The Framework Guidelines 1. In Aotearoa, the housing system must be explicitly based on values (as outlined in Guideline 10), the international right to a decent home, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and evidence of what works. 2. Grounded on Te Tiriti, the international right to a decent home is more than a right to shelter, bricks, mortar or a house. It is the human right to a warm, dry, safe, secure, affordable, accessible, healthy, decent home, as understood by Te Ao Māori. By way of shorthand, these Guidelines refer to the ‘right to a decent home’. 3. Agreed by successive New Zealand governments, the right to a decent home is ethically compelling and binding on New Zealand in international law. This human right does not favour one particular socio-economic system, but it requires that the selected system is consistent with human rights and democratic principles, enhances enjoyment of the right to a decent home, and honours Te Tiriti. 4. The international right to a decent home must be located and applied within the unique historical, demographic, economic, social, cultural, environmental and legal context of Aotearoa. 5. Te Tiriti and the right to a decent home not only place obligations on central and local government, they also place responsibilities on others, including the private sector, landlords, property managers, service-providers and tenants. 6. Central and local government have a shared responsibility to do everything in their power to deliver the right to a decent home, grounded on Te Tiriti, for everyone in Aotearoa. 7. The right to a decent home grounded on Te Tiriti empowers individuals, hapū, iwi and communities in their engagement with central and local government; helps policy makers strengthen their housing initiatives; and helps ensure that housing commitments are honoured. 8. The right to a decent home grounded on Te Tiriti is a framework on which everyone who is committed to tackling the housing crisis can build respectful relationships, multiple partnerships and effective collaboration. 9. The right to a decent home grounded on Te Tiriti requires acknowledging and addressing the impacts of colonisation, systematic dispossession of Māori from their land, and destruction of their traditional ways of living, including communal land ownership. Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have a critically important role to play in advancing the right to a decent home in Aotearoa. 10. Values, such as whanaungatanga (kinship), kaitiakitanga (stewardship), manaakitanga (respect), dignity, decency, fairness, equality, freedom, wellbeing, safety, autonomy, participation, partnership, community and responsibility, are embodied in the right to a decent home. These values, and the right to a decent home grounded on Te Tiriti, must lie at the centre of all housing-related initiatives in Aotearoa. 11. All housing initiatives must comply with the seven UN ‘decency’ housing principles read with Te Tiriti o Waitangi: habitable; affordable; accessible for everyone; services, facilities and infrastructure; location; respect for cultural diversity; and security of tenure. If homes and housing initiatives do not comply with a ‘decency’ principle they are not complying with the right to a decent home, unless it can be shown that all reasonable steps have been taken to comply with the principle (see section 4). 12. Because the right to a decent home includes freedoms, all restrictive housing laws, regulations, rules and practices must be fair, reasonable, proportionate and culturally appropriate. 9