Circular
12/2020
Barcelona, 12 June 2020
To the members of the World Council
To the Secretaries General
To the Vice-Presidents of United Cities and Local Governments
To the Chairs of UCLG Committees, Working Groups, Communities of Practice and Fora
For information: To the Presidency
Call for contributions to the next UN Report on the right to housing and COVID-19
Dear members of the World Council,
The recently nominated
UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Mr Balakrishnan Rajagopal, has launched a call for contributions to his next report to the UN General Assembly (October 2020) on “COVID-19 and the right to housing”.
The report intends to “
reflect on the importance of housing adequacy to ensure protection against COVID-19 and on the transformation of the home during the pandemic”. It will focus on issues such as “
measures taken to prevent and stop evictions of tenants and homeowners (...) and to protect various groups at risk of marginalization, including persons living in situation of homelessness and in informal settlements”. It will also address with specific emphasis the situation of “
children, women, older persons and persons with disabilities at their respective place of living” and analyze “
medium and long term interventions that are required to protect during and after the crisis the right to housing for all”.
Local and regional governments are encouraged to send their contributions, in order to showcase both the challenges encountered and the initiatives and measures put in place, including moratorium of evictions and rents payment, providing emergency shelter to homeless people, protecting victims of domestic violence, etc., in order to protect this right and fulfill the social function of housing in the context of the pandemic.
[Please consult the
participation modalities on the following site.]
The
deadline to send contributions is 19 June. Short submissions containing hyperlinks to relevant documents, statistical data, public regulations and legislation are particular useful.
We invite you to send your inputs to srhousing@ohchr.org and registry@ohchr.org, using “Input for report on COVID-19 and right to housing” as a subject and putting citiesforhousing@uclg.org in copy.
UCLG and its Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights have been providing a platform where to showcase these challenges and initiatives, but also to discuss ways forward and shared strategies to advance housing’s social function in the aftermath of the pandemic. You can find a report of the latest UCLG Community of Practice meeting on housing
here and a report of the Live Learning Experience on housing
here (both focused on COVID-19 impact over local housing systems and its aftermath).
In this context, the call for contributions by UN Special Rapporteur Rajagopal offers an excellent opportunity for local governments to continue shaping the global agenda on the future of housing and human rights; a process initiated back in 2018 with the adoption of the Cities for Adequate Housing Declaration that has regained momentum due to the unprecedented context posed by COVID-19.
In case you are interested in joining this work or the Cities for Adequate Housing Declaration, reach citiesforhousing@uclg.org
A virtual meeting is envisaged to take place to facilitate exchanges from our constituency with the rapporteur. Date will be announced in the coming days. It is important that you copy us in order to take you into consideration to participate.
Sincerely,
The UCLG World Secretariat
More information: