Last update: 01/10/2006
Housing rights in Europe Conference
18-19 September 2006
New! Follow-up of the Conference:
- Ministry of the Environment website
- Pictures from the Conference
Co-organised by:
-The Ministry of Environment of Finland
-FEANTSA
-Y-Foundation
Background
The right to housing is one of the most important human rights. Access to decent housing is a precondition for people to enjoy fully many other human rights inclusing several civil and political rights. An yet, the right to housing remains one of the most underdeveloped human rights. The conference will contribute to a greater awareness of the right to housing and make sure the right to housing get the (political) attention it deserves.
There is still quite a lot of unclarity and confusion about the exact meaning of the right to housing. There have been various attempts to define the right to housing, of which the adoption of General Comment 4 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the UN is probably the most successful. The conference will contribute to a better understanding of the meaning and (possible) impact of the international right to housing.
The right to housing has been included in various international human rights instruments, such as the Revised Social Charter of the Council of Europe, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of the UN. In these international human rights treaties, the right to housing is a programmatic right. This means that member states commit themselves to the progressive realisation of the right to housing. Also in the different European countries, the right to housing is usually considered to be a programmatic right, and has as such been integrated in the constitution of many European countries. Progress made by member states is monitored by several intergovernmental or expert bodies such as the Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights of the UN and the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe. This monitoring process is complex and not always very transparent. The conference will discuss how these monitoring works and how it can be better used by policy-makers, NGOs, and human rights practioners to strengthen the right to housing and promote compliance of member states with the right to housing.
International case law related to the right to housing is growing. Although the right to housing is not a justiciable right, the European Court of Human Rights tend to refer increasingly to the right to housing as a precondition for some important justiciable rights to have any effect. Serious violations of the right to housing, are more often considered to be violations of justiciable rights, such as for instance the right to be protected against inhuman and degrading treatment. It seems as if the growing case law turn the right to housing slowly into a justiciable rather than a programmatic right. None of the European states has made the right to housing justiciable in domestic legislation. The conference will discuss the pros and cons of the justiciability of the right to housing in a changing human rights context. The conference will also look at the answers of different European governments to the growing transnational case law making the right to housing more and more justiciable. Scotland (which has its own legal system) is the country that has developed legalisation that comes closest to the justiciable right to housing.
Human rights and free market policies are often at odds. The EU increasingly develops policies aimed at completing the European common market which might put the full enjoyment of human rights, and housing rights in particular, at risk. The conference will discuss the dialectic relation between human rights and free market policies and reflect on how human rights legislation can/should be used to limit the negatve impact of free market policies on the well-being of the people.
Homelessness is an obvious violation of housing rights. Human rights legislation might be an effective way (in most countries still largely underdeveloped) to fight homelessness and other forms of serious housing deprivation. A pragmatic approach which targets groups of the population or certain specific problems has been quite successful in some countries. The conference will discuss the potential of housing rights approaches to end specific problems such as homelessness, forced eviction, etc.
The conference in Helsinki is the first gathering of decision-makers, NGOs, and human rights experts and practioners exclusively devoted to the right to housing. It will be a excellent occasion to improve your knowledge on housing rights, and it will be a good source of ideas for strengthening the housing rights dimension of your work.
Programme and Registration
For registration : word or pdf
Please send form by 10 August to Kati Utrianen info@ysaatio.fi
FEANTSA hosts a workshop on housing rights for homeless people and other vulnerable groups. You can find the full programme here. Should you have any comments or questions, do not hesitate to contact us freek.spinnewijn@feantsa.org
Relevant documents/links
FEANTSA published Housing Rights and Human Rights in 2005. The book provides a valuable guide to understanding the origins and extent of contemporary human rights and housing rights instruments. The book examines the development and current status of housing rights, as they are defined, monitored and implemented (or not) in line with various obligations of States. The book can be ordered for 10€ here.
For more information on the international housing rights instruments and developments, please click on the following links
For the UN
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing
For the Council of Europe
European Committee of Social Rights
For the EU
Charter of Fundamental Rights
Monitoring mechanism of the European Network of Human Rights Experts
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