United Nations Commission on Human Rights

WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MR. MILOON KOTHARI, United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living under the Commission on Human Rights,

submitted to the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, Brussels, Belgium, 14-20 May 2001

(check against delivery)

I have the honour to submit this statement to the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in my capacity as the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living. I was appointed last year by the Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/9 which has mandated me to, inter alia, report on the status of the realization of the human rights relevant to housing, and to promote cooperation among, and assistance to, Governments in their efforts to secure these rights.

In my report presented to the Commission on Human Rights held in Geneva last month (E/CN.4/2001/51), I highlighted some significant issues concerning the housing situation of LDCs in view of the effects of globalization, increasing poverty, inadequate civic services and other environmental and social factors that have affected LDCs during the last decade[1]. Subsequently, the Commission adopted resolution 2001/28, encouraging me to bring these issues to the attention of the relevant review processes of UN conferences and summits, including LDC III. These reports and other essential documents related to the right to adequate housing are available under the website of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights[2].

The right to adequate housing, as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living. has been recognized as a cornerstone in human rights since the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). This right has also received explicit recognition in a number of global conferences, particularly the Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda adopted at the Habitat II Conference in 1996.

The issue of adequate housing was also recognized in the last Programme of Action for LDCs adopted in Paris in 1990, as an important component in improving the living conditions and productive capacities of the people in LDCs[3]. Despite this fact, I am deeply concerned that in the current draft of the new Programme of Action for the Decade 2001-2010, there is no recognition to the crucial issues of housing and living conditions. I call upon all States to recognize the right to adequate housing and to the need for continued improvement of living conditions in this important document which will serve as a main reference point for the development of LDCs in the coming decade. Under international human rights law, the State Parties and the international community are duty-bound to uphold the human rights principles and norms, and to take necessary measures for the progressive realization of human rights. Of particular importance to my mandate are the human rights contained in major international instruments, including provisions on the right to adequate housing[4].

A firm recognition of the human right to adequate housing is all the more urgent in view of the reality surrounding LDCs and other developing countries today:

where, one-fifth of the world's population live in absolute poverty, on less than $1 a day;

where, women comprise 70 per cent of those living in absolute poverty, and most of the poor are forced to live without access to such basic amenities as food, clothing and shelter;

where, between 30 to 70 million children are living on the streets; and

where, there are some 600 million urban dwellers and 1 billion in rural areas in the South, who live in overcrowded or poor quality housing with inadequate provision of water, sanitation, drainage and garbage collection. Globally, 1.7 billion persons lack access to clean water and 3.3 billion are without proper sanitation facilities. Their lives and health are constantly under threat in such hazardous circumstances.

But the numbers do not fully capture the state of housing. Consider the following forms of distressed housing found throughout the world today: slums, squatter settlements, old buses, shipping containers, pavements, railway platforms, streets and roadside embankments, cellars, staircases, rooftops, elevator enclosures, cardboard boxes, plastic sheets, aluminum and tin shelters - they remind us of the distressed conditions under which many of our people are still living.

Today, globalization is having impacts on every facet of our life - housing and living conditions are no exception. For the homeless and those inadequately housed in the LDCs, globalization has not brought tangible benefits. There is a wide gap between income groups, within countries and across countries, in terms of the availability, affordability and habitability of housing and access to utilities, which has resulted in an increase in the number of people in inadequate and insecure housing and living conditions. Nearly all countries at all levels of development have undertaken macroeconomic reform programmes during the past two decades, strongly influenced by market forces and policies of international financial institutions (IFIs). These reforms and domestic policy decisions regarding liberalization, deregulation and privatization have, to varying extents, constrained the exercise of monetary and fiscal policy options for social purposes, including provision of adequate housing. In addition, UNCTAD reports that, despite these economic reforms, the expectant economic growth has been too slow, particularly in the LDCs, to make a significant improvement in living or social conditions[5].

Given this context of the deleterious impact of economic globalization, I would urge this Conference to recognize the critical value of the obligations that LDC countries have to international human rights instruments, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right. The LDC states can use these obligations to counter the negative implications of inequitous debt, adjustment, trade, investment and finance agreements. There are particular groups that are disproportionately bear the brunt of globalization. The protection of women, children and the vulnerable people and communities must form the foremost imperative in all conclusions emerging from this Conference.

Discrimination and segregation are, from my own experience, evidently becoming important issues in the area of housing rights. In the realization of rights related to adequate housing, it is of primary importance that women are accorded substantive rather than illusory rights. Another important aspect that needs attention is the growing number of people living in inadequate housing as a manifestation of poverty. A new form of discrimination, in fact, has emerged and people and communities are increasingly marginalised and discriminated against not just un the grounds of race, class or gender religion but essentially because you are poor. The adoption. in this context, of the statement by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on `Poverty and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' is significant. As the Committee rightly notes:

"Non-discrimination and equality are integral elements of the international human rights normative framework, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Sometimes poverty arises when people have no access to existing resources because of who they are, what they believe or it-here they live. Discrimination may cause poverty, just as poverty may cause discrimination. Inequality may be entrenched in institutions and deeply rooted in social values that shape relationships within households and communities. Accordingly, the international norms of non-discrimination and equality, which demand that particular attention be given to vulnerable groups and individuals from such groups, have profound implications for anti-poverty strategies"[6].

In light of the indivisibility and interrelatedness of ail human rights, I intend to further examine in my mandate, a range of issues related to housing, including: land; access to portable water; issues of economic globalization and its compatibility with human rights and particularly on impact on housing; the dimension of international cooperation; poverty and global social policies and their interface with human rights and housing rights in particular. All of these issues are of particular relevance to this Conference and in the follow-up of its outcomes.

In closing, I would like to highlight a central area that holds great promise for the future of the people in the LDCs. This is the area of state obligations, for both developed and developing countries, that arise from the provisions of `International assistance and Cooperation' as contained in the human rights instruments[7]. In addition to the valuable discussions on the need for an increase in ODA levels, the 'Solidarity' and `Fraternity' dimensions of international cooperation demand special in the Programme of Action to emerge from this Conference. Such recognition is necessary for the essential task of evolving strategies for distributive justice, including land reform and increases in social spending on areas critical to the realization of the right to adequate housing such as access to potable water and sanitation. Such a reallocation/redistribution needs to be balanced with targeted support from- international cooperation, including `joint' and `separate' action by states, as called for the general obligations to international human rights instruments. These obligations also give important direction to define the obligations to the LDCs that the developed countries hold, such that no action is taken or no global policies are adopted that would inhibit the ability of the LDCs to implement the commitments they have to their people stemming from the international human rights instruments.

I look forward to further contributing to the follow-up process emerging from this Conference from the perspectives of my mandate towards the realization of the right to adequate housing and seek the guidance of the participants of this Conference to define ways and means to ensure that every woman, man, youth and child residing in the LDCs can gain and sustain a secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity.

[2] http://www.unhchr.ch/htm/menu2/i2ecohou.htm

[3] A/CONF.147/18, paras. 1, 78, 107, 108, 114 and 115.

[4] Article 25, paragraph 1, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 11, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and article 27, paragraph 3, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and on the right to non-discrimination as reflected in article 14(h) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and article 5(e) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

[5] See United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, The Least Developed Countries 2000 Report, UNCTAD/LDC/2000.

[7] Such as Articles 28(1), 11(2), 15(4), 22 and 23 of the ICESCR.