The Right to Shelter. Principles, Policies and Instruments

Introduction

The housing problem can be considered to be universal, since, to date, no country has yet managed to completely meet this basic human need.

Adequate housing serves as the crucible for human well-being and development, bringing together elements related to ecology, sustained and sustainable development. It also serves as the basic unit of human settlements and as an Indicator of the duality of life of a city or a country’s inhabitants. It reflects, among other things, the mobilization of resources and the distribution of space, as well as varied social and organizational aspects of the relationship between Government and society.

Unfortunately, in spite of its importance, there exists an enormous housing deficit throughout the world. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people are living in precarious shelter conditions, including those who are “homeless.

International concern over the world housing situation has been expressed by Governments themselves in numerous international declarations, conventions and agreements.

The human right to adequate housing has a central place within the body of human rights in general. The right to adequate housing was recognized as a basic human right in 1948 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

When the Universal Declaration was written, the right to adequate housing became part of a series of internationally accepted and universally applicable human rights standards.

Following that Declaration came the Pact for Economic, Social-and Cultural Rights (1966) and the fact for Civil and Political Rights (1966). These agreements serve as international legal instruments, to be ratified and enforced by Governments; thus they signify important obligations.

Human rights in their entirety are interdependent and indivisible; that is, respect for civil and political rights cannot be separates from the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, since the violation of either implies the violation of the other.

The recognized importance of the right to housing over time has led to its ratification and reinforcement through other international declarations, conventions and conferences, in which more precise and complex objectives have been developed. Of these declarations, special note should be made of The Habitat I Vancouver Declaration (1976), the International Year of the Homeless (19&7), The Global Strategy for Housing Towards
the Year 2000 (196>0), as well as current preparations for the Habitat II Cities Summit to be held in Istanbul in 1996.

Likewise, a variety of housing-related issues have also been treated in other conferences. These have taken the issue of housing beyond the mere physical domain to recognize it as a key factor within the realm of urban, social and economic issues.

Such was the case at the 1992 Rio Conference on Development and the Environment, the Social Development Summit in Copenhagen in 1995, and the recent Beijing Conference on Women. In each of these cases, ever greater attention has been given to housing, human settlements and related issues.

The Mexico Habitat Coalition and Fomento Solidario de la Vivienda (FOSOVI, Solidarity Housing Promotion) have warned that while a tremendous amount of information and instruments exist regarding the right to housing, these are commonly disperse and are hardly accessible to organizations working on these issues, and less still to the common citizen.

For this reason we have found it necessary to produce a document which provides an overview of existing instruments and documents which sustains the defense of the inalienable human right to housing both in Mexico and the rest of the world.

This document brings together a series of instruments based on the principle of the right to housing to be found within the Declaration of Human Rights, as well as within agreements subscribed to by United Nations member states, resolutions from the World Summits, reports by the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements, as well as preparatory documents for Habitat II by the World Bank and by Habitat International Coalition (HIC).

The Global Housing Strategy (1998) defined adequate housing in the following way: access to a place in which to isolate one’s self when desired, with adequate room, adequate security, adequate lighting and ventilation, an adequate basic infrastructure and an adequate location in relation to work and basic services, at a reasonable cost.

The importance of the right to housing

The right to housing involves a number of interdependent factors and can be contemplated from a number of perspectives. The profound relationship between the right to housing and human rights as a whole is not always obvious.

Though it should be obvious, the relationship between human rights and housing has not always been recognized and has at times even been ignored. This direct relationship is due primarily to the fact that the violation of the right to housing is frequently accompanied by marginalization and the violation of other rights.

The recognition of this right guarantees the respect of other rights such as human dignity; non-discrimination; an adequate standard of living; the freedom to choose one’s place of residence; freedom of association and expression; security; the right to not be subjected to arbitrary intervention into one’s private life, home and correspondence.

Violations of the right to housing also have an impact on the right to education, and health, since they negatively affect the inhabitants’ living conditions. This, in turn, translates into reduced prospects for personal improvement and into precarious sanitary conditions because of a lack of services such as water and sewerage.

Respect for and correspondence among all of these rights is indispensable in order to ensure that all groups within society enjoy an adequate standard of living. The impact of their violation goes further still, marginalizing the growing sectors of the population who do not have access to the city’s or the country’s infrastructure.

We should also take social impact into account, since housing represents the first point of contact between the individual and society. Settlements serve as the basic units of society, and the city serves as the primary place of reference and often the center of production.

Housing brings together a number of social, economic and political factors. It often serves as the geographical and spatial reference for an individual within a city. The home is where family savings takes place; it is the physical place, which protects the individual from inclement factors, the space where emotional relationships are shared.

Thus it is obvious that access to adequate and secure housing significantly strengthens the possibility that individuals and families enjoy other human rights as well as a greater quality of life overall.

It is frequently assumed that, for this right to be made effective, Governments must provide sufficient public funding and other resources. However, according to the concepts embodied within the economic, social and cultural rights, such a commitment actually implies a broader and more complex series of obligations for States.

According to Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Pact for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in relation to housing. Governments are obliged to: a) adopt measures by all appropriate means to make effective the right to housing; b) dedicate the greatest possible amount of available resources; c) achieve these rights in a progressive fashion.

These three elements confirm an objective, which is to be re-dimensioned according to needs and achievements, through constant, consistent and progressive efforts.

In spite of the above, certain interests are currently tending to seek to prevent this right from being recognized as an obligation of Governments. This could represent a significant setback in the protection of human rights.

It is essential that the right to housing be ratified as a basic human right, because of the undeniable positive effects of housing on quality of life, as well as the numerous benefits it brings including family savings, improved health and safety conditions, a place for family-based production, etc.

If the right to housing is to be fully respected, it must be instrumentalized. Government obligations must be specified, and must include the legal and judicial instruments to which people and communities have the right for their defense, on the level of local government as well as within international courts.

A recent legislative proposal noted the importance of making Economic, Social and Cultural Rights effective. This represented important progress in the defense of the Right to Housing on an international level.

That proposal defined the Right to Housing in the following way: “All children, women and men have the enforceable right to adequate housing, which is affordable, accessible and self-determined, and includes the right of access to a safe, affordable and secure place to live in peace and dignity.”

The fundamental points necessary for making this right fully effective are elaborated in the proposal for the International Convention made by the special rapporteur.

This proposal makes note of the importance of support and follow-up by Governments and International Organizations in promoting, enforcing and monitoring the Right to Housing. These efforts should take into account expectations expressed in the Global Housing Strategy document, and should promote the circulation of such information and the participation of those interested.

We are familiar with the fact that these international documents provide little in the way of policy instrumentation. This is due to the very nature of the documents analyzed, which delegate such functions to Governments.

This present document is written for social organizations, community organizations, social movements, non-governmental organizations, citizens in general, as well as all others who are interested in the Right to Housing.

Our hope is that it will serve as a working tool for those social actors and organizations working to defend the Right to Housing, as our contribution to the preparatory process for the Habitat 11 Cities Summit, to be held in Istanbul in 1996.

The document is organized into three parts. The first offers a general overview of world housing conditions, the context for the problem of housing, as well as general housing conditions, and it provides a summary of documents consulted.

The second part includes seven tables which correspond to the seven basic principles upon which the defense and understanding of the Right to Housing is founded. These are: the right to a habitat, the right to a social alternative, the right to the city, the right to decent and adequate housing, the right to the democratic management of habitat, the right to a better quality of life, and the right to financing.

Each of these tables includes the fundamental principles, upon which each is founded, a diagnosis by theme, as well as the policies and instruments, which apply to each.

Due to the inter-relatedness among these rights, many concepts should appear in various places throughout the tables. To avoid repetition, they have been ordered according to only one classification. Therefore, if a particular concept is not to be found in the table expected, it is recommended that the reader review those of related concepts.

The third part consists of an appendix, which contains a synoptic chart of declarations on the Right to Housing, as well as the special rapporteur’s proposal for the International Convention on the Right to Housing.