The Right to a Nationality and the Right to Adequate Housing
where international law enshrines this right. It will then examine its application
for stateless persons and states’ failures to meet their obligations. This analysis
will highlight how certain groups of stateless persons are particularly vulnerable
to the contravention of their right to adequate housing and how these violations
can result in additional human rights abuses. This study ends by highlighting the
futility of previous attempts to address rights violations independently and calls
attention to the need for more holistic and inclusive approaches to truly realise
the right to adequate housing for all.
THE MEANING OF THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING AND ITS
PROTECTIONS ACCORDING TO HUMAN RIGHTS LAW
Before analysing states’ shortcomings with regard to the right to adequate
housing for stateless persons, it is useful to define this term and differentiate it
from similar rights. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(‘CESCR’) in its General Comments provides the greatest clarity on this right’s
protections and corresponding state obligations. 24 The CESCR stresses that the
right to housing should not be interpreted narrowly or equated simply with a roof
over one’s head; rather, it must mean adequate housing that provides for physical
needs such as security, psychological needs such as privacy, and social needs
such as those of the family. 25 In order for housing to be adequate, it must meet
the following criteria: legal security of tenure; availability of services, materials,
facilities and infrastructure; affordability; habitability; accessibility; location; and
cultural adequacy. 26 This right differs from the right to property, which is also
protected in international law, in that it provides for broader protections and is
intended to ensure that everyone has access to secure housing, regardless of
ownership. 27 CESCR General Comment 7 elaborates that ‘all persons should
possess a degree of security of tenure which guarantees legal protection against
forced eviction, harassment and other threats’. 28 If focused exclusively on legal
property ownership, one might overlook the rights of tenants or the forced
eviction of those residing on private property without legal title. This is not to
say that there is no connection between the right to adequate housing and the
right to property, as these rights are often inextricably linked. Indeed, the right to
property has been used to provide means for the justiciability of the right to
adequate housing, 29 although this interpretation is generally narrower. The right
to adequate housing also differs from the right to land. While the Special
Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as a Component of the Right to an Adequate
Standard of Living, and on the Right to Non-Discrimination in this Context
(‘Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing’) has appealed to the Human Rights
Council to recognise the right to land due to its integral connection to the right to
adequate housing and other rights, it has not yet been recognised as such. 30
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
General Comment No 4, UN Doc E/1992/23 (n 9); General Comment No 7, UN Doc
E/1998/22 (n 13).
General Comment No 4, UN Doc E/1992/23 (n 9) 115 [6]–[7].
ibid 116–17 [8].
Jessie Hohmann, The Right to Housing: Law, Concepts, Possibilities (Hart Publishing 2013)
128.
General Comment No 7, UN Doc E/1998/22 (n 13) 113 [1].
Sarigiannidis and Pervou (n 19) 37.
Miloon Kothari, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as a Component of
the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, UN GAOR, 4th sess, Agenda Item 2, UN Doc
A/HRC/4/18 (5 February 2007) 10–11 [25]–[31].
243