The UN Committee on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has published its findings on the countries it examined during its latest session, held from 29 May to 23 June 2017, in Geneva. The findings cover how the Netherlands is doing with regard to implementing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, detailing positive developments, main areas of concern, and recommendations for action. The findings, officially known as concluding observations, can be found here.
- The Committee is concerned about the significant rise in homelessness, in particular among marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and groups, in the State party (art. 11).
- The Committee urges the State party to investigate the root causes of homelessness and recommends that the State party take all necessary measures including securing affordable social housing in particular for those marginalized and disadvantaged and allocating appropriate funds to local municipalities. In this respect, the Committee draws the attention of the State party to its general comment No. 4 (1991) on adopting a participatory human rights-based strategy to ensure the realisation of the right to adequate housing.
The joint report of NGOs in the Netherlands played a substantial role in the content of these findings. The NJCM and Kompass coordinated a report of 23 organizations. The report was called Bringing Human Rights Home: Contribution to the third Universal Periodic Review of the Netherlands.
