69. If the recipient country has indigenous peoples, the government’s aid
programme is required to comply with the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Guideline 16: If the government’s aid programme includes housing initiatives, it
has a responsibility to ensure the initiatives are consistent with the right to a
decent home and, where the recipient country has indigenous peoples, the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Section 4: Obligations and Violations
70. While the preceding section outlines the eight key features of the right to a
decent home grounded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the present section looks at some
of the obligations that arise in relation to these key features. Having identified
the key features, and some of the obligations arising from them, it becomes
possible to identify possible violations. This section signals some of the
obligations, and possible violations, arising from the right to a decent home
grounded on Te Tiriti.
71. The international right to a decent home is subject to progressive realisation and
resource availability, both of which bear upon obligations and violations.8 So, a
few comments are required about progressive realisation and resource
availability before turning to obligations and violations.
Progressive realisation
72. The right to a decent home gives rise to reasonable entitlements and obligations.
It would be unreasonable to expect the right to a decent home to be
implemented overnight. According to international human rights law, full
implementation of the right to a decent home may be progressively realised over
time. But progressive realisation must not be used as an escape hatch by the
government to avoid or delay implementation of its binding international legal
obligations.
73. For this reason, the United Nations has confirmed that the government is
required to take “steps which are deliberate, concrete and targeted as clearly as
possible towards” realisation of the right to a decent home. Also, the
government has a specific and continuing obligation “to move as expeditiously
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