As part of their efforts to ensure the full and progressive realization of the human right to adequate housing, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a joint report entitled Housing Rights Legislation in 2002. That report was also the first output of the United Nations Housing Rights Programme, a joint programme initiated by the two agencies.
To provide States and other stakeholders with further guidance on the normative content of housing rights – and thus to support the goal of developing a model framework on housing rights – UN-HABITAT is also publishing three supportive compilations on international and national housing rights legislation. The present report, National Housing Rights Legislation, is one of them and is an effort to prepare an overview of relevant national legislation.
The report contains excerpts from a large number of constitutional clauses and other national legislation with respect to housing rights. The legislation presented represents a variety of legal, political, economic and cultural systems and traditions. Although this compilation is not comprehensive in terms of coverage, it is representative of the various means by which States have chosen to include housing rights within their domestic legal systems.
The compilation is based on a study undertaken in 2001 by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), a non-governmental organization, under contract by UN-HABITAT. The current edition includes a number of additional material compiled by COHRE in December 2004 and December 2005.
To read other OHCHR publications on the right to housing, click here.
To download the National Housing Rights Legislation, click on the green button below.
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