A/68/289 favourable effects on stabilizing the rental sector and maintaining access by lowincome households to urban housing that is well located. 68 In Switzerland, rental investments have been maintained even though rent controls reduce the housing costs of long-standing tenancy, and legislation prevents arbitrary eviction and the exploitation of temporary shortages. 69 In Quebec, Canada, a consistent and wellestablished regulatory system, with a reasonable balance between protecting tenants and encouraging investment, has been retained. 70 In Uruguay, the Government has introduced a different tool to balance the interests of landlords and tenants, through a fund that provides guarantees to cover costs arising from the non-payment of rent and service payments (Fondo de Garantía de Alquileres). 71 37. Such examples demonstrate that it is possible to design rent regulation and tenancy protection mechanisms that do not distort or discourage the private rental market but actually encourage it. A well-regulated rental market can promote the goals of protecting tenants, particularly low income, and encouraging rental housing simultaneously. On the other hand, the elimination of rent controls and the easing of eviction procedures, has rarely led to more investment in the rental market but has actually skewed the market in the direction of homeownership. 72 38. Although States do not have the obligation to directly provide adequate housing to all, they have the obligation to protect against abuses of human rights by third parties and to adopt the necessary measures to enable and assist individuals in enjoying their human rights. When housing provision is transferred to third parties (the private rental market), the State should regulate the market in order to protect against human rights abuses (such as forced evictions or economic eviction and rental price “bubbles”) and to create an enabling environment for the realization of the right to adequate housing, with particular focus on the poorest and most marginalized. 73 As indicated by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in paras. 8 (c) and 17 of its General Comment No. 4, tenants should be protected by appropriate means against unreasonable rent levels or rent increases. 6. Informal private rental housing 39. Access to urban land for housing, especially serviced land, is one of the major problems faced by developing countries. Informal access to land, increasingly through rental arrangements, is becoming a key form of accessing affordable housing for the poor. A large share of urban landlords in developing countries therefore operate informally in unplanned settlements. 74 __________________ 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 14/24 See Towards a Sustainable Private Rented Sector (see footnote 40 above), p. 145. E. Werczberger, “Home ownership and rent control in Switzerland”, Housing Studies, vol. 12, No. 3 (1997), pp. 337-353. Pomeroy and Godbout, “Development of the rental housing market” (see footnote 50 above), pp. 16-18. See Uruguay, “El alquiler como alternativa de acceso a la vivienda”, XIX Asamblea General de Ministros y Autoridades Máximas de Vivienda y Urbanismo de América Latina y el Caribe, September 2010. See also http://www.mvotma.gub.uy/alquilar/garantia-de-alquiler. UN-Habitat, Affordable Land and Housing in Africa (see footnote 4 above), p. 50. See Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (A/HRC/17/31, annex); see also report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation (A/HRC/15/31, paras. 18-21). UN-Habitat, Affordable Land and Housing in Africa (see footnote 4 above), pp. 27-28 and 37. 13-42184