Overview
- UN-Habitat supports the efforts of national and local governments, civil society groups, and national human rights institutions (NHRI) in realising the Human Right to Adequate Housing.
- More than 1.8 billion people worldwide lack adequate housing. Every year 2 million people are forcibly evicted, many more are threatened with evictions and some 150 million people worldwide are homeless.
- Adequate housing is a human right enshrined in international human rights law. Failing to recognise, protect, and fulfil the Right to Adequate Housing results in the violation of a plethora of fundamental rights including the Right to Work, Education, Health, and Security.
News and Stories
Story
UN-Habitat strengthens support to cities facing influx of internally displaced people
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Ending youth homelessness: policies, measures and success factors
Story
For the first time, Yazidi families have documents to prove their rights over land and houses in Sinjar, Northern Iraq
Videos
The Right to Adequate Housing for Persons With Disabilities Living in Cities
This study reviews the literature on the meaning and impact of the right to adequate housing for persons with disabilities in cities. It uses the foundational framework of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and demonstrates how the Convention on the Rights…
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Women and housing: Towards inclusive Cities
This publication explores the complex terrain of diverse women’s unrealized right to adequate housing and the consequent negative implications for urban sustainability.
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The Housing Rights Index. A policy Formulation Support Tool
The Housing Rights Index is developed to support training and capacity building activities and is intended for the use of policy makers and urban practitioners to be able to analyse the realisation of the right to adequate housing adequacy in their city. This guide is accompanied by an excel…
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Housing at the Centre of the New Urban Agenda
The shift towards a predominantly urban world makes the process of urbanization one of the most significant global trends of the 21st century. The significant transformation that has occurred in recent decades has given greater understanding and recognition to the role of urbanization in…
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Assessing the Impact of Eviction: Handbook
Every year, millions of people around the world
are either threatened by evictions or are actually
unlawfully evicted.
Evictions and the rights-based approach to urban development, September 2011
The increase in the intensity and scale of forced evictions across the world is a trend that has to be reversed and a human rights based approach (HRBA) is key.
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Donors and partners
UN-Habitat and OHCHR jointly launched the United Nations Housing Rights Program (UNHRP) in 2002. The overall goal of this initiative, launched and championed by the Executive Director of UN-Habitat and the High Commissioner on Human Rights, is to support governments, the civil society and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in their work on the advancement of the right to adequate housing. Under this programme, UN-Habitat supports the UN human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Other joint activities include normative tools development and technical assistance for the States and other stakeholders in building and improving technical capacities for implementation and monitoring of housing rights. On the same topic UN-Habitat also works collaborate with UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, particularly on the work of forced evictions prevention and housing rights advocacy.