Statement of Mr. Miloon Kothari, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living to the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on Human Rights - Geneva, April 2001

Mr. Chairperson, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It is indeed a great honour for me to report to the Commission, for the first time in my capacity as Special Rapporteur.  In the relatively short time since my appointment in September last year, I have tried to present in this report some pertinent issues concerning the current state of adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and to outline proposed areas of work towards the realization of the human rights relevant to my mandate.
As you may kindly recall, my present mandate given by the Commission resolution 2000/9, covers several aspects including:
reporting on the status of the realization of the rights relevant to the mandate;
 
promoting cooperation among, and assistance to, Governments in their efforts to secure these rights;
 
applying a gender perspective (also in view of res 2000/13);
 
developing a regular dialogue and discussing possible areas of collaboration with Governments, relevant UN bodies, specialized agencies, international organizations in the field of housing rights, inter alia the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS/Habitat), NGOs and international financial institutions; and
 
making recommendations on the realization of the relevant human rights.
Let me state at the outset that I intend to fulfill this mandate through practical and constructive approaches, and from a holistic perspective.  The resolution spells out adequate housing as a part of the right to an adequate standard of living.  It is therefore critical that the issue of adequate housing is viewed in light of the indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights.  From this departure point, I wish to examine a range of issues related to housing, including: land; access to portable water; issues of economic globalization and its compatibility with human rights and particularly on impact on housing; the dimension of international cooperation; poverty and global social policies and their interface with human rights and housing rights in particular.
In my statement today, I shall present a summary of the report and several points for the consideration of the Commission.  A more detailed presentation on the report will be made in a separate briefing scheduled on 4 April, at 10 a.m.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The right to adequate housing, as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, has been recognized as a cornerstone in human rights since the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  Since then, much work has been done over the last decade, both within and outside of UN human rights system, to clarify and advance this human right.  In my report, I provided in detail the main legal provisions pertaining to adequate housing from major international instruments, as well as relevant references to adequate housing in declarations and recommendations from a number of important global conferences, particularly the 1996 Habitat Agenda.  These sources of adequate housing have also been made available under the OHCHR website.
Based on this recognition of the right, I outlined some important developments during the last decade in clarifying and expanding the legal contents of the rights related to adequate housing.  These include:
the important work carried out by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which adopted two General Comments, No. 4 on the right to adequate housing in 1991 and No. 7 on forced eviction in 1997;
 
work of the Special Rapporteur on promoting the realization of the right to adequate housing under the Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights;
 
the work of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and various resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Settlements;
 
developments at the national level including relevant case laws; and
 
paying tribute to the considerable work undertaken by the civil society and NGOs.
The report also looks at concluding observations adopted by treaty bodies for the past several years, particularly by CESCR, CRC and CEDAW, which reflect the movement towards a broader and more holistic interpretation of the right to adequate housing.
Looking at the relevance of these issues to housing, and in view of the indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights, I am particularly keen on pursing collaboration with other relevant mandates under the Commission and Sub-Commission to ensure that issues related to adequate housing are not examined in isolation but in conjunction with other economic, civil, cultural, political and social rights.
Mr. Chairperson,
While there have been much progress on normative aspect of the right to adequate housing, the actual realization and implementation of the right remain far from reality for the majority of the poor and the vulnerable throughout the world.  The issues related to adequate housing, as in other economic, social and cultural rights, need to be framed in the context of today’s reality:
where, one-fifth of the world’s population live in absolute poverty, on less than $1 a day;
 
where, women comprise 70 per cent of those living in absolute poverty, and most of the poor are forced to live without access to such basic amenities as food, clothing and shelter;
 
where, between 30 to 70 million children are living on the streets; and where, there are some 600 million urban dwellers and 1 billion in rural areas in the South, who live in overcrowded or poor quality housing with inadequate provision of water, sanitation, drainage and garbage collection. Globally, 1.7 billion persons lack access to clean water and 3.3 billion are without proper sanitation facilities.  Their lives and health are constantly under threat in such hazardous circumstances.
But the numbers do not fully capture the state of housing.  Consider the following forms of distressed housing found throughout the world today: slums, squatter settlements, old buses, shipping containers, pavements, railway platforms, streets and roadside embankments, cellars, staircases, rooftops, elevator enclosures, cardboard boxes, plastic sheets, aluminum and tin shelters – they remind us of the distressed conditions under which many of our people are still living. 
In the second part of my report, I outlined several impediments and priority issues for the realization of the rights related to my mandate.  Today, globalization is having impacts on every facet of our life – housing is no exception.  For the homeless and those inadequately housed, the benefits of globalization have hardly been significant.  There is a wide gap between income groups, within countries and across countries, in terms of the availability, affordability and habitability of housing and access to utilities, which has resulted in an increase in the number of people in inadequate and insecure housing and living conditions.  During the course of my mandate, I should like to further examine the impact of globalization and poverty on the realization of the right to adequate housing.  In my future reports, I should also like to devote particular focus on several specific issues flagged in this preliminary report, including: gender discrimination in housing and land rights; children and housing rights; forced evictions; and the issues of indigenous and tribal peoples.
Discrimination and segregation are, from my own experience, evidently becoming important issues in the area of housing rights.  In addressing these issues, I would like to focus particularly on two aspects: gender and poverty.  In the realization of rights related to adequate housing, it is of primary importance that women are accorded substantive rather than illusory rights.  In this regard, I am guided and encouraged by the adoption of the Commission resolution 2000/13 last year on women’s equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal right to own property and adequate housing.  In my report, I indicated my readiness to implement relevant operative paragraphs of this resolution, as an implicit part of my mandate.  I look forward to receiving further directives from the Commission in this respect.
Another important aspect that needs attention is the growing number of people living in inadequate housing as a manifestation of poverty.  There is a new form of discrimination which are coming into being, not necessary because of race, class or gender, religion but essentially because you are poor.  I will attempt to highlight these issues in the context of the forthcoming World Conference against Racism this summer.
Furthermore, on the question of domestic applicability and justiciability, I noted in my report that currently more than 30 countries have included housing rights in their constitutional framework.  For most of the States that have ratified the ICESCR, ensuring domestic status and application of the constituent rights remain an important priority for their realization.  In facing this challenge, it would be important in my periodic reports to take stock of some significant developments – both positive and negative – which can offer good examples and lessons learned for the realization of the rights, as I have illustrated in my present report.  I would be very grateful for the kind cooperation and assistance from the State Parties and the civil society groups in this regard.
The third section of my report deals with actions necessary to promote realization of the right to adequate housing, including cooperation with Governments, with international and regional financial and economic institutions, UN bodies and the civil society.  One of the areas that needs focussing, will be the impacts on housing as consequences of current and emerging global economic and social policies such as trade liberalization (including WTO – General Agreement on Trade in Services), privatization, macroeconomic policies, institutions posing user fees and new instruments such as PRSPs and PRGF.  It would be pertinent to examine how compatible they are with human rights instruments in terms of adequate housing and other related rights, and whether the programmes and policies of State and non-State actors, including the international financial institutions, are in effect taking those human rights provisions into account in their activities.  A preliminary review indicates that these policies driven by a narrow macroeconomic agenda, are not conducive to the realization of the right to adequate housing.  Such policies are in fact causing an increase in the number of people living in inadequate and insecure housing and living conditions.
I would also welcome opportunities to highlight issues related to adequate housing and other related rights in a number of relevant global conference review processes that will take place during the course of my mandate – most importantly the review of the Habitat Agenda at Istanbul +5 in New York this June.  In February, I was able to participate, with the support of the UNCHS (Habitat) secretariat, in the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the Istanbul +5 in Nairobi.  I wish to bring to the attention of the Commission, my deep concern regarding the current draft declaration for Istanbul +5 emerged out of this PrepCom meeting, which does not reaffirm the provisions of human rights including the right to adequate housing that were contained in the Habitat Agenda.  This would be a major setback from the commitments made five years ago in Istanbul.  It would be of paramount importance for the Commission to unequivocally call for progress on the Habitat Agenda at the UNGASS in June 2001.
From this meeting, and also in other UN intergovernmental meetings outside of human rights arena, it is evident that much needs to be done in terms of raising awareness and clarifying misgivings about housing rights and obligations of States under the Covenant.  This would require, inter alia, engaging in a dialogue towards developing further the “core content” of the right, clarifying further the obligations of States for the progressive realization of the right, and studying the feasibility of developing indicators to better define “adequacy” in the context of the right to housing.
Furthermore, there is also a need to highlight, as time and resources permit, the relevance of human rights approaches and of housing issues in particular, at the several review processes of global conferences forthcoming during the course of my mandate, such as the Third UN Conference on LDCs in May, the World Conference against Racism and the 10-year review of the World Summit for Children in September, and the High-level Event on Financing for Development in early 2002.
Finally, the report outlines several preliminary conclusions and recommendations, including endorsement from the Commission for developing research agendas on issues that are affecting the realization of the rights relevant to the mandate, preparation of thematic reports and placing consistent focus on the critical issue of women and interacting with the Commission on the Status of Women.
On other practical aspects of my mandate towards the realization and operationalization of rights related to adequate housing, I should like to submit to the Commission that I would pursue practical and constructive approaches as I said at the outset, through, inter alia, the following processes as proposed in my report:
First, to contribute to the work of the treaty bodies and ensure that the issues related to my mandate are effectively addressed in these bodies.  I had very useful and encouraging interactions with the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in November last year, which kindly invited me to address to the Committee.  I look forward to having opportunities to forge similar relationship with other treaty bodies relevant to my mandate;
Secondly, to play a catalytic role in promoting housing rights among UN system and other international organizations, through having regular dialogues such as the interagency consultation organized by OHCHR in cooperation with UNCHS (Habitat) in November last year;
Third, to encourage integration of housing rights in the operational activities of the UN system, through, among others, forwarding suggestions for further refining UNDAF/CCA from housing rights perspectives and contributing to the elaboration of the joint housing rights programme being proposed by UNCHS (Habitat) and OHCHR;
Fourth, to stress the relevance of international cooperation (in particular its fraternity and solidarity dimensions) towards the realization of the right to adequate housing;
Fifth, to cooperate with regional human rights bodies and national human rights institutions;
Sixth, to contribute to the adoption of emerging instruments, such as an optional protocol to ICESCR, which can assist in clarifying the meaning of, and steps necessary for, the realization of the right to adequate housing;
And last but not the least, to work closely with the civil society groups, which, over the last decade, have developed considerable expertise and information-base on a range of areas relevant to my mandate.
In each of these processes, my focus will be on adopting practical measures for the progressive realization of the rights pertaining to adequate housing, through collection of best practices and lessons learned that stand the test of the human rights approaches to indivisibility of all rights.  I shall be very grateful in receiving cooperation and support from all concerned parties towards this end.
 Mr. Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen,
While these tasks may seem daunting, the plight of the poor and the vulnerable living in appalling conditions throughout the world, cannot simply be ignored.  The State Parties and the international community are duty-bound to uphold the human rights principles and norms, and to take necessary measures for the progressive realization of the rights.  My task, as entrusted by the mandate from the Commission, would be to promote a better understanding of this state of affairs and to act as a catalyst for institutionalizing housing rights and giving practical values by drawing upon considerable wisdom that rests with Governments, UN and other international agencies, the civil society and the poor and the vulnerable people themselves.  I look forward to receiving your guidance and support in this endeavour.
Thank you for your kind attention.