Right to housing

Logo of the Plataforma d'Afectats per la Hipoteca, a Catalan housing rights advocacy group, which means "Stop Evictions"

The right to housing (occasionally right to shelter[1]) is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate housing and shelter. It is recognized in some national constitutions and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[2] The right to housing is regarded as a freestanding right in the International human rights law which was clearly in the 1991 General Comment on Adequate Housing by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The aspect of the right to housing under ICESCR include: availability of services, infrastructure, material and facilities; legal security of tenure; habitability; accessibility; affordability; location and cultural adequacy.[3]

The UN Human Settlement Programme which promotes the right to housing in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Right is a reaffirmation of the 1996 Istanbul agreement and Habitat Agenda. It is known as UN-HABITAT, which is tasked with promoting housing rights through monitoring systems and awareness campaigns.[2]

The section 26, chapter Two of the South African constitution establishes that ''everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing'' and it is the task of the Department of Human Settlement to implement this mandate. In United States, most states do not grant the right to shelter except in Massachusetts where just families have right to shelter. The 1999 constitution of Nigeria recognized the right to housing specifically in the section 43 which states: ''every citizen of Nigeria shall have the right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria''.[4]

  1. ^ Mishra, Prafulla C. (1998). "Right to Shelter: A Human Richt Perspective". Journal of the Indian Law Institute. 40 (1/4): 230–242. ISSN 0019-5731. JSTOR 43953319.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Edgar2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).