Right to housing (old article)

The right to housing is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate housing and shelter. It is recognised in many national constitutions and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Definition

The right to housing is recognised in a number of international human rights instruments. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living. It states that:

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.{{Cquote|Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) also guarantees the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living.

In international human rights law the right to housing is regarded as a freestanding right. This was clarified in the 1991 General Comment no 4 on Adequate Housing by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The general comment provides an authoritative interpretation of the right to housing in legal terms under international law.

As a political goal, right to housing was declared in President F. D. Roosevelt's 1944 speech on the Second Bill of Rights.
 

 

Critiques

Ellickson, Robert C., "The Untenable Case for an Unconditional Right to Shelter" (1992). Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 459. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/459

 

References

• Bratt, Rachel G. Bratt, Michael E. Stone, and Chester Hartman, editors. A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda. Temple University Press, 2005.  Overview, contents, and Introduction.  Google Books. 
   
• Farha, Leilani. "Housing is a human rights issue – and 2018 must be the year to address it." The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2018/jan/02/2018-global-housing-crisis-us-canada-homelessness.
   
• Ellickson, Robert C. "The Untenable Case for an Unconditional Right to Shelter." (1992). Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 459.
  http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/459.
   
• Hartman, Chester. "The Case for a Right to Housing." Housing Policy Debate, Volume 9, Issue 2 223, 1998. https://docs.escr-net.org/usr_doc/hpd_0902_hartman.pdf.
   
• Salins, Peter D.  "Comment on Chester Hartman’s 'The Case for a Right to Housing’: Housing Is a Right? Wrong!" Housing Policy Debate, Volume 9, Issue 2 259, 1998.https://www.innovations.harvard.edu/comment-chester-hartmans-case-right-housing-housing-right-wrong.
   
• Shelterforce. "The Case for a Right to Housing." (discussion with Chester Hartman and Rachel G. Bratt).  Issue #148, Winter 2006. http://nhi.org/online/issues/148/righttohousing.html.
   
• Stockard, James. "Opinion: Why affordable housing needs to be a right, not a privilege." Ideas.TED.com, May 19, 2017. http://ideas.ted.com/opinion-why-affordable-housing-needs-to-be-a-right-not-a-privilege/.
   
• United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, UN
  • Report to UN HRC, 2008. A/HRC/7/16
  • REport to UN HRC, 2009. A/HRC/13/20
     

• International standards of the right to housing
   
• Housing Rights Legislation: Review of International and National Legal Instruments
   
• CESCR General comments:
  • The right to adequate housing (Art.11 (1)). CESCR General comment 4, 1991
  • The right to adequate housing (Art.11.1): forced evictions. CESCR General comment 7, 1997
     

• UN Factsheet on right to housing
   
• CoE Commissioner for Human Rights:
  • Recommendation on the implementation of the right to housing, 2009
  • Housing Rights: The Duty to Ensure Housing for All, 2008
  • “No one should have to be homeless – adequate housing is a right”, 2007
     

• Interpretation and application of Article 31 of RESC//Digest of the Case Law of the European Committee on Social Rights, 2008 — pp. 169–173, 349—355
   
• Right to Housing Geneva: CETIM, 2007.