Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights 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

Women and housing

The Commission on Human Rights, by its resolution 2002/49 on women’s equal ownership of, access to and control over land and equal rights to own property and to adequate housing, the Commission entrusted the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing with the additional task of preparing a study on women and adequate housing. Pursuant to the Commission on Human Rights resolution 2002/49 which requested the Special Rapporteur to submit a study on women and adequate housing in 2003, the Special Rapporteur has developed a questionnaire [English] [French] [Spanish] to solicit information from States, local authorities and civil society for the preparation of the study.

With the support from UN-HABITAT, a regional civil society consultation was organized for the Special Rapporteur in Nairobi in October 2002, which helped him to collect the views of grassroots women from East African countries on issues relevant to his mandate. In April 2003, the Commission adopted resolution 2003/22 specifically encouraged the holding of further regional consultations on the issue.

With the support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations agencies and programmes and non-governmental organizations, regional civil society consultations have since 2002 been organized for the Special Rapporteur as follows:

▪ Asia Regional Consultation on the Interlinkages between Violence against Women and Women’s Right to Adequate Housing ( Delhi, India, October 2003);

▪ Latin America and Caribbean Regional Consultation on Women and Adequate Housing (Mexico City, Mexico, December 2003);

▪ Middle East and North Africa Regional Consultation on Women’s Right to Adequate Housing and Land (Alexandria, Egypt, July 2004);

▪ Pacific Regional Consultation on Women’s Rights to Adequate Housing and Land ( Nadi, Fiji, October 2004);

▪ North American Regional Consultation on Women and the Right to Adequate Housing (Washington D.C., USA) October, 2005);

▪ Central-Asia/Eastern Europe Regional Consultation on Women’s Right to Adequate Housing – the interlinkages between multiple discrimination and women’s right to adequate housing (Budapest, Hungary, November, 2005); and

▪ Mediterranean Regional Consultation on Women’s Right to Adequate Housing (Barcelona, Spain, March 2006).

In accordance with the mandate entrusted to him by the Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur has presented his main findings stemming from thematic research, country missions, regional consultations and replies received on the questionnaire in three reports to the Commission as follows: UN Docs. E/CN.4/2003/55, E/CN.4/2005/43 and E/CN.4/2006/118.