1. Introduction 3 Understanding women’s economic and social rights 10
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3.5 Housing
For many women, the home is often the center of daily life – it is a place for carrying out daily household chores, raising a family, and engaging in small income generating activities. As with other economic and social rights, for women in particular the status of their housing rights is intimately connected to their health, their security and their overall well-being. Some of the most important work done around women’s housing rights internationally in the past was done under the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing between 2002 and 2006 (then Miloon Kothari). The 2006 report of the Special Rapporteur on these issues, presented to the Human Rights Council, offered the main findings stemming from a significant body of thematic research, country missions, regional civil society consultations and information received from Governments and other actors on the status and implementation of women’s right to adequate housing.290 Those consultations highlighted how, in all parts of the world, the status of a woman’s housing reflects her overall level of economic and personal security. For many women, the home is the economic and social center of a woman’s life, and it is the space in which much of a women’s day-to-day life is lived. Yet, despite the obvious importance of housing to women, the gendered nature of social and economic relations within and outside of the household means that women are often excluded from and discriminated against in virtually every aspect of housing -- be it policy development, control over household resources, rights of inheritance and ownership, community decision-making, and even the design and construction of housing. The most recent report of the mandate (2011) of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (Raquel Rolnik) looking at the question of women and housing rights, highlighted a host of issues which continue to impact the ability of women to enjoy their right to adequate housing or which otherwise have a disproportionate gender impact.291 The report found that: In all regions, patriarchy and gender discrimination; poverty; and the impact of globalization, neo-liberal economic policies and privatization surfaced as overarching issues of concern which set the stage for violations of women’s right to adequate housing. More specifically, the impact of natural and human-induced disasters, conflict and internal displacement, war and occupation, lack of affordable and low-cost housing, forced evictions, homelessness, domestic violence, lack of women’s participation in law and policy-making, lack of access to remedies, inadequate and discriminatory laws, and the application of discriminatory customary law, all emerged as relevant barriers to women’s right to adequate housing across regions.292 In relation to the practice of forced evictions, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has recognized that women deserve special consideration and assistance in cases of evictions, noting that “Women … suffer disproportionately from the practice of forced evictions.”293 In addition, in its resolution 2004/28 on forced evictions, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights noted that that “every woman, man and child has the right to a secure place to live in peace and dignity, which includes the right not to be evicted unlawfully, arbitrarily or on a discriminatory basis from their home, land or community.”294 The Commission also recalled that while certain groups were more vulnerable to forced eviction, “women in all groups are disproportionately affected, given the extent of statutory and other forms of discrimination which often apply in relation to the property rights of women, including homeownership and rights of access to property of accommodation, and given the particular vulnerability of women to acts of gender based violence and sexual abuse when they are rendered homeless.”295 The United Nations’ Special Rapporteurs on Violence against Women and on the Right to Adequate Housing have also addressed violence against women within the context of forced eviction (which may or may not coincide with conflict situations). In 2000, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (Radhika Coomaraswamy) observed: Violence occurring in relation to forced eviction starts before the eviction process. Psychological stress on learning about the eviction can destabilise the family atmosphere and cause emotional trauma. Sometimes, rape is used by the evictors to break resistance. During the eviction, verbal abuse and beatings, rape and even killing are common. The destruction of the home and the destruction of property are further traumatic experiences. The destruction of the home is often equivalent to the destruction of life; everything that was accomplished so far is destroyed. Coping with injuries, the death of family members, inadequate housing or even homelessness, poverty, lack of community support when relocated away from the home town are all possible burdens that have to be taken on by women after eviction.296 In 2009, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (Yakin Ertürk) reported that, “The impact of these forced evictions, often by militia or armed forces, is profoundly devastating for women and is correlated with heightened rates of physical, psychological and economic violence against women before during and after the evictions. This is true both in terms of violence against women at the hands of state authorities, non-state actors, community members, as well as violence against women by their partners or relatives within the home.”297 Similar concerns have been voiced by the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing (Miloon Kothari), whose global consultations revealed that within the context of forced evictions women were often beaten by the authorities, arrested, beaten and abused, inhumanly transported, and arbitrary detained.298 Women also face barriers related to housing because of intersectional discrimination. Immigrant women in Europe, for example, are more likely to be homeless or to live in sub-standard accommodations.299 In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports that African-American home buyers learned about the existence of 17 per cent fewer homes and were shown on average 18 percent fewer properties that prospective white home buyers with similar profiles and backgrounds.300 Women’s right to adequate housing with a focus on economic crisis The Special Rapporteur (Raquel Rolnik) also highlighted the impact of the economic crisis, and particularly cuts to public housing programs which were reported to have a devastating impact for women in many countries across the world. For example, the Special Rapporteur highlighted that in 2011, the United States cut US$2.8 billion from its federal housing programs, impacting ethnic minority women, women single heads of households, and women with disabilities, the hardest.301 In addition, the Special Rapporteur addressed the impact of the foreclosure crisis on women, highlighting that “[t]he consequences of foreclosure for women are similar to what has been documented in terms of the impact of forced evictions, namely increased social isolation, increased exposure to domestic violence, and deepened poverty.”302 In terms of domestic violence, there is a well known relationship between violence against women and situations of homelessness and inadequate housing.303 Lack of adequate housing severely limits a woman’s abilities to leave a violent situation, and economic crisis can aggravate this dynamic by diminishing a woman’s economic autonomy. In this area, the Special Rapporteur however has noted that new policies have been adopted in recent years which increasingly protect women’s right to adequate housing is within the context of domestic violence. For example: [T]he Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe issued a recommendation on the implementation of the right to housing in 2009, advocating the adoption and implementation of national housing strategies by all Council of Europe member States. Section 4.3.6. of the recommendation deals explicitly with women and women victims of violence, calling upon States ―to protect women victims of violence through specific legal and policy initiatives including the provision of specialized emergency shelters and other alternative housing. Section 5 also urges States to adopt national housing strategies that ―apply a gender perspective, identify disadvantaged and vulnerable groups and include positive measures for ensuring their effective enjoyment of the right to housing, and also to ―adopt anti-violence provisions in housing legislation and policies and ensure that domestic violence laws include provisions to protect women’s right to housing, including the right to privacy and security.304 In addition, at national levels, countries like Serbia, Brazil and Argentina have also recognized in their domestic legislation the right of women to reside in their marital home, regardless of ownership, and to have the perpetrator removed from the home.305 Brazil in 2009 also institutes the Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House My Life) public housing program. Minha Casa Minha Vida guarantees accessible housing to low income families, gives women the titles to properties, except when the man holds child custody.306 In her report, the Special Rapporteur also took the opportunity to provide guidance on a gender perspective on the specific elements of the right to adequate housing.307 Her approach is one which should be replicated vis-à-vis other economic and social rights. For example, the Special Rapporteur highlighted that housing law, policy and programming should explicitly recognize the independent right of women to security of tenure, irrespective of their family or relationship status. She also highlighted that definitions of affordable housing should take into account any gender disparity in income and access to financial resources, and prioritize the allocation of social or public housing to those who cannot afford the cost of housing.308 |