By Lieke Kuiper
The right to adequate housing is a basic human right for everybody: it is universally applicable and it is found in as many as 12 different official documents of the UN. The right at adequate housing contains several freedoms and entitlements.
These freedoms include:
Protection against forced evictions and the arbitrary destruction and demolition of one’s home;
The right to be free from arbitrary interference with one’s home, privacy and family;
The right to choose one’s residence, to determine where to live and the freedom of movement.
These entitlements include:
Security of tenure;
Housing, land and property restitution;
Equal and non-discriminatory access to adequate housing;
Participation in housing-related decision-making at the national and community levels.
Furthermore, there are several conditions that the shelter must meet before it can said to be ‘adequate housing’. The minimum conditions the shelter must meet are:
Security of tenure: legal protection against forced evictions, harassment and other threats.
Availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure.
Affordability: no threats or compromises to the occupants’ enjoyment of other human rights.
Habitability: guarantees for physical safety/protection against threats to health and structural hazards.
Accessibility: also for the disadvantaged and marginalised.
Location: access to employment opportunities, health-care services, schools, childcare centres and other social facilities and not located in polluted or dangerous areas.
Cultural adequacy.
When we look at this list, the first thing that comes to mind is the grave situation of those millions and millions of people living in refugee camps and slums all over the world.
Images of refugees living in dire conditions in heavily overcrowded camps in Greece, Syrians trapped in bombed camps in Idlib, refugees in Calais living in makeshift tents that barely protect them. The list can go on and on, but the point has been made clear. According to the UNHCR’s newest statistics, there are currently 25.9 million refugees, 3.5 million asylum seekers and 41.3 million internally displaced people. While it is clear that many refugee camps do not fulfil the minimum criteria for being ‘adequate living’, the accommodations for many asylum seekers and the internally displaced also do not fit the minimum bar.
For example, asylum seekers in the UK staying in shelters provided by the government have been at risk for abuse and violence. They live in rat-infested shelters according to Refugee Rights Europe. The UK is not an exception. In the Netherlands, housing for asylum seekers is heavily overcrowded, members of the LGBTQ community do not receive proper protection and there is too little staff to care for everybody.
The living conditions of internally displaced people are not much better than those of refugees in camps and asylum seekers in shelters. The internally displaced often struggle with overcrowding, lack of security and access to basic services and unsafety. These people are thus denied their basic human right to adequate housing.
And what about all those people living in slums? It is estimated that almost 1 billion people live in inadequate housing in slums, while at least 2 million are forcefully evicted every year. All these people life in unsafe, filthy, overcrowded and unstable homes, they have no social security and no access to basic services. Virtually all of the prerequisites of ‘adequate shelter’ are thus denied to the people living in slums.
Combined, there are thus an estimated 1.071.700.000 people that are denied one of the most basic and important human rights, namely the right to adequate housing. With that they are, as can be seen in the list of minimum criteria, also denied their right to access to water and electricity, to shelter against the weather, to more general safety, and so much more. These millions and millions of people are thus denied of aspects that are essential to the proper functioning of our daily lives.
Imagine having to live the normal life you live right now, but without your house, your water and your work. Then add the constant threat of dying of either the heat, the cold or some disease (imagine how these people have to deal with Corona), the fear of physical harm, etc.
The situation of these people has to improve! Luckily the EU has kickstarted several projects to improve housing for all of the categories mentioned above inside of Europe. The UN and various other organisations are also working hard to improve the situations of all those in need elsewhere. Yet, much still has to be done. Therefore, it is important to keep spreading the word about the urge to work even harder to alleviate the conditions these people live in.
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