Over the past decade, the right to adequate housing has been consistently reaffirmed as a distinct human right by various bodies in the UN system, numerous national constitutions and legislations, and civil society organizations across the world. It also found repeated recognition as a fundamental human right in the Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda, with States reaffirming "our commitment to the full and progressive realization of the right to adequate housing, as provided for in the international instruments". In spite of this welcome acknowledgement, the right to adequate housing remains unrealized for the vast majority of poor and vulnerable people and communities across the world.

Indeed, almost 100 million people are forced to live with no shelter. Women constitute 70 per cent of those living in absolute poverty. Between 30 million and 70 million children are living on the streets. Worldwide, 1.7 billion persons lack access to clean water and 3.3 billion are without adequate sanitation. Statistics, however, do not fully capture the global dimension of the state of housing. To gain an understanding of the sheer inadequacy and insecurity with which people and communities are forced to live, consider just some of the following contemporary forms of distressed housing: slums and squatter settlements, old buses, shipping containers, pavements, railway platforms and alongside railway tracks, streets and roadside embankments, cellars, staircases, rooftops, elevator enclosures, cages, cardboard boxes, plastic sheets and aluminium and tin shelters.

Rapid urbanization, particularly in South East Asia and Africa, serves only to exacerbate this dismal situation. This vast urban transition has been accompanied by dramatic increases in urban poverty. At the same time, poverty has been increasing in countries with predominantly rural populations. For example, in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, some 70 to 80 per cent of the population still lives in rural areas.

UNCHS Photo

If we acknowledge this global reality, and the affront to the dignity of people and entire communities that such dismal living conditions represent, it is clear that only a human rights paradigm, which includes a housing and land rights approach, can offer the radical and systemic changes that are necessary to solve this global crisis. Such a focus on human rights is all the more critical as we are faced today with growing inequality, poverty and social exclusion. This would enable a sharper critique of government responsibility and provide benchmarks for interventions by all sectors of society, including those marginalized and suffering from discrimination. The moral, ethical and legal basis of all human rights, in particular economic, social and cultural rights, as contained in the international human rights instruments, must form the organizing principles for all policy and advocacy interventions by Governments and civil society alike.

The first task before Governments, therefore, as they conduct a five-year review of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda by the General Assembly special session from 6 to 8 June 2001, is to show renewed vigour by unhesitatingly embracing human rights principles and instruments and placing them at the centre of the declaration to emerge from the Istanbul+5 review.

This essential task is all the more necessary, as the draft "Declaration on Cities and other Human Settlements in the New Millennium", emanating from the final Preparatory Committee held in March 2001, is disappointing. The draft declaration does not build on the strong human rights foundation of the Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda. It may be recalled that 35 out of 256 paragraphs of the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements and the Habitat Agenda made explicit references to human rights or addressed human rights issues in relation to human settlements development. The draft declaration does not explicitly reaffirm the provisions of the right to adequate housing as contained in the Habitat Agenda. Failure to do so in June would mean a major setback after the commitments made five years ago in Istanbul.

There is an urgent need to substantiate in practice the legal, moral and ethical foundations of the right to adequate housing. We must engage in dialogue towards developing further its "core content", clarifying State obligations for the progressive realization of the right and moving towards the development, particularly at the national level, of indicators and benchmarks to better assess "adequacy" in the context of the right to housing. All this needs to be considered within the context of the indivisibility of human rights, especially the linkage of the right to adequate housing with the rights to food, health, education and security of the home. The outlined steps follow from the obligations that States have to international human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified by 144 countries, and other instruments that protect the housing rights of women, indigenous and tribal peoples, minorities, disabled people and children.

The Istanbul+5 review also needs to acknowledge the main obstacles facing policy-makers and dwellers from implementing the Habitat Agenda. The following issues, intricately linked to the realization of the right to adequate housing, require urgent attention:

o Of primary concern is the need for Governments to ensure that women are accorded substantive rights as they pertain to housing. Access to and control over land, property and housing, including through inheritance, are determinative of women's overall living conditions and their struggle to gain an adequate standard of living. These entitlements are essential for women's economic and physical security, and for equality in gender relations. There is a need to acknowledge the work of the UN Commission on Human Rights to this end, especially its two recently adopted resolutions on "women's equal ownership of, access to and control over land, and the equal right to own property and adequate housing".
o There is also a need to look at the many dimensions of poverty that are affecting the realization of the right to adequate housing. A new form of discrimination is emerging today in which people and communities are increasingly facing marginalization and discrimination, not merely on grounds of race, class or gender but simply because they are poor.
o For the homeless and those inadequately housed, the narrow macroeconomic agenda that drives globalization has not been conducive to creating conditions for the realization of the right to housing. There is an urgent need to focus on the impact on human settlements that these emerging global economic and social trends have. Unclear or conflicting State obligations, such as trade and investment policies vs. human rights commitments, are also significant impediments to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. There is a need to call for the reform of multilateral organizations, including the international financial institutions, to ensure that their policies and programmes do not compromise States trying to fulfil their obligations under the international human rights instruments.
o Intrinsically linked to the realization of the right to adequate housing is also access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The existing impediments to the provision of these services are the effects of external debt, structural adjustment programmes, the privatization of State enterprises and the imposition of user fees for basic services. Emerging threats include the current negotiations at the World Trade Organization on the General Agreement on Trade and Services, which may lead to further commodification by handing over control of essential public services such as water to transnational corporations.

The documents emanating from the Istanbul+5 review need to recognize positive developments and opportunities for international cooperation, which could address the many structural causes for the continued prevalence of inadequate housing and insecure living conditions around the world.

Cooperation with civil society. Much can be learnt from ongoing civil society efforts with respect to the right to adequate housing, including conceptual work and standard-setting, human rights education, community financing, campaign advocacy and documentation of violations.

Strengthening UNCHS (Habitat). It is necessary to enhance the role of UNCHS (Habitat), particularly its two global campaigns on secure tenure and governance. In addition, it is essential to institutionalize housing rights at the policy level and through field activities and communal projects. It is also critical to support the housing rights programme being developed in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Building on Best Practices. It is essential to draw lessons from innovations and strategic forms of cooperation that have led to the realization of housing rights. The emphasis on the "Best Practices" model should be based on the indivisibility of all human rights and on the demonstrated practicality of such programmes.

Coordination within the UN system. It is important to recognize the invaluable role played by UN treaty bodies such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in substantiating the content of housing rights in over two decades of dialogue with Governments on their obligations on the right to adequate housing. The implementation of the Habitat Agenda can benefit considerably from the collaboration of UN treaty bodies with other relevant mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

International cooperation. Given the multiple threats to the realization of the right to adequate housing, international cooperation is critical. Besides renewing commitments on official development assistance, it is also important to acknowledge the "Solidarity" dimensions of international cooperation. Such recognition is necessary for the essential task of evolving global strategies for distributive justice, including land reform and increased social spending. Such reallocation of investment in development would need to be balanced with targeted support from the international community, including "joint" action by States, as called for under the general obligations to international human rights instruments.

Housing issues in other conferences. The Habitat Agenda must also be addressed in the context of forthcoming conferences and summits: the 10-year review of the Children's Summit, the World Conference on Racism, the High-level Event on Financing for Development and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. In particular, the human rights imperatives of the right to adequate housing that have emerged since 1996 should be part of the discussions at these conferences.

Istanbul+5 must lead to a better understanding of the issues and impediments in connection with the right to adequate housing. It presents an opportunity for Governments, civil society and the entire UN system to promote the greater realization of the right to housing and to close the gap between the mere existence of the right and its implementation in practice. Failure to grasp the opportunities offered by the Istanbul+5 review would be a significant setback in efforts to reach a global consensus on tackling one of the gravest problems the world faces today-that millions of the earth's inhabitants are unable to enjoy their inalienable human right to live in security and dignity.

Further information on the mandate of the Special Rapporteur
on the right to adequate housing and relevant international human rights instruments is available on the web (www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/7/b/mhous.htm).