The Fondation Abbé Pierre and FEANTSA/ Housing Rights Watch organised a joint seminar on the "European contribution to the right to housing: Standards, Litigation & Advocacy", which took place in Brussels on 16 May 2022.
The full programme can be found here.
About the event
The objective of the seminar was to raise awareness for the binding obligations of the right to housing, both European and national, and to compare different national situations, with the aim of: discussing their scope, their limits, the ways in which they can be strengthened or new ones created; integrating them into the pleas of organisations that promote and defend the right to housing; and making use of them in legal proceedings to draw all the concrete effects for the direct benefit of people experiencing homelessness and those suffering from housing exclusion.
It was an opportunity to address several issues, including:
- Drawing inspiration from environmental litigation in relation to the right to housing
- The requirements of the principle of proportionality in relation to homelessness
- The fact that controlling the property market against price and fee abuses is not contrary to EU law
- A European strategy/national strategy to end fuel poverty
The seminar was aimed at legal networks, practitioners of all types, active and/or interested associations. Interpretations was available in French and English.
Programme:
Welcome by Kjell Larsson, president of FEANTSA.
Did you say "binding obligations?"
Maria Jose Aldanas, Policy officer at FEANTSA, presented FEANTSA´s and Fondation Abbe Pierre´s updated version of Binding Obligations- a guide which includes the minimum standards that governments must respect when implementing the right to housing. Find the publication here. Find Maria Jose Aldanas presentation here.
Dialogue with the judges:
Facilitation: Rafael Cid, lawyer and director of legal strategy, Gentium.
At our dialogue with Giuseppe Palmisano, former President and current General Rapporteur of the ECSR, Lucia Serena Rossi, judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union and Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, judge at the ECHR from 2011 to 2020, Professor at the Catholic University, the judges discussed binding obligations related to housing from European and International case-law.
Implementing positive obligations: the responsibility of public authorities- Using environmental litigation as a model for housing rights
Facilitation: Nicolas Bernard, professor of Law at the University of Saint-Louis, Belgium.
Marine Izquierdo, lawyer, member of Notre Affaire à Tous, France, Delphine Misonne, professor of law at the University of Saint-Louis, Belgium and Koldo Casla, lecturer in law at the University of Essex, England discussed the similarities and differences between environmental and climate change litigation and housing rights, and how the former can be used as a model for housing rights advocates.
Workshops
1. Loss of home: what are the requirements of the principle of proportionality?
Facilitation: Padraic Kenna, director of the Centre for Housing Law, Rights and Policy, NUI Galway, Ireland. Find his presentation here.
- The principle of proportionality in the views of the CESCR, presented by Maria Aldanas, Policy officer at FEANTSA. Find her presentation here.
- Senada Sali, legal director, ERRC, discussed forced evictions and the principle of proportionality. Find her presentation here.
2. Controlling property markets against price and rights abuses
- The place of social housing in the market balance, presented by Virginie Toussain, legal officer, USH, France. Find her presentation here.
- Rent controls and rental protections was presented by Max Althoff, lawyer, Germany. Find his presentation here.
- Land tenure regulation in the Netherlands was presented by Dr Julie Lawson, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT - AHURI Research Centre. Find her presentation here.
3. Strategy to end fuel poverty
- Energy efficiency in housing: update on EU regulations and subsidies and national examples was presented by Louise Sunderland, senior advisor to the Regulatory Assistance Project, England. Find her presentation here.
- The right to energy of the "vulnerable consumer" was presented by Marlies Hesselman, senior lecturer in international law, University of Groningen, Netherlands. Find her presentation here.
Find a summary of the event here.
For more information, please contact: office@feantsa.org
