[Woman and her baby in their flooded shack in an informal settlement of Papua New Guinea.
© Christina Saunders]

Women

"All human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated and … women’s equal ownership, access to and control over land and the equal right to own property and to adequate housing contribute to the full realization of human rights" (Commission on Human Rights, 2005/25)

Documents

Guidance

[Aboriginal family outside their derelict house near Darwin, Australia. © Bahram Ghazi]

Indigenous Peoples

“Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired”. (article 26.2 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)

Documents

• The impact of large-scale development projects, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, E/CN.4/2003/90
  Arabic | Chinese | English | French |Russian | Spanish
  
  

Publications and guidance

• Indigenous peoples’ right to adequate housing (2005)
  
  
• Housing Indigenous Peoples in Cities: Urban Policy Guides for Indigenous Peoples (2008)
  
  
• Urban Indigenous Peoples and Migration; A Review of Policies, Programmes and Practices (2010)
  
  
• Securing Land Rights for Indigenous Peoples in Cities (2011)

[Shacks build by migrant workers, El Ejido, Spain. © Bahram Ghazi]

Migrants

Irregular or undocumented migrants, including rejected asylum-seekers, are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses, including violation of their right to adequate housing. Irregular migrants are often homeless, as an inability to pay rent usually results in immediate eviction. Their lack of legal status, and the criminalization of irregular migration in many countries, means that most will be unable or unwilling to challenge discriminatory or otherwise abusive rental practices and seek legal remedies.

Documents

• Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing (A/65/261)
  Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Russian| Spanish
  
  

• Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants (A/HRC/14/30)
  Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Russian | Spanish