Dipping From The Well of Knowledge About The Right To Adequate Housing

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This scene was created by affordablehousingaction.org and is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

We’re Canadian and have published posts about Canadian Leilani Farha during the time she held the position of Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing. As such, we’ve found ourselves myopic (smugly so?) regarding the scope and responsibilities of United Nations Special Rapporteurs, particularly as the notion applies to rights for citizens in all countries of the world.

So Leilani was the only Special Rapporteur concerned with housing, right?

Well no, not exactly. Not that affordablehousingaction.org, was aware of the full scope of the UN’s undertaking. Indeed, we were so cheerfully un-informed we’ve only just realized that Special Rapporteur positions are unpaid. Our hats were already off to Leilani. Now we’ve raised them considerably higher!

Another area of our ignorance is the scope of the U.N. Special Rapporteurs’ roles as they apply to other issues. There’s is not just one role, but several, indeed verging on many.

So we’re grateful to the Geneva Environment Network for its Call for submissions | Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, Treaty Bodies, Subsidiary Bodies and Office of the High Commissioner. The document has filled in a considerable number of blanks in our understanding of the U.N.’s commitment in general and to the right to adequate housing.

Needed are the following areas of expertise:

      • Expert advisers to the Human Rights Council
      • Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change
      • Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights
      • Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
      • Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
      • Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
      • Special Rapporteur on the right to development
      • The impact of climate change on girl’s rights to education
      • The individual and collective dimensions of the Right to Development
      • The fiscal social contract and the human rights economy

All of these roles touch to some degree on the right to adequate housing.

Fancy yourself knowledgeable? Check out the details in the following article from the Geneva Environment Network: Call for submissions | Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, Treaty Bodies, Subsidiary Bodies and Office of the High Commissioner

The U.N. may well be grateful if you can share some of your expertise.