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Statement at the second session of the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda (Nairobi, 19-23 February 2001)
19 February 2001
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Statement of Mr. Miloon Kothari, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living to the second session of the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda, Nairobi, 19-23 February 2001
Mr. Chairperson, Mme. Executive Director, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
Over the last decade, the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living has been recognized as a cornerstone/fundamental human right in the UN human rights mechanism and in the Habitat Agenda. But the realization of the right remains far from a reality for the majority of the poor and the vulnerable throughout the world.
Indeed, almost 100 million people are living with no shelter. Women constitute 70 per cent of those living in absolute poverty. Statistics, however, do not fully capture the global state of housing. Indeed, an improved understanding of the state of housing conditions is revealed through the consideration of the following contemporary forms of distressed housing: slums and squatter settlements, old buses, shipping containers, pavements, railway platforms, streets and roadside embankments, cellars, staircases, rooftops, elevator enclosures, cages, cardboard boxes, plastic sheets, aluminum and tin shelters.
Rapid urbanization, particularly in South East Asia and in Africa serves only to exacerbate this dismal situation. As recognized in the Report of the Executive Director, this urban transition has been accompanied by dramatic increases in urban poverty that disproportionately impacts upon women, children, ethnic and racial conflict, homelessness and environmental deterioration. At the same time, we must not lose sight of the increasing poverty in countries with predominantly rural populations – indeed, the current urbanization trends is a mirror image of growing rural poverty.
As such, the intention in fulfilling my mandate as Special Rapporteur is to look holistically at factors affecting the realization of the right to adequate housing. Indeed, my primary goal in the process of Istanbul plus 5 will be to review the status of the implementation of the agenda and identify priority issues and impediments to the realization of the right to adequate housing, with a view to contributing to the outcome document.
I will only address some of these issues – more detail is available in my report to the Commission on Human Rights, which is available to interested delegates and also under Website of OHCHR ().
Of primary concern/critical importance is the need for governments to ensure that women are accorded substantive rather than illusory rights as they pertain to housing. To this end, I am guided and encouraged by the adoption of Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/13 entitled “Women’s equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal right to own property and adequate housing”.
The seven commitments listed in the “Further Actions and Initiatives” document, are indeed crucial to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Although a focus on women is incorporated in some of the seven commitments listed, the specific commitment of “gender equality” is the only commitment from the Habitat Agenda not explicitly referred to in the “Further Actions and Initiatives”.
The view that “gender mainstreaming” alone will ensure the implementation of the Commitment of Gender Equality has proved to be incorrect. It is known that in addition to gender mainstreaming activities, a specific focus on gender equality in the work of UNCHS is essential. Why, then, the Commitment on Gender Equality not included in the “Further Actions and Initiatives” – this situation needs to be rectified and specific references should be made, if gender equality is to remain an overall objective at all levels.
There is also a need to look at the many dimensions of poverty that are affecting the realization of the right to adequate housing. A new form of discrimination, that needs to be addressed in the Istanbul +5 process, is emerging today in which people and communities are increasingly being marginalized and discriminated not merely on grounds of race, class or gender, but because they are poor.
Also of concern is the impact of globalization on the housing and living conditions of the poor. While globalization offers much opportunity, its benefits are unevenly distributed and its costs borne by all those least able to bear them. Unclear and conflicting state obligations (e.g. debt, trade and investment policies vs. human rights commitments) are also significant impediments to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. There need for clarity, international cooperation and for states to adhere to existing human rights obligations. States must strive to ensure that economic, social and cultural rights are respected, promoted, protected and fulfilled. This is all the more clear given the growing phenomenon of poverty and income disparity between and amongst nations.
Istanbul +5 must lead to the better and greater understanding of these issues and impediments to the human right to adequate housing. It will provide further opportunity for governments, civil society and all UN bodies to both promote the greater realization and operationalization of the right and to close the gap between the recognition/ mere existence of the right and practice.
Much can be learnt from ongoing civil society work on the right to adequate housing including conceptual work and standard-setting, human rights education, community finance, formation of campaigns, and documentation of violation.
The Habitat Agenda, including the right to adequate housing, needs to be addressed also in the context of other important conferences coming up – such as LDC-III Conference, 10-year review of Children’s summit, the World Conference on Racism, and Financing for Development. We need to look beyond the June meeting, and to put the Habitat Agenda on the table for these conferences. As I will be attending some of these conferences, I look forward to having opportunities to work with, and to receive guidance from, the delegates and Habitat towards this end.
Finally, on the critical issue of governance – at the central level, there is a need for more executive, judicial and parliamentary activism for the legal recognition of the right at the national level. At the local level, there is a need to enhance participation – empowering the people and the local governments. The Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/64 adopted last year, identified the key attributes of good governance to be transparency, responsibility, accountability, participation and responsiveness. It expressly linked good governance to an enabling environment conducive to the enjoyment of human rights and “promoting growth and sustainable human development”. Adopting rights-based approaches to human settlement development would clarify the obligations, duties and actions by all partners in the development process, thereby raising the level of accountability, and better empowering the intended beneficiaries of development.
To make the declaration on “Cities and other human settlements in the new millennium” truly meaningful, and to ensure the effective implementation of the Habitat Agenda and follow-up to the Istanbul +5, human rights and rights-based approach need to be placed in the centre of the Istanbul +5 as its guiding principles.
The first step involves explicitly referring to the human rights instruments in the outcome document. It may be recalled that 35 out of 256 paragraphs of the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements and the Habitat Agenda made references to human rights or address human rights issues in relation to human settlements development. The next step should be linking the machinery established to analyze, implement and monitor the right to adequate housing, with the actual implementation of the Habitat Agenda and of new initiatives coming out of Istanbul +5 process.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Mr. Chairperson, Mme. Executive Director, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
Over the last decade, the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living has been recognized as a cornerstone/fundamental human right in the UN human rights mechanism and in the Habitat Agenda. But the realization of the right remains far from a reality for the majority of the poor and the vulnerable throughout the world.
Indeed, almost 100 million people are living with no shelter. Women constitute 70 per cent of those living in absolute poverty. Statistics, however, do not fully capture the global state of housing. Indeed, an improved understanding of the state of housing conditions is revealed through the consideration of the following contemporary forms of distressed housing: slums and squatter settlements, old buses, shipping containers, pavements, railway platforms, streets and roadside embankments, cellars, staircases, rooftops, elevator enclosures, cages, cardboard boxes, plastic sheets, aluminum and tin shelters.
Rapid urbanization, particularly in South East Asia and in Africa serves only to exacerbate this dismal situation. As recognized in the Report of the Executive Director, this urban transition has been accompanied by dramatic increases in urban poverty that disproportionately impacts upon women, children, ethnic and racial conflict, homelessness and environmental deterioration. At the same time, we must not lose sight of the increasing poverty in countries with predominantly rural populations – indeed, the current urbanization trends is a mirror image of growing rural poverty.
As such, the intention in fulfilling my mandate as Special Rapporteur is to look holistically at factors affecting the realization of the right to adequate housing. Indeed, my primary goal in the process of Istanbul plus 5 will be to review the status of the implementation of the agenda and identify priority issues and impediments to the realization of the right to adequate housing, with a view to contributing to the outcome document.
I will only address some of these issues – more detail is available in my report to the Commission on Human Rights, which is available to interested delegates and also under Website of OHCHR ().
Of primary concern/critical importance is the need for governments to ensure that women are accorded substantive rather than illusory rights as they pertain to housing. To this end, I am guided and encouraged by the adoption of Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/13 entitled “Women’s equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal right to own property and adequate housing”.
The seven commitments listed in the “Further Actions and Initiatives” document, are indeed crucial to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Although a focus on women is incorporated in some of the seven commitments listed, the specific commitment of “gender equality” is the only commitment from the Habitat Agenda not explicitly referred to in the “Further Actions and Initiatives”.
The view that “gender mainstreaming” alone will ensure the implementation of the Commitment of Gender Equality has proved to be incorrect. It is known that in addition to gender mainstreaming activities, a specific focus on gender equality in the work of UNCHS is essential. Why, then, the Commitment on Gender Equality not included in the “Further Actions and Initiatives” – this situation needs to be rectified and specific references should be made, if gender equality is to remain an overall objective at all levels.
There is also a need to look at the many dimensions of poverty that are affecting the realization of the right to adequate housing. A new form of discrimination, that needs to be addressed in the Istanbul +5 process, is emerging today in which people and communities are increasingly being marginalized and discriminated not merely on grounds of race, class or gender, but because they are poor.
Also of concern is the impact of globalization on the housing and living conditions of the poor. While globalization offers much opportunity, its benefits are unevenly distributed and its costs borne by all those least able to bear them. Unclear and conflicting state obligations (e.g. debt, trade and investment policies vs. human rights commitments) are also significant impediments to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. There need for clarity, international cooperation and for states to adhere to existing human rights obligations. States must strive to ensure that economic, social and cultural rights are respected, promoted, protected and fulfilled. This is all the more clear given the growing phenomenon of poverty and income disparity between and amongst nations.
Istanbul +5 must lead to the better and greater understanding of these issues and impediments to the human right to adequate housing. It will provide further opportunity for governments, civil society and all UN bodies to both promote the greater realization and operationalization of the right and to close the gap between the recognition/ mere existence of the right and practice.
Much can be learnt from ongoing civil society work on the right to adequate housing including conceptual work and standard-setting, human rights education, community finance, formation of campaigns, and documentation of violation.
The Habitat Agenda, including the right to adequate housing, needs to be addressed also in the context of other important conferences coming up – such as LDC-III Conference, 10-year review of Children’s summit, the World Conference on Racism, and Financing for Development. We need to look beyond the June meeting, and to put the Habitat Agenda on the table for these conferences. As I will be attending some of these conferences, I look forward to having opportunities to work with, and to receive guidance from, the delegates and Habitat towards this end.
Finally, on the critical issue of governance – at the central level, there is a need for more executive, judicial and parliamentary activism for the legal recognition of the right at the national level. At the local level, there is a need to enhance participation – empowering the people and the local governments. The Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/64 adopted last year, identified the key attributes of good governance to be transparency, responsibility, accountability, participation and responsiveness. It expressly linked good governance to an enabling environment conducive to the enjoyment of human rights and “promoting growth and sustainable human development”. Adopting rights-based approaches to human settlement development would clarify the obligations, duties and actions by all partners in the development process, thereby raising the level of accountability, and better empowering the intended beneficiaries of development.
To make the declaration on “Cities and other human settlements in the new millennium” truly meaningful, and to ensure the effective implementation of the Habitat Agenda and follow-up to the Istanbul +5, human rights and rights-based approach need to be placed in the centre of the Istanbul +5 as its guiding principles.
The first step involves explicitly referring to the human rights instruments in the outcome document. It may be recalled that 35 out of 256 paragraphs of the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements and the Habitat Agenda made references to human rights or address human rights issues in relation to human settlements development. The next step should be linking the machinery established to analyze, implement and monitor the right to adequate housing, with the actual implementation of the Habitat Agenda and of new initiatives coming out of Istanbul +5 process.
Thank you for your kind attention.