UN Highlights Pacific Housing Rights on World Habitat Day

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. This year, World Habitat Day will be celebrated on 3 October 2011. The idea behind the day is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of human habitat.
Matilda Bogner, Regional Representative for OHCHR's Regional Office for the Pacific, said:

"This year on World Habitat Day we are highlighting the importance of housing rights in the Pacific. The right to adequate housing is a fundamental human right under international law. It is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights, and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Covenant_on_Economic,_Social_and_Cultural_Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone
has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of him or herself and his or her family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services. It is the obligation of governments to ensure that their people enjoy the right to adequate housing."

OHCHR includes housing rights in its programme of work for the Pacific. In mid 2010, for instance, OHCHR Pacific carried out a housing rights assessment mission to Papua New Guinea. The mission focused on issues of housing in informal settlements and forced evictions in the country. The mission found that current laws and regulations in Papua New Guinea were not able to ensure that residents enjoyed the right to adequate housing.

The mission examined the situation in informal settlements around urban centres. Residents did not have access to basic services, such as clean water and sanitation, electricity and rubbish collection. Outbreaks of diarrheal and other diseases were common. An acute concern was the highly insecure environment in the settlements. Residents spoke of their fears of rape, killing and other forms of attack and the failure of police to protect them. Residents reported having received little to no assistance from government, NGOs or international organisations.

The mission also received information about forced evictions in many parts of the country that had not followed international human rights standards and, from a very practical point of view, had serious implications of deepening poverty for those who had been evicted.

OHCHR is following-up this mission by carrying out activities to promote international standards in the area of protection against forced evictions, including through the promotion of a ban on forced evictions and by informing the public and governments in the region of their rights and obligations according to international standards on the right to adequate housing.

ENDS

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