The latest Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context was released in February 2019.
In her report, the Special Rapporteur examines the critical issue of access to justice for the right to housing. She suggests that the global housing crisis is rooted in a crisis in access to justice because without access to justice, housing is not properly recognized, understood or addressed as a human right. Millions who live in homelessness or unacceptable living conditions have no place where they can claim their right to housing when States have failed to progressively realize the right, imposed forced evictions, or criminalized those who live in homelessness or in informal housing. She argues that the outdated division of the right to housing into justiciable and non-justiciable components, negative and positive rights, must be firmly rejected. Ten key normative principles are identified which States must satisfy to ensure that all components of the right to housing are subject to effective remedies. The Special Rapporteur outlines how compliance with the obligation to progressively realize the right to housing is adjudicated; how forced evictions and criminalization must be prevented through access to justice and participation in decision-making; how national human rights institutions and informal justice systems should complement the role of courts; and how private actors are required to ensure access to justice for the realization of the right to housing.
She has released ten key principles to ensure access to justice for the right to housing:
•Principle 1:Access to justice must be ensured by all appropriate means and address the needs of diverse groups.
•Principle 2: States must implement the right to housing within the domestic legal system so as to provide at least the same level of protection as is afforded under international human rights law.
•Principle 3: Individuals and groups, households and communities must have standing to advance claims and to participate throughout legal processes and the implementation of remedies.
•Principle 4: Denying access to justice cannot be justified on the basis that the right to housing is not considered justiciable within the State’s domestic legal order.
•Principle 5: Access to justice must apply to both negative and positive State obligations, including obligations to progressively realize the right to housing.
•Principle 6: States may delegate components of access to justice for the right to housing to administrative bodies, but judicial remedies must be available when needed.
•Principle 7: Courts must interpret and apply domestic law in accordance with the State’s obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to housing.
•Principle 8: States must promote decision-making that is consistent with the right to housing.
•Principle 9: Remedies must address both individual and systemic violations.
•Principle 10: Remedies must be implemented by Governments and enforced by courts with participation by rights holders.
Full text of the report can be found here.
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