Women’s housing rights are upheld in international and regional human rights standards and legal instruments Despite the legal protections that exist, women and girls continue to bear the brunt of the global housing rights crisis and are disproportionately affected by housing rights violations Women and girls throughout the world have a right to nondiscrimination based on sex, and a right to gender equality
Women and Housing Rights WOMEN’S HOUSING RIGHTS: Basic Standards and Principles barriers are too often rooted in systems of gender-based discrimination and prejudice, which undermine women’s autonomy and negatively impact their ability to realise the full range of their human rights on an equal basis with men.
At the beginning of the third millennium, some 1.2 billion people worldwide are living in conditions of extreme poverty. While the number itself is staggering, we must also remember that global poverty is not a gender neutral phenomenon. Indeed, some 70 per cent of the world’s poor are women, and in all parts of the world, women face entrenched barriers to the full enjoyment of their housing rights. These
Throughout the world today, women’s housing insecurity takes many forms. Women’s housing rights are not peripheral issues – they are central to improving the lives of women and girls in all regions of the world. For women in particular, housing rights are intimately connected to their security, health and wellbeing. If they are unable to fully enjoy their housing rights, women cannot be the architects of their own destiny, they cannot exercise true independence, and they become vulnerable to a myriad other human rights violations.
Housing rights are widely recognised throughout international, regional and national laws, and all countries possess legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfil housing rights. Various international human rights instruments enshrine women’s rights to equality and non-discrimination, rights which fundamentally intersect with women’s housing rights. At the international level, women’s housing rights are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, among others. Despite this, however, women around the world face de facto and de jure discrimination in access to housing, land and services due to sexist customs and traditions, lack of rights awareness and/or persistence of gender bias in the formulation and implementation of national laws and policies.