PRESS RELEASE – Newly-appointed Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing to assume functions on 1 May 2008

30 April 2008

GENEVA– By its resolution 6/27, the United Nations Human Rights Council decided to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living. During its 7th session, the Human Rights Council appointed Ms Raquel Rolnik, a Brazilian national, who will assume her role as the new mandate holder s of 1 May 2008.

In the exercise of her mandate, the Special Rapporteur is requested to, inter alia:

(a) Promote the full realization of adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living;
(b) Identify best practices as well as challenges and obstacles to the full realization of the right to adequate housing, and identify protection gaps in this regard;
(c) Give particular emphasis to practical solutions with regard to the implementation of the rights relevant to the mandate;
(d) Apply a gender perspective, including through the identification of gender-specific vulnerabilities in relation to the right to adequate housing and land;
(e) Facilitate the provision of technical assistance;
(f) Work in close cooperation, while avoiding unnecessary duplication, with other special procedures and subsidiary organs of the Human Rights Council, relevant United Nations bodies, the treaty bodies and regional human rights mechanisms;
(g) Submit a report on the implementation of the present resolution to the General Assembly at its sixty-third session and to the Council in 2008, in accordance with its annual programme of work;

Ms. Rolnik is a Brazilian architect and urbanist based in São Paulo. Ms. Rolnik studied at the São Paulo University and has also studied at the Department of History of the New York University. She has been working as Professor of Urban Planning at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas and has been an international consultant for Urban and Housing Policies. In addition, she has also worked as the Secretary of the City Urban Programs of the National Ministry in Brazil. Ms. Rotnik has written many articles on urban studies and on housing issues and has published several books including « O que é cidade » (Brasiliense) and “A cidade e a Lei” (Studio Nobel).
Ms. Rolnik succeeds Mr Miloon Kothari who served as Special Rapporteur since 2000.

For more information about the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living please consult the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/housing/index.htm

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