The Right to a Nationality and the Right to Adequate Housing STATE OBLIGATIONS REGARDING THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING FOR STATELESS PERSONS As alluded to by CEDAW General Recommendation 32 and further detailed in customary international law, states are obligated to take steps to respect, protect, and fulfil their obligations towards rights holders. This includes the right to adequate housing for stateless persons. These obligations do not mean that states are immediately burdened with constructing housing for all persons on their territories, rather, it means that states are required to take steps towards the progressive realisation of this right, to the maximum of their available resources. 69 But while many obligations regarding the right to adequate housing are gradual, some are immediate. 70 States are obligated to guarantee nondiscrimination in housing; they are also obligated to work to map the extent of homelessness and inadequate housing, prevent forced evictions and guarantee a degree of security of tenure. States with sizeable stateless populations have often failed to even meet these immediate minimum core obligations since stateless persons live unrecognised in their territories, in substandard housing and at risk of forced eviction. CESCR General Comment 3 states that if ‘any significant number of individuals is deprived … of basic shelter and housing, … [the state] is, prima facie, failing to discharge its obligations under the Covenant’. 71 By depriving a significant number of stateless individuals of basic housing, states are failing to discharge both their minimum core obligations and live up to further commitments towards the progressive realisation of this right. The following instances highlight both the widespread nature of this rights violation and the complexity of the issue. Due to limitations of existing data, challenges of self-identification, the extent of the problem and uncertainty in laws and their application, not all groups or their members necessarily identify as stateless or are considered in the following. These instances are intended to be illustrative of state failures in their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness, and are not comprehensive. A The Obligation to Respect State obligations to respect the right to adequate housing entail refraining from direct or indirect interference with this right through legal measures, policies or practices. 72 This entails abstaining from arbitrary or forced evictions that are contrary to international law of any persons or groups. 73 It includes refraining from the destruction or demolition of homes. 74 Respecting this right involves not discriminating against certain groups in their access to and control over housing, land and property. Additionally, state obligations to respect the right to adequate 69 70 71 72 73 74 ICESCR (n 32) art 2. General Comment No 4, UN Doc E/1992/23 (n 9) 117 [10]. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Report on the Fifth Session, 5th sess, Supp no 3, UN Doc E/1991/23 (14 December 1990) annex III (General Comment No 3: The Nature of States Parties’ Obligations (Art 2, Para 1, of the Covenant)) 86 [10]. Arturs Kucs, Zane Sedlova and Liene Pierhurovica, ‘The Right to Housing: International, European and National Perspectives’ (2008) 64/65 Cuadernos Constitucionales de la Cátedra Fadrique Furió Ceriol 101, 103. General Comment No 7, UN Doc E/1998/22 (n 13) 114–115 [9]–[10]. ibid 116 [13]. 249