Statement of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing under the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Miloon Kothari, to the Fourth Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development

Bali, Indonesia, 27 May-7 June 2002



The intention of this statement to the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is to remind States that the human rights approach to housing and land is inseparable from the process leading to sustainable development. Such a crucial linkage has been repeatedly recognized in the commitments emanating from numerous UN Conferences including the Agenda 21, the Beijing Platform of Action, the Vienna Declaration and the Habitat Agenda. WSSD is therefore an opportunity to address the grave housing and living conditions situation across the world and to discuss innovative approaches to attain sustainable environment and development in a way that guarantees the fundamental human rights of every person enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments.

I have been encouraged by the Commission on Human Rights to bring the issues relevant to my mandate to the attention of forthcoming global conference reviews, including WSSD. The mandate entrusted in me by the Commission is essentially to report on the status of the realization of rights relevant to adequate housing and to develop dialogues with Governments, United Nations and international agencies and the civil society in securing these rights. In my reports to the Commission (E/CN.4/2001/51 and E/CN.4/2002/59), I have called for a broad interpretation of the right to adequate housing as contained in international legal instruments, keeping in view the indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights. From a human rights perspective, the issue of housing cannot be separated from a range of other issues including gender discrimination, land, access to potable water, poverty, forced eviction, impact of national and global economic policies and international cooperation.

The right to adequate housing needs to be recognized as a crucial entitlement on the road to achieving sustainable development including environmental security. This recognition is essential since the realization of the right to adequate housing loses its meaning unless processes are put into place that ensure that people and communities can live in an environment that is free from pollution of air, water and the food chain. For millions of dwellers in the developing and transition countries a heavy dependence continues on natural resources (potable water, building materials, fuel, fodder, medicine). Ensuring their right to adequate housing, including security of tenure and protection from forced evictions is a first step towards ensuring the regeneration and protection of the environment.

The documents emanating from the WSSD must recognize these essential links and the indivisibility approach and build targets towards the realization of the right to adequate housing. Failure to grasp the enormous potential that the right to adequate housing has on sustaining environment and promoting development will only lead to a larger scale of dispossession and homelessness across the world.

. The WSSD must build upon agreed commitments. The Agenda 21 in its Chapter 7.6 recognized that access to safe and healthy shelter is essential to a person’s physical, psychological, social and economic well-being and should be a fundamental part of national and international action. Significantly, the Agenda 21 also reaffirmed the right to adequate housing as a basic human right, as did the Habitat Agenda adopted at Habitat II in 1996.

Despite this, a decade after Rio, it is estimated that 600 million urban dwellers live in overcrowded and poor quality housing with inadequate provision of water, sanitation, drainage and garbage collection. So do over 1 billion persons living in rural areas. This grave situation puts the lives and health of citizens continually at risk and impacts upon a range of human rights including the right to adequate housing.

Faced with the scale of the problem, it is my contention that only the human rights paradigm can offer fundamental and systemic solutions and changes to attain sustainable development. The Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by the General Assembly in 1986, confirmed that the right to development belongs to every human person. Everyone has the right to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development. This right includes permanent sovereignty over natural resources; self-determination; popular participation; equality of opportunity; and the advancement of adequate conditions for the enjoyment of all human rights.

To date, 145 countries in the world have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which codified rights relevant to sustainable development such as the rights to adequate standard of living including the rights to adequate housing and food, the right to health and the right to work. Moreover the Covenant in its Article 1 recognises the right to self-determination including economic, social and cultural development. This Article also protects the right of peoples to use of natural wealth and resources and to not be deprived of their own means of subsistence. Other international human rights instruments also codify rights relevant to sustainable development such as the right to popular participation, the right to security of the person and home and the right to information. Underlying and deepening the content of all these rights are human rights principles such as non-discrimination, gender equality, non-retrogression and the right to a remedy. These principles offer valuable directions so that the gains of development can be sustained for the benefit of human beings and the environment.

The documents from the WSSD need to recognise the value of human rights principles and instruments as a basis for sustainable development. This is all the more critical as several Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs), such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, have a close affinity to the international human rights instruments (IHRIs). Both the MEAs and the IHRIs protect entitlements to self-determination, decentralisation, primacy of people’s rights, gender equality, ecological sustainability, and protection of culture and traditional knowledge especially for indigenous peoples.

In the context of the right to adequate housing, it is important to keep in mind the obligations enshrined in article 11.1 of the Covenant that urges all States parties to “take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international cooperation based on free consent”. Human rights can therefore provide valuable tools for States, in particular developing countries, to examine and counter existing and emerging international economic policies on trade, investment, finance, debt servicing, structural adjustment, so as to ensure that these are consistent with the principles and provisions of international human rights instruments. These provisions of international cooperation places obligations Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which proclaims that everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms contained in the Declaration can be realized; and Articles 2.1, 11, 15, 22 and 23 of the ICESCR, which build upon the foundations for international cooperation in articles 55 and 56 of the UN Charter, and the obligation for States parties to recognize the essential role of international cooperation and to reaffirm their commitment to take joint and separate action. on the part of the international community, including international institutions and supra-national entities and parties to various economic agreements, to remove such constraints on developing countries in pursuing their human rights obligations towards their citizens. Such an overview and direction for global policies must ensure that these policies do not in any manner inhibit or compromise the ability of developing countries to implement their commitments to respect, promote, protect and fulfil economic, social and cultural human rights commitments at the national level.

The WSSD must therefore indicate that, in pursuit of the operating principles of “solidarity” and “fraternity” in international cooperation, it is essential to accept that there is a need to evolve strategies for distributive justice, including land reform and increases in social spending on civic services essential to the realization of the right to adequate housing, such as potable water, electricity and sanitation. In the context of the WSSD it is also critical to recognise that the ‘solidarity’ dimension of international cooperation must also be utilised by states to initiate policies and targets aimed at reducing global warming, arresting desertification and taking preventative steps to grapple with natural and man-made disasters.

There are particular groups that disproportionately bear the brunt of inadequate and insecure and inadequate housing and living conditions and forced evictions. The protection of women, children and the vulnerable people and communities must form the foremost imperative in all conclusions emerging from WSSD. Valuable lessons can be gained from the protection offered for instance to housing and land rights of women in Article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Similarly, article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides a clear example of the need for an integrated approach to the rights of children to health, living conditions and environmental conditions free from, for example, pollution.

A human rights approach to sustainable development has already been recognized and stressed in the ongoing work of the United Nations human rights system, including special procedures mechanism such as my mandate as well as the treaty bodies set up to monitor the compliance of States ratified international human rights instruments. On 24 May 2002, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted a statement to this session of the Preparatory Committee for WSSD. The Committee stated:

“Upholding and invoking relevant international human rights instruments in general and the ICESCR in particular, will provide a solid legal basis for international cooperation and a needed sense of duty to demonstrate the seriousness of the efforts of WSSD … the failure of governments to place human rights at the centre of converging efforts to achieve sustainable development will undermine the gains of historical experience codified in international law”.

I fully support the view of the Committee, and call upon all parties participating in the preparatory process for WSSD to reaffirm commitments to human rights instruments and to seriously focus attention to their implementation. At this critical juncture in Bali, it is disturbing to note that the draft outcome documents largely omit references to and reaffirmation of previously made commitments to human rights instruments that States have voluntarily ratified. Where such references are found the relevant paragraphs are in square brackets. Such an attitude indicates a “step back” from crucial issues that have repeatedly received global consensus including in the Millennium Declaration, and will send a wrong signal to millions of the world’s citizens who are struggling for their human rights.

From the perspectives of my mandate as Special Rapporteur, I will continue to work closely with relevant treaty bodies and all partners in addressing the issue of sustainable development from human rights perspectives and developing rights-based approaches which could contribute to the efforts of the Governments and the civil society to attain the objectives of the WSSD. To facilitate the consideration by Governments of the draft outcome document, I have herewith attached some suggested languages to highlight the human rights dimension of sustainable development, particularly the right to adequate housing. As encouraged by the Commission on Human Rights, I stand ready to further contribute to the WSSD process and look forward to having an opportunity to participate in the Summit at Johannesburg.


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Proposed amendments
(based on A/CONF.199/PC/L.1/Rev.1 of 9 May 2002)


11. Achieve the Millennium Declaration goal of improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. This would include international and national actions to:
(a) Take steps towards progressive realization of the right to adequate housing as contained in article 11.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international human rights instruments and reaffirmed in the Habitat Agenda and the Agenda 21;
(ab) Improve Ensure equal and non-discriminatory access to adequate shelter and basic social services for the rural and urban poor, with special attention to female heads of household;
(bc) Use low-cost and sustainable materials and appropriate technologies for the construction of adequate housing for the poor including self-built housing, with financial and technological assistance to developing countries, taking into account their culture, climate and specific social conditions;
(cd) Increase employment, credit and income for the urban poor;
(de) Remove unnecessary regulatory and other obstacles for micro-enterprises and the informal sector;
(f) Prevent forced and illegal evictions from homes or land, including for the purpose of, or as a consequence of, decisions or actions affecting the environment. When evictions are deemed necessary, respect and ensure the rights of people affected to information, participation in decision-making and timely and adequate compensation.
(g) Promote international cooperation to improve housing and living conditions consistent with provisions contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
42. The potential of globalisation to promote sustainable development for all remains yet to be realized. Efforts at international, regional and national levels are required to make globalisation equitable, inclusive and responsible to the needs of the developing countries, consistent with the obligations arising out of the need for ‘joint’ and ‘separate’ action on international cooperation as enshrined in the UN Charter, the UDHR and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
43. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states that human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development, and that they are entitled to a healthy and productive life, in harmony with nature. All human beings have a right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Secure, healthy and ecologically sound environment including adequate food, housing and safe drinking water are crucial determinant of human health for sustainable development. The goals of sustainable development can only be achieved in the absence of a high prevalence of debilitating illness, while population health requires poverty eradication. There is an urgent need to address the causes of ill health and their impact on development, with particular emphasis on women and children, as well as other vulnerable groups of society, such as people with disabilities, elderly persons and indigenous people.
46. Reduce respiratory diseases and other health impacts resulting from air pollution, including from some traditional cooking and heating practices, with particular attention to the rights to adequate housing, health, food and to safe environment of women and children who are most exposed to indoor air pollution by:
(a) Strengthening …