UN housing rights expert to visit Egypt

Arabic

GENEVA / CAIRO (20 September 2018) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, will visit Egypt from 24 September to 3 October in the first official trip to the country by an expert appointed by the Human Rights Council since 2011. 

Farha will examine the status of the realisation of the right to adequate housing, with particular attention to gender equality and non-discrimination, the protection of street children, homeless people, refugees and displaced persons, persons with disabilities, minorities and the poor.

“I am interested to learn more about legislation, programmes and policies to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11.1  to ensure by 2030 access to safe, affordable and adequate housing and basic services for all,” the expert said.

“As a large segment of Egypt’s urban population lives in unplanned areas, I would also like to learn more about the efforts made by the Government to improve living conditions in these areas through upgrading of informal settlements and to what extent they follow a human rights approach.”

Other topics include the right of tenure, private market housing, security-related displacement, the prevention of forced evictions and ensuring access to justice and remedies for persons who believe their right to housing has been violated.

The Special Rapporteur will meet with senior Government officials from the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, the Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs and Social Solidarity and state institutions responsible for urban development, human rights, security and law enforcement. She is also planning to meet residents living in various neighbourhoods and settlements in and around Cairo, in Giza and Minya, and representatives from international financial institutions, development agencies, civil social society and academia.

The Special Rapporteur will hold a media conference on 3 October 2018 at the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo, 1 Osiris street, Garden City, to share her preliminary observations and conclusions. It will start at 10am, and access is strictly limited to the media.

ENDS

Ms Leilani Farha is the UN 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. She took up her mandate in June 2014. Ms Farha is the Executive Director of the NGO Canada without Poverty, based in Ottawa. A lawyer by training, for the past 20 years Ms Farha has worked both internationally and domestically on the implementation of the right to adequate housing for the most marginalized groups and on the situation of people living in poverty. Her most recent report to the General Assembly focusses on rights-based upgrading of informal settlements.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

UN Human Rights country page: Egypt

For more information and media requests please contact:

During the visit: Gunnar Theissen at (+41-79 7520481 / gtheissen@ohchr.org)
After and before the visit: Gunnar Theissen at (+41 22 917 93 21) or write to srhousing@ohchr.org

For registration for the press conference please contact Ms Merhan Ghaly, Public Information Assistant, merhan.ghaly@un.org or Ms Nihal Helmy, Public Information Assistant, helmy@un.org, UN Information Centre in Cairo, Tel: +202 27959816
For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Jeremy Laurence – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org)  
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