The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari, finished his visit to Canada on October 22nd, with a press conference in Ottawa where he released his preliminary report.

Kothari’s general objectives of this mission, which began on October 9th, were to examine and report on the status of realization of the right to adequate housing in Canada, and to engage in dialogues with the Government and the civil society in their efforts to secure these rights.

While visiting various urban and rural communities across Canada, Kathari met with high-ranking officials and representatives of various Government agencies. He also took testimonies from many women, men, youth and children across the country that were homeless or living in inadequate and insecure housing.

Kothari’s report flags many serious concerns and he proposes a number of important recommendations. These recommendations include:

• The Federal Government needs to commit funding and programmes to realize a comprehensive national housing strategy, and to co-ordinate actions among the provinces and territories, to meet Canada’s housing rights obligations.
• Canada needs to once again embark on a large scale building of social housing units across the country.
• The Federal Government’s Affordable Housing Initiative, including the affordable housing trust funds authorized by Parliament in 2005, are due to expire at the end of fiscal 2008. The Federal Government should immediately renew and enhance housing spending over a ten-year period, as part of a comprehensive national housing strategy.
• Canada should implement measures to address urgent, short term and long term needs of women in the country. Immediate implementation at all levels of the government of the recommendations from the United Nations treaty bodies on these specific measures, would eliminate the various barriers that women face both in urban and rural context in their daily life.
• Very progressive legislations to address violence against women are being implemented in several provinces. These legislations should include, among other components, the sustainable access to housing for all women.
• The implementation of policies, to comply with international and domestic legislation addressing the fulfillment of women’s right, needs to be supported by the necessary funds and resources at all levels of the government.
• Accountability on the creation, funding and implementation of programmes and policies that address housing and domestic violence must be undertaken at levels of the Government. Effective participation and consultation with women is not only a right but the best manner to ensure that policies and laws achieve their objectives.

The report also expresses concern over the significant cuts to the budget and the modification of the mandate of Status Women Canada, the only Federal agency focused on women. The report highlights that these changes “might contradict the legal obligation of allocating maximum available resources and the non-retrogression with respect to human right that is mandated in Article 2 of the ICESCR.” Concern is also raised over the fact that some women’s organizations have been defunded for their service provision to women, research and advocacy activities.

To download the full report, please click here:
Report [1]