach" that encourages Governments to establish the
supportive legislative, constitutional and financial frameworks
that will enable the formal and informal business sectors, NGOs,
communities and individual households to contribute most
effectively to shelter development. The Habitat Center considers
that the granting of secure forms of tenure is the most important
step for Governments to undertake in pursuit of the policy goal
of adequate shelter for all.

To facilitate the move towards adequate shelter for all is the
stated objective of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the year
2000 (GSS), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in
December 1988. This universal strategy states explicitly that the
right to adequate shelter constitutes the basis for national
obligations to meet shelter needs. As the experiences of several
countries show, the GSS has stimulated governments to think more
critically about their approaches to the provision of shelter and
their role as enablers in this process.

-- United Nations Information Center