Since 2000, the UN Human Rights Council has appointed a Special Rapporteur with a mandate
focusing on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living. There
have now been four Special Rapporteurs appointed to this role.
Ms Farha, Special Rapporteur between 2014-2020, made a country visit to New Zealand in March
2020. Her End of Mission Statement on the state of housing in New Zealand can be found here. The
Guidelines refer to the following reports of Ms Farha:
•
Key principles of a human rights-based housing strategy (2018 UN General Assembly 37th
session)
•
Guidelines for the Implementation of the Right to Adequate Housing (2020 UN Human
Rights Council 43rd session)
The complete list of reports of the UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to adequate housing can be
found here.
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The independent UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has expressed its
interpretation of the right to adequate housing:
•
General Comment 4: The right to adequate housing (art.11 (1)), UN Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
•
General Comment 7: The right to adequate housing: forced evictions (art.11 (1)), UN
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Literature
The Right to Housing: Law, Concepts, Possibilities (Jessie Hohmann: Hart, 2013)
Effective Human Rights-Based Housing Strategies: Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on
Adequate Housing (Amnesty International, 2017)
Housing Rights in Practice: Lessons learned from Leith (Scottish Human Rights Commission, May
2020)
The Right to Adequate Housing (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Fact Sheet No. 21)
Severe housing deprivation in Aotearoa/New Zealand: 2001-2013 (Kate Amore: He Kainga
Oranga/Housing & Health Research Programme, University of Otago, Wellington)
Generation Rent: Rethinking New Zealand’s Priorities (Shamubeel Eaqub and Selena Eaqub; BWB
Texts, Bridget Williams Books, 2015)
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