The Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, a human rights body at the United Nations, adopted its second resolution on Women’s Right to Land, Property and Adequate Housing on 20 August 1998. This resolution follows from last year’s on the same topic.

This resolution is most important for recognising that women’s rights to land and property are human rights. It states "that the discrimination faced by women with respect to acquiring and securing land, property and housing, as well as financing for land, property and housing constitutes a violation of women’s human rights to equality, protection against discrimination and to equal enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing."

There are a number of effective ways in which the Sub-Commission resolutions can be used to promote, protect and enforce human rights. Here are three suggestions:

A. If you or your organisation uses litigation as a strategy for change, the opening paragraphs of the resolutions can be used/cited to support legal arguments regarding women’s right to adequate housing and to land and property. It should be noted, however, that resolutions of this sort do not have the force of law and therefore should only be used to support or uphold rights that are already recognised and codified in legally binding instruments.

B. The resolutions can also be sent directly to government officials in your region/country to inform them that the United Nations has clearly identified women’s right to land, property and housing as human rights and to pressure them to take this resolution (and the documents on which it relies) into consideration.

C. The resolutions may also be used as an educational tool to raise awareness. In its current form it can be used with some lawyers, judges, governmental officials, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academics to assist them in understanding the issues related to women and housing, land and property and some of the essential linkages as found in the resolution. If the resolution were transformed into an easier-to-read format, it could also be used as a popular educational tool.

The following is the full text of the latest resolution:

Women and the Right to Land, Property and Adequate Housing

The Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities,

Recalling Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/51 of 17 April 1998 calling for the integration of the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system,

Recalling also Sub-Commission resolutions 1997/19 of 27 August 1997 entitled "Women and the Right to Adequate Housing and to Land and Property," and 1997/9 of 22 August 1997 entitled "Implementation of the Human Rights of Women and the Girl Child,"

Recalling further, the recognition and legal foundations of the right to adequate housing contained in, inter alia, articles 7, 12, 17 and 25, paragraph 1, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; article 2 paragraph 2, and article 11 paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; article 2 paragraph 1, and articles 17 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; article 5 (e) (iii) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; articles 4 and 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and article 14 paragraph 2 (g) and (h) and article 16 (h) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,

Reaffirming the right to be free from discrimination based on sex and the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights as stipulated in, inter alia, the International Bill of Human Rights,

Bearing in mind the Habitat Agenda (A/CONF.165/14) adopted by the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and the Platform for Action (A/CONF.177/20) adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women,

Concerned that as a result of the discrimination faced by women with respect to acquiring and securing land, property and housing, the number of women living in poverty is increasing disproportionately to the number of men and that women’s experiences of poverty are particularly severe and prohibit women from escaping the poverty trap,

Recognising that the existence and perpetuation of gender-biased laws, policies and traditions which deny women credit and loans and keep women from owning and inheriting land, property and housing and which exclude women from fully participating in development processes discriminate against women and create insecure and inadequate housing and living conditions,

Deeply concerned that inadequate and insecure housing and living conditions give rise to serious mental and physical health problems for women and contribute to cause and are often the result of violence against women,

Stressing that the impact of discrimination and violence against women on women’s ability to access and secure land, property and housing is particularly acute for women who are internally displaced as a result of armed conflict situations and development projects,

Concerned that international and regional trade, finance and investment policies often increase gender inequality in terms of access to land, property, housing and other productive resources and undermine women’s capacity to gain and retain these resources,

Mindful that women’s inequality will not always be remedied by the identical treatment of men and women and that adequate remedies may require that women be treated differently from men based on a consideration of women’s specific socio-economic context,

1. Affirms that the discrimination faced by women with respect to acquiring and securing land, property and housing as well as financing for land, property and housing, constitutes a violation of women’s human rights to equality, protection against discrimination and to equal enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing;

2. Strongly urges governments to comply fully with all of their international and regional obligations and commitments concerning the legally recognised rights of women to land, property, inheritance, adequate housing including security of tenure, and an adequate standard of living;

3. Urges governments to review their laws, policies, customs and traditions pertaining to land, property and housing rights, to amend and repeal laws and policies and to encourage the transformation of customs and traditions which deny women security of tenure and equal access and rights to land, property and housing, and to adopt and enforce legislation which protects and promotes women’s rights to own, inherit, lease or rent land, property and housing;

4. Encourages governments, international agencies and non-governmental organisations to provide judges, lawyers, political and other public officials, community leaders and other concerned persons with information and human rights education concerning women’s rights to land, property and housing;

5. Recommends that governments, international financial institutions, local lending agents, housing finance institutions and other credit facilities review their policies and eliminate those which discriminate against women and keep women from securing financial resources necessary to access and secure land, property and housing and, in this regard, that special consideration be given to single women and households headed by women;

6. Suggests that the international trade, investment and financial institutions, in particular the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, take fully into account the human rights implications for women of their policies;

7. Invites governments, the United Nations Development Programme, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements and the United Nations Development Fund for Women to allocate resources for further documentation of the impact of internal displacement as a result of armed conflict situations and development projects on women, particularly with respect to women’s access to land, property and housing;

8. Invites the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in pursuance of her mandate, to undertake initiatives that promote women’s rights to land, property and to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing;

9. Requests the Secretary-General to propose to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to pay special attention to women’s rights to land, property and an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing, when examining States parties reports and to explore the possibility of adopting a general recommendation on this theme as it relates, inter alia, to the provisions of article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, with a view to clarifying the obligations of States parties to this Convention in this respect;

10. Suggests to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to undertake a thorough discussion of the critical issue of the relationship between women’s rights to land and property and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to include the results of this discussion in its general comment on women.

(Source: E-mail from the Melbourne-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, 27 August 1998.)