Right to Housing

Housing is now recognised as a fundamental human right of all human beings in

many international human rights instruments. The most significant instrument on
right to housing is Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). According to it, The State Parties to the present
Covenant recognise 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

A comprehensive understanding of the right to housing has been established over

the years through several efforts made both within and outside the UN
mechanisms towards interpreting and substantiating the legal concept of housing.

In December 1991, the UN Committe on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

adopted its General Comment No. 4 on the right to housing, sressing on its
adequacy. This is the first General Comment adopted on a specific right contained
in the Covenant and indicates the importance given to the right by the Committee.
The Committee guides State Parties not to interpret the right to housing narrowly
or restrictively as merely having a roof over ones head oras a commodity.
Rather it should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and
dignity (para. 7). It reflects both the holistic conception of the right and the value
it gains from the aspect of adequacy.

Based on this broad interpretation, the General Comment identified seven aspects
of the right to housing that determine adequacy: (a) legal security of tenure
including legal protection against forced evictions; (b) availability of services,
materials, facilities and infrastructure; (c) affordability; (d) habitability; (e)
accessibility for disadvantaged groups; (f) location and (g) cultural adequacy (para.
8)1. At the international level this is the single most authoritative legal
interpretation of the right to housing.

The UNCHS and the Global Strategy for Shelter to the year 2000 adopted by the
General Assembly in resolution 43/181 in 1998, state that adequate shelter means
..... adequate privacy, adequate space, adequate security, adequate lighting and
ventilation, adequate basic infrastructure and adequate location with regard to
work and basic facilities all at a reasonable cost.

Thus it is not mere right to housing that is important, the international forum has
well; recognised importance and significance of right to adequate housing.

Some other interpretations of the right to adequate housing also need a mention to
be able to gain a holistic insight on it.

1 General Comment No. 4 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR) on the right to adequate housing (Sixth Session. Document No. E/1992/23).
General Comment No. 7 links the understanding of the right to housing with the
right not to be dislocated through forced eviction. It defines forced eviction as the
permanent or temporary removal against their will of individuals, families and/or
communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision
of, and access to appropriate forms of legal or other protection (para 4) 2.

In its General Comment No. 14 The Committee interprets the right to health, as
defined in Article 12(1), as an inclusive right extending not only to timely and
appropriate health care, but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as
access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of
safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental
conditions....... (para 11). Detailing the core obligations arising from State
obligations on the right to health, the Committee determined that these include
ensuring access to basic shelter, housing and sanitation and an adequate supply of
safe and potable water (para 43)3.

In his report as the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Mr. Miloon Kothari
states that based on the legal basis of the right to housing and on the considerable
civil society activity, both at conceptual and a practical level, he would like to
propose the following working definition for the right to adequate housing - The
human right to adequate housing is the right of every woman, man, youth and child
to gain and sustain a secure home and community in which to live in peace and
dignity4.

Clearly, the right to housing and its adequacy have internationally been construed
to include not just homesteads, but other elements constituting source of livelihood
and survival such as agricultural land, common property resources, natural
resources for subsistence, basic civic infrastructure and facilities concerning
health, education, water and food, and a clean and healthy environment. Its
inextricable linkage with other human rights such as right to health, safe
environment, land rights, right to livelihood and work, right to information, right to
partcipation, right to freedom of movement and to choose ones residence, right
not to be arbitrarily deprived of property, right to non-discrimination and right to
gender equality has been clearly established in the last three decades.

Mr. Kothari aptly puts it in his background paper for a seminar on appropriate
indicators to measure achievements in the progressive realisation of economic,
social and cultural rights - It can be argued, in fact, that the right to housing has
the potential to unify the various rights (the related fields that comprise life in
2 General Comment No. 7 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR) on Forced Eviction (Sixteenth Session. Document No. E/1998/22).
3 General Comment No. 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR) on the right to highest attainable standard of health (Twenty-second Session.
E/C.12/2000/4).
4 Kothari, Miloon. Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of
the right to an adequate standard of living, submitted pursuant to Commission resolution
2000/9. Commission on Human Rights. (Fifty-seventh Session. E/CN.4/2001/51).
security, peace and dignity) revolving around the struggle for a place to live, and
that the attainment of other rights becomes that much more possible once the
right to a secure place to live has been gained 5.

Right to housing has been been recognised both generally and specifically for
different groups of people, given their vulnerability on account of their social,
physical or mental condition. For instance, General Comment No. 5 of the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (eleventh session 1994)
elaborates on the housing rights of persons with disability(ies). General Comment
No. 6 (thirteenth session, 1995) emphasises ... that housing for the elderly must
be viewed as more than mere shelter and that, in addition to the physical, it has
psychological and social significance which should be taken into account. Other
international conventions like the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) 1965, the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 1979, and the Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC) 1990, deal with recognition and protection of housing rights of
ethnic minorities and people of different nationalities, origin, race and colour
without discrimination, housing rights of women and of children respectively.

Based on the above discussed understanding on the right to adequate housing, its
importance and recognition for particular categories/groups of people, this report
proceeds to anlyse the situations that result in violaton and/or denial of this right,
particularly with refence to women, who continue to live an invisible existence. It
is a well established fact that value added by womens contribution to the family
(both economic and social) as well as to a nations economy has received very little
recognition. This is precisely why womens needs are often forgotten both in times
of crisis as also during crisis management, be it forced evictions; displacement due
to development projects; relocation/resettlement and rehabilitation following
dislocation of families/communities; wild life conservation and forest management;
armed conflict and riots; rehabilitation that follows such conflicts/riots at the time
of any disaster management etc

5 Kothari, Miloon. The Human Right to Adequate Housing: Towards Ideal indicators and
Realistic World Views. Geneva. 25-29 January, 1993.