Statement of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights* to the special session of the General Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the decisions taken at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) (New York, 6 to 8 June 2001)
(25th session)
1. On 6 December 1995, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights submitted a statement[a] to the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), in which it recalled the recognition of the right to adequate housing by numerous United Nations organs and bodies - including the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - since its inclusion in article 25, paragraph 1, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as in article 11, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The latter states: “The States Parties to the.... Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing.”
2. The Committee has adopted two general comments regarding the right to adequate housing, which are based on its consideration of reports submitted by States parties to the Covenant, as well as on information emanating from United Nations organs and bodies, and other governmental and non-governmental sources. General Comment No. 4 (1991) on the right to adequate housing (art. 11, para. 1, of the Covenant), adopted at the sixth session of the Committee, aims to provide a normative interpretation of housing as a human right. General Comment No. 7 (1997) on forced evictions, adopted at the sixteenth session of the Committee, focuses specifically on forced evictions as a violation of human rights, as reaffirmed also in Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/77 of 10 March 1993.
3. The Committee emphasizes its view that the right to adequate housing is a justiciable and enforceable right, and that many elements constituting this right are already the subject of domestic remedies in most of the States parties of the Covenant. Case law concerning housing rights mostly relate to judicial remedies against evictions or demolition; applications for compensation or rehousing following illegal eviction; judicial actions against discriminatory measures in the area of housing; complaints against owners concerning health hazards or inadequate housing, or excessive rent; and judicial actions concerning land ownership.[b] This case law confirms the legal status of the right to adequate housing.
4. The Committee reaffirms its conviction that the realization of the right to adequate housing is closely linked to the realization of other human rights in the Covenant, as expressed by the principle of the interdependence, indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights.
5. In this context, the Committee expresses its support for the position of the Commission on Human Rights. Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination, which he expressed as follows in his report to the fifty-seventh session of the Commission:
[I]t is the intention of the Special Rapporteur to promote greater realization and operationalization of the right to adequate housing through a constructive approach, by closing the gap between legal recognition and practice and seeking solutions to the grave housing and living conditions found globally (E/CN.4/2001/51, p. 3).
6. The Committee is particularly concerned that, in the draft declaration on cities and other human settlements in the new millennium (A/S-25/2, decision 2/1 of the Commission on Human Settlements established as the Preparatory Committee for the special session of the General Assembly), there is no reference to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to its relevant General Comments, nor to the right to adequate housing. Such an omission would seriously undermine achievements made over the last decade at the national and international level in promoting the right to adequate housing, and would constitute a step backwards from the recognition of human rights in the 1996 Habitat Agenda.
7. The Committee notes that, in its extensive experience since 1986 in monitoring State compliance with the Covenant, none of the 144 States parties have challenged the recognition by the Committee of a distinct right to adequate housing, which is formally recognized in the constitutions and domestic legislation of many States.
8 The Committee calls upon the Governments participating in the special session of the General Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the decisions taken at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) to maintain conformity with other United Nations documents concerning housing, including the Habitat Agenda itself, which clearly reflect the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and to reaffirm explicitly that the right to adequate housing is a fundamental human right.
[a] Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1996, Supplement No. 2 (E/1996/22-E/C.12/1995/18), annex VIII.
[b] Ibid., para. 13.