FRAMEWORK GUIDELINES ON THE RIGHT TO A DECENT HOME IN AOTEAROA Executive Summary The Framework Guidelines on the Right to a Decent Home in Aotearoa (Guidelines) aim to: • introduce the international right to adequate housing • signal the different ways this human right can contribute to a fair and dynamic housing system in Aotearoa New Zealand. They are designed to raise the profile of the right to adequate housing. The Guidelines are relevant to central and local government, communities, iwi, hapū, the private sector, civil society organisations and individuals. They provide an introductory framework and suggest how they can be developed and applied. The Guidelines raise some technical issues, but they aim to be as accessible as possible. They are not primarily written for lawyers and experts. A decent home International law usually refers to the right to ‘adequate housing’. The extensive literature on this human right is clear: the right to adequate housing is more than a physical structure, it is about having a decent home. Te Ao Māori, and the worldview of many Pacific, Asian and other communities in Aotearoa, also understand that housing is much more than a physical structure. For these reasons, the Guidelines do not use the right to ‘adequate housing’ as a shorthand. Instead, they refer to the right to a ‘decent home’, defined as the right to a warm, dry, safe, secure, affordable, accessible, healthy, decent home. 4 Human Rights Commission International human rights law For many years, successive governments in Aotearoa New Zealand have committed to implement the right to a decent home, as set out in the International Bill of Rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Most of these commitments are binding on central and local government in international law, yet the right to a decent home is almost unknown and invisible in Aotearoa. International law is silent on the socio-economic system (e.g. private, public or mixed) required to implement the right to a decent home, except for three conditions. The socio-economic system – or road – chosen: • must be consistent with human rights and democratic principles • must reach the destination i.e. it must enhance enjoyment of the right to a decent home, including for the most disadvantaged • in Aotearoa, the road chosen – and destination – must be consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The unique context of Aotearoa If human rights are to be made ‘real’ in Aotearoa, they must be considered and implemented within the country’s unique historical and current context which includes: • the systematic dispossession of Māori from their land and the ongoing impact of colonisation • Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti) and the crucial importance of ensuring the culture of tangata whenua flourishes