Sonia Olea Ferreras

Human Rights Officer

Key points of the Communication to the Government of Spain from the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Adequate Housing and on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in reference to the Draft Law on the Right to Housing in process since February 2022 in the Spanish Parliament. [1]

Introduction

As energy prices continue to rise across Europe, it is not just low-income households experiencing energy poverty who are at risk, but middle-class homes are increasingly vulnerable due to their disposable income shrinking because of the energy crisis.

Federal level

There is no explicit reference to housing in the Basic Law (Grundgesetz, GG) beyond the protection of the inviolability of the home. All attempts to include housing as a fundamental right or state objective in the Basic Law (GG) have failed so far in Germany. Nevertheless, the constitution does provide for the protection of social human rights. This is because the guarantee of human dignity in conjunction with the principle of the welfare state gives politicians a mandate to regulate and shape policy.

Jurisdiction: European Court of Human Rights

On the 24th of June 2022 Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, presented his report on Non-take-up of rights in the context of social protection [1]in the UN Human Rights Council’s 50^th Session. The report finds that millions of people, including some of the world’s most marginalized groups, are unable to benefit from the very systems that have been set up to protect them.

The Abbé Pierre Foundation and FEANTSA published their Seventh Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe on 30th June 2022.