The Special Rapporteur on the Right to adequate housing presented in March his report on his visit to the Netherlands, from 11 to 21 December 2023. The report analyses the legal protection and enjoyment of the right to adequate housing in the country, the state of housing crisis and its causes, social housing and urban renewal policies and the challenges experienced by various social groups, including by persons experiencing homelessness, communities affected by earthquakes caused by natural gas extraction, Sinti, Roma, caravan dwellers, students, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrant workers, asylum seekers and refugees.
Some of the recommendations contained in his report are:
- Incorporate the right to adequate housing in its domestic law, starting with article 22.2 of the Constitution, which could be amended to read: "It is the duty of the State to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing for all persons. No one shall be evicted from his home or have his home demolished without adequate alternative housing being provided and only after a judicial decision has been taken".
- Ratify the OP-ICESCR and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families;
- Regulate rents in the private rental sector and allow disputes to be heard by rent tribunals, including those brought by undocumented residents;
- Ensure that rental contracts and advertisements for tenants are non-discriminatory and do not express preferences based on citizenship, nationality, gender, family status or other grounds prohibited under international law;
- Develop with all relevant stakeholders and enact a Tenants' Bill of Rights, including access to justice, protection from usurious rent increases, adequate notice of renovations and demolitions;
- Ensure support for tenant participation in tripartite arrangements for social housing, with organisational and legal resources to create a level playing field. Such agreements must be legally enforceable in court;
- Fully empower municipalities to impose rent ceilings or rent control where necessary;
- Authorise and regulate non-profit, non-privately owned co-operative housing, which can enable individuals to develop their own housing;
- Ensure that all temporary leases have the same legal protections as permanent leases in terms of eviction and habitability. In addition, temporary tenancies should not replace permanent tenancies in any housing rehabilitation project;
- Decriminalise squatting and prohibit anti-squat contracts, which are a flagrant violation of the right to adequate housing, including security of tenure;
- Impose fines on landlords who leave their properties vacant for profit, as already provided for in the law, and repurpose vacant properties after due notice for emergency or other housing through compulsory rental auctions;
- Conduct a review of local authority by-laws and remove or amend them to ensure that people experiencing homelessness are not penalised for life-sustaining acts such as rough sleeping or eating; fines imposed should not be treated as debt for the purposes of imprisonment, deportation or denial of statutory benefits;
- Ensure in national legislation that persons with disabilities have access to all existing and new public buildings, social housing, hotels, commercial establishments and shops, as well as pavements and public spaces;
- Ensure that courts can apply the provisions of the ICESCR, in particular article 11, domestically (similar to the current application of provisions of the CRC, such as the principle of the best interests of the child);
- Enable national courts to entertain collective/public interest complaints for violation of the right to adequate housing;
- Ensure that priority access to social housing is for persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, or other forms of severe housing exclusion including disabled or elderly individuals;
A/HRC/55/53/Add.1, Advance unedited version, 28 February 2024
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