The Global Campaign For Secure Tenure THE RIGHT TO HOUSING IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Introduction The right to adequate housing is a human right that is laid down in international human rights instruments like covenants, conventions, declarations and recommendations. The difference between international conventions on the one hand and declarations, recommendations and resolutions on the other hand is explained below. Covenants and Conventions are legally binding treaties for the countries that have signed and ratified them. Ratification means that after representatives of a country have signed a treaty this signature is approved by the head of state or government of that country. In a treaty it will be stated if ratification is necessary or not. Covenants and Conventions can be bilateral (between two countries) or multilateral (between more than two countries). If done under the auspices of the United Nations, covenants and conventions are first adopted (by resolution) by the General Assembly and then opened for both signature and ratification. All treaties entered into by member states to the UN are registered with the UN secretariat. An updated list of which countries are member to which treaties can be found under http://www.unhchr.ch/html/intlinst.htm Declarations and Recommendations are generally documents of intent, and in most cases do not create legally binding obligations on the countries which have signed them. Declarations and recommendations cannot be ratified. In some instances, a declaration and/or recommendation may gain the force of binding law if its contents are widely accepted by the international community. It then achieves the status of customary international law. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights is an example of a Declaration that has gained the force of binding law. Resolutions are documents without legally binding force (except for the resolutions of the UN Security Council), and cannot be signed by states. As they are usually issued by UN bodies, they can however carry considerable weight and often are much more detailed about one particular subject than other international instruments. Under some well known Conventions, Committees have been established that oversee how states who are party to such a Convention implement the rights and obligations in it on their national level. Furthermore, these Committees provide explanations as to what the human rights mentioned in such a Convention actually mean. One of these Committees is the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was established under the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This Committee has issued explanatory texts (which are called General Comments), for example on the right to adequate housing. In one of these General Comments, which is also listed below under �Other relevant documents�, the Committee elaborates on what the right to adequate housing actually means and what states need to do to fulfill the progressive realization of this human right. The General Comment on the right to adequate housing shows that security of tenure is one of many components of the right to adequate housing. Security of tenure is not mentioned as such in most international instruments but falls under the right to adequate housing. The list below shows in which international instruments the right to adequate housing is laid down. To read the full text of a convention, declaration, resolution or other document it is enough to click on the word �convention� or �declaration� etcetera and follow the link. Otherwise just click on the specific article to open that particular text. The list may not be exhaustive. Updating and correction is still on-going, so if you know of any other international and/or regional instrument in which the right to adequate housing is mentioned, please let us know. For already listed documents that we could not find a link to in the Internet, please let us know if you found such a link, or if you have the electronic version of any absent text, by clicking here Legal sources of the right to adequate housing Conventions: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966): Article 11(1) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966): Articles 12(1) and 17 International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965): Article 5(e)(iii) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979): Article 14(2)(h) Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989): Article 27(3) Convention relating to the status of refugees (1951): Article 21 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (1990): Article 43(1)(d) International Labour Organization Convention No. 117 concerning Social Policy (1962): Articles 2, 4(d) and 5(2) International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973): Article II(b) and (d) Declarations: Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948): Article 25(1) Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1959): Principle 4 Principle 2 of the ILO Recommendation No. 115 (1961); Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1963): Article 3(1) Declaration on Social Progress and Development (1969): Part II, Article 10(f ) Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (1975): Article 9 The Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements (1976): Section III (8), Recommendation (A.4) Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice (1978): Article 9(2) ILO Recommendation No. 162 Concerning Older Workers (1980): Article 5(g) Declaration on the Right to Development (1986): Article 8(1) UN Draft Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People: Articles 20 and 23 Regional instruments: European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR, 1950) Article 8(1) Protocol No. 1 to ECHR: Article 1 Protocol No. 1 to ECHR: Article 1 Protocol No. 4 to ECHR: Article 2(1) European Social Charter (1961): Articles 16 ,19 and 31 European Convention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers (1977): Article 13 Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights (1989), EU: Article 29 European Parliament Resolution on Shelter for the Homeless in the European Community (1987): Paragraphs 4-8 Final Act of Helsinki, 1975, CSCE; The Vienna Concluding Document (1989): Principle 14 Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE (1990): Article 23 Charter of the Organization of American States (1948): Article 34 (k) and (i) American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (1948): Articles 8, 11 and 23 The Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1988): Article 11 African Charter on Human and Peoples� Rights (1981): Articles 14 and 21(2) UN Resolutions: UN General Assembly - The Realization of the Right to Adequate Housing: Resolutions 41/146 (1986) and 42/146 (1987) - Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000: Resolution 43/181 Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) - The Realization of the Right to Adequate Housing: Resolution 1987/62 (1987) UN Commission on Human Rights - Forced Evictions: Resolution 1993/77 - The Right to Adequate Housing: Resolutions 1986/36, 1987/22 and 1988/24 - Promoting the realization of the right to adequate housing: Resolution 1994/8 Resolution 1994/14 UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities - Forced Evictions: Resolution 1991/12, Resolution 1993/41, Resolution 1994/39 , Resolution 1996/27 - The right to adequate housing: Resolution 1993/15 , Resolution 1994/20, Resolution 1995/12 - Promoting the Realization of the Right to Adequate Housing: Resolution 1991/26, Resolution 1992/26, Resolution 1993/36, Resolution 1994/38 , Resolution 1995/27 and Resolution 1995/19 - Women and the Right to Adequate Housing and to Land and Property: Resolution 1997/19 and Resolution 1998/15 - Children and the Right to Adequate Housing: Resolution 1994/8 - Housing and property restitution in the context of the return of refugees and internally displaced persons: Resolution 1998/26 UN Commission on the Status of Women - Human Rights and Land Rights Discrimination: Resolution 42/1 (1998) Other relevant documents: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: - The Right to Adequate Housing: General Comment No. 4 - Forced Evictions: General Comment No. 7 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, - General Recommendation No. 21, 13th session, 1994; Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000, Point 13, 1988; Agenda 21: Chapter 7.6, 7.9(b), 7.9(c) and 7.30(f) Beijing Platform of Action, Fourth World Conference on Women: A/Conf.177/20, 17/10/1995 Habitat Agenda: Paragraphs 8, 26, 39, 60 and 61 UN-HABITAT: Strategic Vision and Work Programme 2000-2001 United Nations Development programme (UNDP), Human Development Report. (Oxford University Press, 1999) [Back] Global Environment Outlook 2000, UNEP, (Earthscan, London, 1999), pg 11[Back] International Federation of Red Cross and red Crescent Societies, World Disasters Report 1999, pg. 7 [Back] GEO 2000, op cit. [Back] These points are elaborated in the UNDP's 1997 Human Development Report, Human Development to Eradicate Poverty [Back] This legal framework is taken to include both customary and statutory systems [Back] Report of the Executive Director: A Strategic Vision for Habitat, HS/C/17/2/Add.2 [Back] Habitat Agenda, Paragraph 61 [Back] Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1993/77. Also, see Agenda 21 (Paras 7.6 and 7.9 (b)) [Back] Habitat Agenda. Chapter III: Commitments. Section A: Adequate Shelter for All, Para 40 (n) [Back]