Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context

Summary

In
the present report, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component
of the right to an adequate standard of living, Leilani Farha, outlines how the
right to adequate housing must guide the development and implementation of a
“new urban agenda” to be adopted at Habitat III, in October 2016. Habitat III
will be the first global summit of the twenty-first century where housing and
urban challenges will be in the spotlight. At a time when more than half the
world’s population lives in cities, with the majority of urban dwellers facing
homelessness, lacking security of tenure or living in inadequate conditions, and
a third of them living in informal settlements, the Special Rapporteur argues
that the change needed is a new “urban rights agenda” with the right to housing
at its core. The report focuses on the transformational qualities of the right
to adequate housing in cities and its ability to bring coherence to the broad
range of issues that will be discussed at Habitat III. In this context, the
Special Rapporteur discusses five critical cross-cutting areas that must be
given priority: (a) social exclusion: stigmatization and housing status; (b)
migration; (c) vulnerabl e groups; (d) land and inequality; and (e) informal
settlements. The Special Rapporteur highlights how the right to adequate
housing establishes accountability and facilitates access to justice and the
participation of marginalized groups in decisions that affect their lives, and
lays out steps for implementation. The report concludes with bold
recommendations for the urban rights agenda, including: (a) eliminating
homelessness and forced evictions; (b) ensuring security of tenure for all
households; and (c) ensuring the incorporation of the right to housing as
paramount in all urban law, policy and programmes, including fiscal policy and
resource allocation.

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the report (A/70/270)