COHRE Women and Housing Rights Fact Sheet No.9 Domestic Violence

Domestic violence may be physical, verbal, emotional and even economic (e.g. controlling household finances)

Globally, during their lifetime, 1 in 3 women have been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused

In the vast majority of cases, violence against women is perpetrated by women’s family members or intimate partners

Women and Housing Rights WOMEN’S HOUSING RIGHTS and Domestic Violence

In all corners of the world, victims of domestic violence face the stark choice of either living on the street or being beaten by a partner. Housing insecurity leaves these women with too few options. In many cases, victims of domestic violence have difficulty accessing alternative housing because of an abhorrent lack of domestic violence shelters, transitional housing programmes, and public or market rate housing which is affordable to women.

Domestic violence disrupts the peaceful enjoyment of the home and creates fear, tension and insecurity, which may eventually lead to the destructive, forceful eviction of women from their homes. While domestic violence is an extension of male dominance rather than poverty, inadequate housing conditions such as overcrowding, lack of security of tenure and other insecurity can aggravate situations of domestic violence and leave women with few options. Combined with other factors, such as women’s low economic, social and cultural status, women and girls become easy targets for abuse.

Domestic violence constitutes a brazen infringement of women’s right to adequate housing because they are deprived of the “right to live somewhere securely and with peace and dignity.” A woman’s right to adequate housing is violated if she is unable to reside in her home because

her intimate partner or family member abuses her, yet it is also violated because domestic violence itself makes a home uninhabitable. Female victims of domestic violence live without security, peace and dignity as their homes are transformed into a setting for oppression and terror - a penitentiary where one’s most intimate partner can behave as an uncontrolled abuser.

Under international human rights law and standards, victims of domestic violence have the right to live free of violence, and to have access to legal protection and redress. Victims also have a right to the resources necessary to support themselves and their children so that they are able to live with dignity, including the right to adequate housing. Nonetheless, lack of access to safe, alternative housing is too often a major factor keeping women trapped in violent relationships. This is true for women all across the world, regardless of whether they are living in so-called ‘developing’ or ‘developed’ countries.

temporary shelters available for abused women.

Victims of domestic violence are also routinely denied access to housing due to discrimination on the part of landlords and others who do not want to rent to women fleeing situations if violence for fear of aggravating the abuser.

It is imperative that the housing security of these women is adequately ensured, so that access to housing does not become a barrier for women seeking to leave abusive situations.

Domestic violence is often a primary cause of homelessness for women.

Women and girls threatened by homelessness face the additional threat of sexual abuse on the streets, or continued domestic violence should they return to their abusers. Long and short term housing options for abused women may be hard or impossible to access.

The United Nations General Assembly, in its Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, acknowledged that “violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women....”

In developing countries, abused women generally lack any access to safe houses or emergency shelters, while the trend in developed countries indicates continued reductions in budgetary allocations and restrictions in social services, resulting in a decrease in the numbers of

For women, tenure insecurity does not begin upon the immediate threat or loss of property, and cannot necessarily be protected merely by guaranteeing women their de jure rights to housing, land and property. Rather, women’s de facto situation must also be considered.

Viewed more holistically, there is a need for recognition of the relationship of women’s housing rights to the enjoyment and fulfilment of other rights, as well as the contribution of deprivation of other rights to women’s tenure insecurity. Specifically in relation to domestic violence, a woman whose housing security is in jeopardy may be compelled to remain in a violent home. If women lack security of tenure, their right to adequate housing is violated and a State may be unwittingly contributing to the pervasiveness of domestic abuse. Sadly, women in many countries remain in abusive situations since they will become destitute should they resist abuse in the home.