Statement by the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing at the 76th session of the General Assembly

I am honoured to address this Committee to present my report on "Discrimination in the context of housing" (A/47/408). This report is the first of two interrelated thematic reports I will present now to you and in March 2022, to the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.  The second report will cover the issue of spatial segregation in depth.

Dear delegates,

When the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing was established, non-discrimination was a central concern. States recognized that discrimination in housing was a major barrier and that discrimination based on prohibited grounds like race, ethnicity, or nationality is often a motive behind forced evictions. ¹ States therefore decided to include in the official title of the mandate, an explicit reference to the right to non-discrimination which is unique for a Special Procedure focusing on a particular right.²

Despite such recognition, discrimination in housing continues to be one of the most pervasive and persistent barriers to the fulfilment of the right to adequate housing.

Housing discrimination is a global problem, affecting many groups and all elements of the right to adequate housing. This includes lack of equal and non-discriminatory access to private and public housing, to building, land or housing for rental.

Housing discrimination can also take the form of unequal or discriminatory access to mortgages and credit, discrimination in relation to habitability and inheritance of housing, unequal security of tenure or unequal legal protection against evictions. 

Housing discrimination extends to unequal access to public services, such as water and sanitation, energy, public transport and others.

Furthermore, there continues to be strong correlation between housing discrimination, and environmental health, physical security, access to employment, schooling, and health care.

Women, children, older persons, persons with disability, religious, racial and ethnic groups and minorities, migrants, IDPs, refugees, indigenous peoples, LGBTIQ+ persons, persons living in situations of homelessness, in informal settlements, or in poverty are particularly affected by discrimination in relation to the right to adequate housing.

As I have just mentioned homelessness, let me take this opportunity to welcome the initiative of Madagascar, Algeria, Djibouti, and Senegal who have tabled a resolution on Inclusive social development policies and programmes to address homelessness.

I hope this resolution will also reaffirm relevant resolutions such as the Human Rights Council resolution 43/14 which called on States to “take all measures necessary to eliminate legislation that criminalized homelessness, and to take positive measures with a view to prevent and eliminate homelessness based on international human rights law.”  In terms of prevention of homelessness it would be important that this new resolution reiterate that “no eviction should result in individuals being rendered homeless”, in line with international human rights law including General Comment No. 7  (para 16) of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. If my expertise would be of assistance to UN Member States, I am more than happy to support this important initiative.

Dear delegates,

Let me now return to my report. The report before you is based on the extensive body of international human rights law and jurisprudence developed by treaty bodies and the work of my predecessors. In addition, I issued a call for submissions and held extensive consultations with States, representatives from international organizations, local Governments, equality bodies, national human rights institutions, judges and lawyers and civil society to inform my report.³

Over the last few years, social mobilization calling for racial justice in the United States of America has pushed forward a long-delayed reckoning with racism and shifted debates globally towards a focus on the systemic nature of racism and the institutions that perpetrate it, as underscored in the recent report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.⁴

My report builds on other important events that have urged prioritizing attention and global action to fighting discrimination and advancing the principle of equality, such as the Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.  The 20th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action is an opportunity to reaffirm commitments and bring renewed urgency to the advancement and expansion of the program of action. 

In my report I underline that the prohibition of discrimination is an immediate obligation not subject to the principle of progressive realization. This prohibition of discrimination extends to all possible grounds, both expressly mentioned in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, but also in relation to other grounds recognized under international law such as disability.

The prohibition against discrimination furthermore obligates the State and all its institutions exercising public authority, as well public-private entities, that in many countries, for example, manage social housing. It is also horizontally applicable to ensure that private actors do not discriminate.

Both formal discrimination and substantive discrimination must be eliminated under international human rights law. Formal discrimination refers to laws, regulations, or policies that may be discriminatory, while eliminating substantive discrimination requires States to take steps to ensure equal effective enjoyment of rights, even in the absence of any laws or policies of a discriminative nature.

Finally, States are also encouraged “to adopt special measures to attenuate or suppress conditions that perpetuate discrimination.”⁵

Dear delegates,

In my report I underline that that slavery and colonialism were among the major sources and manifestations of racism and racial discrimination that affected all human rights of affected groups, not least their right to adequate housing.

While the cases of South Africa and the United States of America have been more widely documented, the history of discrimination and segregation in access to land and housing is well known in a large number of countries.  Examining the historical context of housing discrimination in varying local contexts is critical to effectively understanding how such historical legacies have contributed to persisting and durable inequalities and what implications that may hold for the advancement of effective redress for contemporary housing discrimination.

I argue that in order to design effective legal standards and practical measures to combat discrimination, it is important to recognize that housing discrimination may extent to all elements of the right to adequate housing, such as (a) security of tenure, including legal protection against forced evictions; (b) availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; (c) affordability; (d) habitability; (e) accessibility; (f) location; and (g) cultural adequacy.

Furthermore, to effectively address systemic discrimination in the right to adequate housing, it is also imperative to focus on the forms of discrimination being faced by vulnerable groups in specific contexts.  

In my report I devote more detail on various forms of housing discrimination experienced by women, persons with disabilities, migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons, indigenous peoples and racial and ethnic minorities.

My report also provides an overview how public authorities can work towards elimination of housing discrimination through regulation and anti-discrimination legislation, and ensure that victims of housing discrimination have access to justice and remedies through judicial and non-judicial mechanisms. 

I highlight different general and special measures that States can or have taken to combat housing discrimination at national and local levels and argue that victims of housing discrimination need effective remedies against discrimination, including remedies for systemic discrimination experienced in the field of housing.

I call for a mix of administrative, non-judicial and judicial mechanisms that should be easily accessible to victims of housing discrimination at local, national or international levels, including ombudspersons, equality bodies and national human rights institutions

Ultimately, it is also essential that victims of housing discrimination are able to seek justice through the formal judicial system.   However, even in countries that have well established anti-discrimination legislation, courts have not heard many cases relating to housing discrimination or effectively addressed it. 

Dear delegates,

Let me conclude by highlighting six core recommendations to you. In my report I recommend that States, including national, regional, and local Governments should:

• Adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation covering all protected groups. by all public and private entities to protect the full enjoyment of the right to housing.
• Review existing legislation and related regulations to ensure that they prevent and prohibit discrimination in relation to all elements of the right to adequate housing.

• Collect and publish regularly disaggregated data on housing and housing discrimination, access to justice and remedies.

• Establish accessible and sufficiently resourced non-judicial mechanisms at local, regional and national levels, that have the competence to investigate individual and collective complaints of housing discrimination.
• Ensure that sufficiently dissuasive fines and sanctions are imposed for housing discrimination by public authorities and private entities. 

Finally:

• Establish sufficient compensation and reparation schemes for victims of discrimination in housing, especially those who belong to historically marginalized groups.

Thank you for your attention. I am looking forward to hear your views and comments.

Notes: