{"id":4823,"date":"2020-03-25T18:05:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T15:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/?p=4823"},"modified":"2022-04-21T17:08:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T14:08:29","slug":"un-special-rapporteur-leilani-farha-housing-the-front-line-defence-against-the-covid-19-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/2020\/03\/25\/un-special-rapporteur-leilani-farha-housing-the-front-line-defence-against-the-covid-19-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Special Rapporteur Leilani Farha: Housing, the front line defence against the COVID-19 outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHousing, the front line defense against the COVID-19 outbreak\u201d says Leilani Farha,UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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GENEVA (17 March 2020) \u2013 As Governments worldwide are relying on people to stay home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, they must take urgent measures
to prevent anyone falling into homelessness and ensure access to adequate housing for those without, a UN expert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHousing has become the frontline defense against the coronavirus. Home has rarely been more of a life or death situation,\u201d said Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am deeply concerned about two specific population groups: those living in emergency shelters, homelessness, and informal settlements, and those facing job loss and
economic hardship which could result in mortgage and rental arrears and evictions.\u201d
According to the expert, approximately 1.8 billion people worldwide live in homelessness and grossly inadequate housing, often in overcrowded conditions, lacking access to water and sanitation \u2013 making them particularly vulnerable to contracting the virus, as they are often suffering from multiple health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am urging States to take extraordinary measures to secure the right to housing for all to protect against the pandemic. Good practices are emerging in a few States, including: moratoriums on evictions due to rental and mortgage arrears; deferrals of mortgage payments for those affected by the virus; extension of winter moratoriums on
forced evictions of informal settlements; and increased access to sanitation and emergency shelter spaces for homeless people,\u201d Farha said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While significant, further measures are required to curb the risk for these vulnerable groups and address the growing infection rates, the Special Rapporteur said. At a minimum, to ensure protection of those living in homelessness or grossly inadequate housing, States must: cease all evictions; provide emergency housing with services for those who are affected by the virus and must isolate; ensure that the
enforcement of containment measures (eg: curfews) does not lead to the punishment of anyone based on their housing status; provide equal access to testing and health care; and provide adequate housing which may require the implementation of extraordinary measures as appropriate in a state of emergency, including using vacant and abandoned units and available short-term rentals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With respect to those facing job loss and economic hardship, States must: provide direct financial assistance for or defer rental and mortgage payments; enact a moratorium on evictions due to arrears; introduce rental stabilization or reduction measures; and, at least for the duration of the pandemic, suspend utility costs and surcharges.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMeasures are being introduced and significant resources allocated to mitigate against the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, such as lowering interest rates. There is a risk that such measures will enable global financial actors to use the pandemic and the misfortunes of many to dominate housing markets without regard for human rights standards, as they did in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStates must prevent the predatory practices of institutional investors in the area of residential real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy ensuring access to secure housing with adequate sanitation, States will not only protect the lives of those who are homeless or living in informal settlements but will help protect the entire world\u2019s population by flattening the curve of CV19,\u201d the UN expert concluded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENDS
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Leilani Farha<\/strong> is the UN 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. She took up her mandate in June 2014. Farha is the Executive Director of the NGO Canada without Poverty, based in Ottawa. A lawyer by training, for the past 20 years Ms. Farha has worked both internationally and domestically on the implementation of the right to adequate housing for the most marginalized groups and on the situation of people living in poverty. Her most recent report to the Human Rights Council focusses on access to justice for the right to housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Special Rapporteurs<\/strong> are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council\u2019s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Governments worldwide are relying on people to stay home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, they must take urgent measures to prevent anyone falling into homelessness and ensure access to adequate housing for those without, a UN expert said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4851,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions\/4851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esithaklar.org\/eski\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}