A/HRC/31/54
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
30 December 2015
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirty-first session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the 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
Note by the Secretariat
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the thematic
report of the 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, Leilani
Farha, prepared pursuant to Council resolution 25/17. In the report, the Special Rapporteur
considers homelessness as a global human rights crisis directly linked to increased
inequality of wealth and property, requiring urgent attention. She examines how
homelessness is caused by States’ failures to respond both to individual circumstances and
to a range of structural causes, abandoning responsibility for social protection and allowing
unregulated real estate speculation and investment to exclude a growing number of people
from any form of housing. She outlines a clear set of obligations on States under
international human rights law that, if complied with, would eliminate homelessness. She
proposes a global campaign to eliminate homelessness by 2030.
GE.15-23077(E)
*1523077*