Adequate Housing as a Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, and the Right to Non-Discrimination in This Context

A/HRC/RES/55/11No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2024.

What other versions does this mandate have?

8 versions · 2016–2026

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/61/16

2026A/HRC/RES/61/16Adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and the right to non-discrimination in this contextLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/HRC/RES/55/11Adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and the right to non-discrimination in this contextCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/52/10Adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to non-discrimination in this contextCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/49/17Adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and the right to non-discrimination in this contextCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/43/14Adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and the right to non-discrimination in this contextCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 topics

Accessibility Anti-Discrimination Measures Equality Legal Remedies Persons with Disabilities Resettlement Right to Housing Standard of Living

What does this mandate say?

35 operative paragraphs

Calls upon States:

To give due consideration to integrating the human right to adequate housing into the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a particular view to the right to non-discrimination in this context;

To implement the 2030 Agenda, including target 11.1, and in this context urges States to adopt, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, including civil society, organizations of persons with disabilities, national human rights institutions and the private sector, inclusive and cross-sectoral strategies that are disability-inclusive and respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all, and to ensure that these strategies outline clear responsibilities at all levels of government, contain measurable goals, targets and timelines, and include appropriate mechanisms for regular monitoring and review, with particular emphasis on the rights and needs of persons who are in vulnerable situations, including persons with disabilities;

To take the measures necessary to curb factors that result in a lack of affordable housing, such as housing speculation and the “financialization of housing”, and to promote affordable housing for all;

To take the right to adequate housing into account in strategies for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change;

To work with affected communities and individuals, including persons with disabilities, to develop and promote environmentally sustainable and sound housing design, construction and maintenance to address the effects of climate change while ensuring the right to adequate housing;

To consider adopting national programmes and legislation compliant with human rights law and due process and with respect for human dignity, to prevent, avoid and reduce evictions;

To ensure that evictions are consistent with the principles of legality, proportionality and necessity and comply with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, with full respect for due process and human dignity, and avoid disproportionate and unnecessary use of force;

To avoid and prevent the destruction of housing and civilian infrastructure in conflicts in a manner that is in compliance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law;

To ensure women’s equal right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living in all aspects of housing strategies, including through equal access to credit, mortgages, home ownership and rental housing, to take the safety of such housing properly into account, especially when women and children face any form of violence or threat of violence, and to undertake legislative and other reforms to realize equal rights for all with respect to property and inheritance;

To guarantee the full, equal and meaningful participation of women, including women with disabilities, in all aspects of housing-related policymaking, including housing design and construction, community development and planning, and transportation and infrastructure, including women living in informal housing or in camps;

To undertake additional efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence, both online and offline, including sexual and gender-based violence and domestic violence, especially against women and girls, including women and girls with disabilities, in compliance with international human rights law, including through the use of restraining orders, the provision of alternative housing, crisis centres, shelters, hotlines and medical, psychological and counselling services;

To ensure that the principles of equality and non-discrimination are respected when fulfilling the right to adequate housing, and in this respect to take measures to the maximum of available resources to address systemic homelessness and the deprivation of housing, which disproportionately affect persons with disabilities;

To take all measures necessary to eliminate legislation that criminalizes homelessness, and to take positive measures with a view to prevent and eliminate homelessness by adopting and implementing laws, administrative orders, cross-sectional strategies and programmes at all levels that are, among others, gender-, age- and disability-responsive and compliant with international human rights law;

To ensure that persons with disabilities have access to community support services, including personal assistance, necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to ensure that access to adequate housing, appropriate and affordable services and appropriately trained support for persons with disabilities is provided in the community, with a view to achieving deinstitutionalization;

To take measures to reduce spatial segregation and isolation or social exclusion of persons with disabilities from the community by ensuring the right of persons with disabilities to live independently within the community with persons of their choice;

To design and implement data collection on the housing circumstances of persons with disabilities, disaggregated by relevant characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, disability, age and sex;

To closely consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in all areas of housing policy and design;

To undertake and promote measures so that new objects, building environments, facilities, goods and products and services, including housing, are designed in a way that makes them accessible for persons with disabilities, consistent with the principles of universal design;

To adopt accessibility requirements that apply to new housing and implement a clear time frame for ensuring accessibility within existing housing stock;

To ensure that local governments implement and adhere to the right to adequate housing in all municipal action, including when carrying out urban planning, zoning, planning of transportation and production and maintenance of housing, taking into account accessibility requirements, and seek to provide greater clarity in the distribution of responsibilities and strengthen institutional cooperation and coordination between national and local governments;

To ensure that construction companies work in accordance with building regulations and in compliance with safety and accessibility standards;

To take appropriate measures to ensure that business enterprises, including financial entities, in the housing sector meet their responsibility to respect human rights in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;

To ensure that reasonable accommodation measures for persons with disabilities are provided in relation to the right of adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living in order to promote equality and eliminate discrimination;

Also calls upon States to ensure equality and non-discrimination when fulfilling the right to adequate housing, and to strive for the full realization of the right to adequate housing for all, including by considering:

Prohibiting all forms of discrimination, including against persons with disabilities, in the context of the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living by public and private entities, including public and private housing and credit providers and home value appraisers, and through accessible technology platforms for credit scoring, tenant screening and mortgage loan applicants, and ensuring that housing and anti-discrimination legislation provides sufficiently dissuasive fines or other dissuasive sanctions for housing discrimination and leads to diverse, inclusive communities;

Regularly monitoring and identifying any forms of systemic discrimination, including against persons with disabilities, in relation to housing, including spatial segregation, and adopting special, positive measures and policies at the local, national and regional levels to eliminate such discrimination, in conformity with international human rights law;

Establishing accessible, disability-inclusive and sufficiently resourced non-judicial mechanisms, such as equality bodies, ombudspersons and national human rights institutions, that have the competence to investigate individual and collective complaints of housing discrimination, including systemic forms of housing discrimination and spatial segregation, and that monitor discrimination in relation to housing through age-, disability- and sex-disaggregated statistical analysis, surveys and other means, make recommendations for eliminating housing discrimination and provide legal advice and effective remedies to victims of housing discrimination;

Further calls upon States to provide, in an accessible, affordable, timely and effective manner, an effective remedy and equal access to justice and administrative procedures in complementing judicial recourses for all for violations and abuses in the context of the realization of the right to adequate housing, including housing discrimination and spatial segregation, by considering:

Adopting domestic legislation and administrative orders giving full effect to the right to adequate housing, and redress for violations of that right;

Making provisions for legal support and legal aid, including with a disability-inclusive perspective;

Promoting the establishment of national human rights institutions, equality bodies, ombudspersons and civil society organizations supporting the interests of affected persons in accordance with their respective procedural law;

Ratifying or acceding to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, if not yet ratified or acceded to, and where applicable, to the Optional Protocols to the aforementioned conventions;

Welcomes the work of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, and takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur, including the most recent reports on affordability and resettlement, and invites States and other relevant stakeholders to contribute to the development of the guidelines on resettlement by the Special Rapporteur;

Decides to continue its consideration of this matter under the same agenda item.

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What does this mandate say?

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