Press Release:
New Delhi, 28
September 2017
HLRN Welcomes
India’s Acceptance of UPR III Recommendations on
Housing, Land,
and Sustainable Development;
Calls for a
Human Rights Approach to Implementation
On 21 September 2017, the
Government of India accepted 152 of the 250 recommendations made to it under
its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations (UN) Human
Rights Council in Geneva.
The Universal Periodic Review
is a UN peer review mechanism in which the human rights record of all 193 UN
member states is examined at the Human Rights Council, every four-and-a-half
years. India’s third UPR (UPR III) was held on 4 May 2017, during which 112 UN
member states proposed 250 recommendations to India. Of these recommendations,
India “accepted” 152 and “noted” 98.
Housing and Land Rights
Network (HLRN) would like to commend the Indian government for accepting
recommendations related to sustainable rural and urban development, poverty
eradication, farmers’ rights, and the human rights to adequate housing, land,
water, sanitation, food, and the environment (see Annexure for a list of the
relevant recommendations accepted by India). This signifies an important step
for India in meeting its commitments under international law, including the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Paris Agreement.
The UPR III recommendations
accepted by India are in line with those made by other UN bodies, including the
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the UN Special
Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. A number of these recommendations, however,
have not yet been implemented by India. HLRN calls on the government to use the
UPR III recommendations as a point of convergence, including the adoption of a
strong human rights approach to missions, policies, and laws that impact
sustainable development, housing, land, water, and related human rights in the
country.
Implementing the UPR III
recommendations will also help India in improving the execution of national
schemes including the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Housing for All – 2022), Atal
Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Swachh Bharat
Mission, National Urban Livelihoods Mission, while also meeting its
constitutional and other national legal obligations.
While welcoming India’s
support for these recommendations at the Human Rights Council, HLRN would like
to urge the relevant ministries as well as state governments to ensure that
human rights-based indicators are developed to implement the UPR
recommendations and to link them with the implementation of relevant SDG and
various national schemes.
Recognizing and protecting
housing and land rights of the rural and urban population, especially of women,
is critical to fulfilling SDG and UPR III commitments. HLRN would like to
especially stress the need for a national moratorium on forced evictions and
forced relocation of the urban and rural poor. With every home that the state
demolishes, India backtracks on its goal of providing ‘housing for all by
2022.’ Between January 2016 and August 2017, HLRN estimates that at least
40,000 families have been evicted in urban India. Forced evictions result in
the violation of multiple human rights, including the rights to adequate
housing, work/livelihood, education, health, food, land, water, sanitation, and
security of the person and home.
The government should work
towards adopting a human rights-based definition of ‘public purpose’ to check
against indiscriminate and rampant land-grabbing, displacement, and resultant
landlessness and homelessness. Initiatives of ‘land pooling’ and ‘land banks’
must incorporate human rights principles, including of transparency,
participation, and the free and prior informed consent of all affected persons,
while ensuring protection against violation of land rights of individuals and
communities. Human rights impact assessments and environmental impact
assessments must be carried out for all projects, including under the Smart
Cities Mission. The draft National Right to Homestead Bill, which aims to
provide land for housing and subsistence livelihoods for the landless, should also
be revived and introduced in Parliament, following the lead provided by Madhya
Pradesh in enacting a Right to Homestead Act.
India has the world’s largest
number of persons (632 million) living in multidimensional poverty. The
government must take strong measures to decriminalize poverty, including
begging, in order to adequately implement UPR III recommendations related to
poverty eradication. In this regard, it is essential to immediately repeal
anti-vagrancy laws including the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, and to enact
a law to protect the human rights of persons in destitution and homelessness.
HLRN urges the Indian
government to work in collaboration with civil society, social movements, and
local communities to fulfil its national and international legal and moral
commitments, while ensuring social justice for all. UPR III has presented an
important opportunity for India to integrate a human rights approach towards
social justice issues in the country, and thereby to fulfil its voluntarily accepted
commitments to the United Nations.
The press
release, which includes an Annexure with a list of the relevant UPR III
recommendations accepted by India, is also available online at: http://hlrn.org.in/documents/HLRN_PR_UPR_III_28.09.2017.pdf