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