The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s concluding observations on the combined twenty-second to twenty-fourth reports of the Netherlands offer insight on ways forward for the country regarding housing rights.
Reminders: The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its State parties.
All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially one year after acceding to the Convention and then every two years. The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”. (Source: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner, Committee on the elimination of racial discrimination website).
On August 25th, 2021, the CERD launched its concluding observations on the two last Kingdom of the Netherlands’ reports regarding its fight against discriminations. Some recommendations regarding the situation of Roma, Sinti and Traveller, climate change and discrimination against minorities also concerned the right to housing. These recommendations allow to observe the limits of the Kingdom of Netherlands in fighting discriminations in housing and offer hope for improvements in the future.
1) Promote social inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Travelers.
First, in the 31st recommendation, the Committee evokes research showing that “the social inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Travelers continues to lag behind”, compared to that of other residents in municipalities, “with regards to employment, education and housing”. The Committee is also concerned about reports that some municipalities have not yet implemented the 2018 policy framework for municipal traveller sites (art. 5).
2) Providing housing support to Roma, Sinti, and Travellers.
In its 32nd recommendation, the Committee recommends that the Netherlands “provide targeted support for Roma, Sinti and Travellers in the areas of housing, education and employment”, and “take measures to counter the phenomenon of anti-Gypsyism”. More precisely, it calls the Netherlands to evaluate “the effectiveness of measures helping the education of Roma, Sinti and Traveller children “and take measures to improve their outcomes”, “provide support to stateless Roma, Sinti and Travellers who are eligible to obtain Dutch nationality but encounter difficulties in the naturalization procedure”, base “any decision affecting Roma, Sinti and Travellers (…) on prior consultation with representatives of these groups”, “promote the use of the manual to address anti-Gypsyism among relevant authorities and evaluate its impact”, and “ensure that all municipalities implement the 2018 policy framework for municipal traveller sites”.
3) Guaranteeing the right to housing in the context of climate change.
The 37th recommendation of the CERD concerns climate change. The Committee is “concerned about reports that the effects of climate change, which are already palpable in some of the Dutch Caribbean islands, will threaten a plethora of human rights such as the rights to work, health, and housing, and will disproportionately impact vulnerable groups”. It is also concerned about “reports that these islands are not receiving support to address these issues (art. 5)”.
4) Avoid discrimination in housing against minorities.
In the 25th recommendation, the Committee “is concerned that minorities continue to face racial discrimination in many areas of life including in employment, housing, education, health and social care, and that they are underrepresented in elected bodies and in the public sector”. Moreover, “in view of the intersectionality of religion and ethnicity in the State party, the Committee is also concerned by reports of feelings among some members of ethno-religious communities, in particular Muslim communities of discrimination, exclusion and isolation, based among other things on the law partially banning face-covering and on citizenship-stripping legislation (art. 5)”. Therefore, the CERD recommends the National Anti-discrimination and Anti-racism Coordinator to consider intersectionality and “ensures that all ethnic minorities are consulted on issues that affect them, in particular during the formulation of new policies and legislation”. Finally, the CERD advice the Netherlands to take concrete measures addressing discrimination of minorities in “employment, housing, education, health and social care".
Read the complete concluding observations here.
