The Cross-Cutting issues focused within UN-Habitat are human rights, gender, the youth and climate change. As part of the UN family, UN-Habitat is mandated to respect, promote, and protect human rights in all of its activities. In 2003, the UN Common Understanding on the Human Rights Based Approach to Development Programming was adopted to ensure that UN agencies, funds and programmes apply a consistent Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA).

The overall goal of mainstreaming UN-Habitat’s cross-cutting issues (climate change, gender, the Human Rights Based Approach, and youth) i is to strengthen programmatic synergies while ensuring that project outcomes reach all intended beneficiaries, particularly persons in vulnerable situations. As a result, an effective integration of Cross-Cutting issues will also increasingly enable the replication and up-scaling of projects.