Report - Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights

Access to Adequate
Serviced Shelter
Develop a Housing policy which:
• Involves community representatives in partnership
• Participatory assessment <strong>of</strong> needs and options
• Squatter or community councils/planning boards
• Clarify roles <strong>of</strong> stakeholders – govt; civil society,
communities, private sector, international donors;
• Strategies to address: access to affordable land,
zoning, integrated rural and urban housing, self
help and services schemes, housing finance.
… Access to Adequate Serviced
Shelter …
• Land tenure and land management:
• Consultations for review <strong>of</strong> land tenure
options and management;
• Raise awareness <strong>of</strong> land tenure issues;
• Identify ways land owners can have greater
recognition and involvement in land
management and urban planning;
• Involve urban land owners and tenants in <strong>the</strong>
process <strong>of</strong> service identification and provision;
… Access to Adequate Serviced
Shelter …
Land tenure and land management:
• Streamline <strong>the</strong> urban planning and development
processes including ‘fast tracking’ affordable
pro-poor land leases and development
proposals;
• Make information on land available to squatters;
• Make land markets more transparent,
coordinated, efficient and affordable;
• Encourage native land registration, leases and
titling where appropriate to ensure security <strong>of</strong>
tenure.
… Access to Adequate Serviced
Shelter
• Housing markets
• Recognise <strong>the</strong> range <strong>of</strong> housing suppliers
(private, NGO, public, Govt, squatters etc);
• Review and rationalise institutional policy and
legal frameworks and arrangements;
• Identify more flexible and appropriate pro poor/
gender sensitive building codes.
… In conclusion <strong>the</strong>re is a need to:
• Define and understand rights based dimensions <strong>of</strong>
secure tenure and adequate housing and
implications for urbanisation <strong>of</strong> poverty/hardship;
• Develop pro-poor strategies to deal with improving
poverty levels for women such as access to social
services, adequate housing and security <strong>of</strong> tenure;
• Improve base-line information on urban poor with a
focus on women and <strong>the</strong> more vulnerable and
reversing <strong>the</strong> feminisation <strong>of</strong> poverty;
• Welfare and housing assistance to <strong>the</strong> needy;
• Raise awareness and education on rights based
urban and gender issues which impact on poverty
and identify measures to improve quality <strong>of</strong> life.
UN Habitat Campaign for Secure
Tenure highlights <strong>the</strong> following
rights based strategies
• Negotiation, not Eviction
• Community based Consensus building and
peer exchange with women’s involvement.
• Promotion <strong>of</strong> Innovative - and locally owned-
Tenure Systems for <strong>the</strong> urban poor
• Development <strong>of</strong> tools and frameworks for slum
/ unplanned settlement upgrading based on
experience <strong>of</strong> local organizations <strong>of</strong> urban poor
… Finally …
THANK YOU
• People have a right to freedom <strong>of</strong> movement;
• People have a right to adequate shelter and
security as a basic human need and as
enshrined in <strong>the</strong> various UN conventions and
treaties;
• People have <strong>the</strong> right to security <strong>of</strong> tenure and
that forced evictions are a gross violation
<strong>of</strong> human rights and <strong>the</strong> right to adequate
housing.
UN-HABITAT: South Pacific – Suva, Fiji
E-mail: sue.lemesurier@undp.org
Web Site: http://www.unhabitat.org
84 WOMEN’S RIGHTS TO ADEQUATE HOUSEING AND LAND