Human Rights Council

Sixt y-first session

23 February–31 March 2026

Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 30 March 2026

6 1 / 16. Adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and the right to non-discrimination in this context

The Human Rights Council,

Reaffirming that international human rights law instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, entail obligations and commitments of States parties, including all levels of government, in relation to access to adequate housing,

Reaffirming also that everyone is entitled to the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, without discrimination of any kind,

Recalling that States have the primary responsibility to ensure the full realization of all human rights and to endeavour to take steps, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of their available resources, with a view to progressively achieving the full realization of the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living by all appropriate means, including the adoption of legislative measures,

Recalling also all previous resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council on the issue of the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and General Assembly resolution 80/175 of 15 December 2025 on inclusive policies and programmes to address homelessness, as well as General Assembly resolution 79/214 of 19 December 2024 on the New Urban Agenda,

Recalling further all resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights on the issue of women’s equal rights to ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own and inherit property and to adequate housing, including resolution 2005/25 of 15 April 2005,

Reaffirming the principles and commitments with regard to adequate housing enshrined in the relevant provisions of declarations and programmes adopted by major United Nations conferences and summits, inter alia, the New Urban Agenda adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), and underlining the importance of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including target 11.1,

Recalling United Nations Habitat Assembly resolution 2/7 of 9 June 2023 on adequate housing for all, including the decision to establish an open-ended intergovernmental expert working group to consider and make recommendations to the Assembly on the development and content of policies for accelerating progress towards the universal achievement of safe, sustainable, adequate and affordable housing,

Recalling also Human Rights Council resolution 55/11 of 3 April 2024 on the right to adequate housing, emphasizing the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, the importance of accessibility of housing and its environment to persons with disabilities and its consistency with the principles of universal design, the need to promote inclusive deinstitutionalization through the development of accessible, community-based options, and to provide reasonable accommodation as well as access to other public services and facilities, recognizing the equal right of persons with disabilities to live independently, to be included in the community and to participate fully in all aspects of life,

Concerned that the right to adequate housing is not realized for many throughout the world and that millions continue to live in substandard housing, and millions more are homeless or at immediate risk of homelessness, and that especially those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, particularly women and girls, persons with disabilities, older persons, internally displaced persons, refugees, migrants, Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent, are left in vulnerable situations in this regard, and recognizing that this situation should be addressed by urgent and immediate measures by States in accordance with existing international human rights commitments and obligations and with the support, where necessary, of the international community,

Deeply concerned about the effects of racial discrimination and of systemic racism, including as they relate to structural and institutional racism, on the enjoyment of human rights for all, including, inter alia, on the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living,

Recalling its deep concern at the lack of progress regarding discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing affecting women, and underlining the need to urgently act to ensure their security of tenure, irrespective of their family or relationship status, their equal access to credit, low-cost housing, mortgages, home ownership and rental housing, including through subsidies, to ensure in situations of domestic violence immediate access to emergency shelters, including through legislative measures, and to guarantee women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in all aspects of housing-related policymaking, including housing design and construction, community development and planning, and transportation and infrastructure, among others,

Concerned at the mounting crisis of housing unaffordability, in particular in urban contexts, and its disproportionate impact on individuals and groups in vulnerable situations, including women and girls, older persons, young persons, internally displaced persons, migrants, refugees, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent and persons with disabilities, who are more likely to live in poverty,

Expressing deep concern at the destruction of housing, arbitrary displacements and forced evictions in armed conflicts and situations of occupation, and at the number and scale of disasters caused by natural or man-made hazards and their negative impact on the full enjoyment of the right to adequate housing, and in this regard affirming the need for the continued implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030,

Emphasizing that the adverse effects of climate change have a range of negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the effective enjoyment of human rights, inter alia, the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living,

Deeply concerned that, on many occasions, investment in housing has increasingly been treated as a financial asset with an excessive focus on seeking short-term returns, which may undermine the central function of housing from its social function as a place to live in security and dignity, while recognizing that responsible and well-regulated investment can contribute to expanding access to adequate and affordable housing,

Recognizing that security of tenure enhances the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing and is significant to the enjoyment of many other economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, and that all persons, including women and girls, persons with disabilities, older persons, internally displaced persons, refugees, migrants, Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent, should possess a degree of security of tenure that guarantees legal protection against forced eviction, harassment and other threats,

Recalling the guiding principles on security of tenure for the urban poor, the basic principles and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement and the Guidelines for the Implementation of the Right to Adequate Housing, submitted to the Human Rights Council by previous mandate holders,

Noting with appreciation the work of the treaty bodies, in particular the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in the promotion of the rights relating to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, including all relevant general comments and, for States parties to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the examination of individual communications,

Recalling its resolutions 5/1, on institution-building of the Human Rights Council, and 5/2, on the Code of Conduct for Special Procedure Mandate Holders of the Human Rights Council, of 18 June 2007, and stressing that the mandate holder shall discharge her or his duties in accordance with those resolutions and the annexes thereto,

1.Calls upon States:

(a)To give due consideration to integrating the human right to adequate housing into the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a particular view to the right to non-discrimination in this context;

(b)To implement the 2030 Agenda, including target 11.1, and in this context urges States to adopt, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, including civil society, national human rights institutions and the private sector, inclusive and cross-sectoral strategies that are inclusive and respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all, with particular attention to persons in marginalized or at-risk situations, and to ensure that these strategies outline clear responsibilities at all levels of government, contain measurable goals, targets and timelines, and include appropriate mechanisms for regular monitoring and review, with particular emphasis on the rights and needs of persons who are in vulnerable situations;

(c)To take the measures necessary to curb factors that result in a lack of affordable housing, such as housing speculation and the “financialization of housing”, to prevent homelessness and to promote affordable housing for all;

(d)To take the right to adequate housing into account in strategies for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, and to develop and promote environmentally sustainable and sound housing design, construction and maintenance, energy efficiency, and climate resilience, ensuring accessibility and affordability for all, to address the effects of climate change while ensuring the right to adequate housing;

(e)To consider adopting national programmes and legislation compliant with human rights law and due process and with respect for human dignity, to prevent, avoid and reduce evictions;

(f)To ensure that evictions are consistent with the principles of legality, proportionality and necessity and comply with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, with full respect for due process and human dignity, and avoid disproportionate and unnecessary use of force;

(g)To avoid and prevent the destruction of housing and civilian infrastructure in conflicts and situations of occupation in a manner that is in compliance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law;

(h)To ensure women’s equal right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living in all aspects of housing strategies, including through equal access to credit, mortgages, home ownership and rental housing, to take the safety of such housing properly into account, especially when women and children face any form of violence or threat of violence, and to undertake legislative and other reforms to realize equal rights for all with respect to property and inheritance;

(i)To guarantee the full, equal and meaningful participation of women, including women with disabilities, in all aspects of housing-related policymaking, including housing design and construction, community development and planning, and transportation and infrastructure, including women living in informal housing or in camps;

(j)To undertake additional efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence, both online and offline, including sexual and gender-based violence and domestic violence, especially against women and girls, including women and girls with disabilities, in compliance with international human rights law, including through the use of restraining orders, the provision of alternative housing, crisis centres, shelters, hotlines and medical, psychological and counselling services;

(k)To ensure that the principles of equality and non-discrimination are respected when fulfilling the right to adequate housing, and in this respect to take measures to the maximum of available resources to address systemic homelessness and the deprivation of housing, which disproportionately affect persons in vulnerable situations;

(l)To take all measures necessary to eliminate legislation that criminalizes homelessness, and to take positive measures with a view to prevent and eliminate homelessness by adopting and implementing laws, administrative orders, cross-sectional strategies and programmes at all levels that are, among others, gender-, age- and disability-responsive and compliant with international human rights law;

(m)To take comprehensive, inclusive and evidence-based measures to reduce spatial segregation and isolation or social exclusion of persons with disabilities from the community by ensuring the right of persons with disabilities to live independently within the community with persons of their choice, to ensure that persons with disabilities have access to adequate housing and to community support services, and to actively involve persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in all areas of housing policy and design;

(n)To adopt accessibility requirements that apply to new housing and implement a clear time frame for ensuring accessibility within existing housing stock;

(o)To ensure that local governments implement and adhere to the right to adequate housing in all municipal action, in consultation with rights holders, civil society and representatives of affected communities, including women local community leaders, including when carrying out urban planning, zoning, planning of transportation and production and maintenance of housing, taking into account accessibility requirements, and seek to provide greater clarity in the distribution of responsibilities and strengthen institutional cooperation and coordination between national and local governments;

(p)To ensure that construction companies work in accordance with building regulations and in compliance with safety and accessibility standards;

(q)To take appropriate measures to ensure that business enterprises, including financial entities, in the housing sector meet their responsibility to respect human rights in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;

(r)To ensure that reasonable accommodation measures for persons with disabilities are provided in relation to the right of adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living in order to promote equality and eliminate discrimination;

2.Also calls upon States to ensure equality and non-discrimination when fulfilling the right to adequate housing, and to strive for the full realization of the right to adequate housing for all, including by considering:

(a)Prohibiting all forms of discrimination, including against women and girls, persons with disabilities, older persons, internally displaced persons, refugees, migrants, Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent, facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, in the context of the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living by public and private entities, including public and private housing and credit providers and home value appraisers, and through accessible technology platforms for credit scoring, tenant screening and mortgage loan applicants, and ensuring that housing and anti-discrimination legislation provides sufficiently dissuasive fines or other dissuasive sanctions for housing discrimination and leads to diverse, inclusive communities;

(b)Regularly monitoring and identifying any forms of systemic discrimination, including against persons with disabilities, in relation to housing, including spatial segregation, and adopting special, positive measures and policies at the local, national and regional levels to eliminate such discrimination, in conformity with international human rights law;

(c)Establishing accessible, inclusive and sufficiently resourced non-judicial mechanisms, such as equality bodies, ombudspersons and national human rights institutions, that have the competence to investigate individual and collective complaints of housing discrimination, including systemic forms of housing discrimination and spatial segregation, and that monitor discrimination in relation to housing through age-, disability- and sex-disaggregated statistical analysis, surveys and other means, make recommendations for eliminating housing discrimination and provide legal advice and effective remedies to victims of housing discrimination;

3.Further calls upon States to provide, in an accessible, affordable, timely and effective manner, an effective remedy and equal access to justice and administrative procedures in complementing judicial recourses for all for violations and abuses in the context of the realization of the right to adequate housing, including housing discrimination and spatial segregation, by considering:

(a)Adopting domestic legislation and administrative orders giving full effect to the right to adequate housing, and redress for violations of that right;

(b)Making provisions for legal support and legal aid, including with a disability-inclusive perspective;

(c)Promoting the establishment of national human rights institutions, equality bodies, ombudspersons and civil society organizations supporting the interests of affected persons, and local community organizations, in accordance with their respective procedural law;

(d)Ratifying or acceding to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, if not yet ratified or acceded to, and where applicable, to the Optional Protocols to the aforementioned conventions;

4.Welcomes the work 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, and takes note of the reports of the Special Rapporteur, including the most recent report on the guiding principles on resettlement, and echoes the call of the guiding principles to prevent unnecessary resettlement and ensure that when resettlement cannot be avoided, it is carried out in conformity with international human rights law;

5.Decides to extend, for a period of three years, the mandate 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, as set out in Human Rights Council resolutions, in particular Council resolution 15/8 of 30 September 2010;

6.Requests the Special Rapporteur, in fulfilling the mandate, to continue to engage with States with a view to progressively achieving the full realization of the right to adequate housing as a component of an adequate standard of living, the New Urban Agenda and housing-related Sustainable Development Goals and targets, and to consult with civil society and other stakeholders, and to submit proposals and recommendations thereto;

7.Also requests the Special Rapporteur, in fulfilling the mandate, to work in close cooperation and coordination with other special procedures and subsidiary organs of the Human Rights Council, relevant United Nations bodies, the treaty bodies and regional human rights organizations;

8.Further requests the Special Rapporteur, in fulfilling the mandate, to pay special attention to the rights of, inter alia, women and girls, children, young persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, persons experiencing homelessness, persons in street situations and persons in vulnerable situations, and to mainstream a gender, age and disability perspective in the performance of the mandate;

9.Notes with appreciation the cooperation extended to the Special Rapporteur by different actors, and calls upon States:

(a)To continue to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the discharge of his or her mandate and to respond favourably to his or her requests for information and visits;

(b)To enter into a constructive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur with respect to the follow-up to and implementation of his or her recommendations;

10.Encourages all relevant stakeholders, including United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, human rights mechanisms, national human rights institutions, civil society, the private sector, donors and development agencies to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of the mandate;

11.Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide all the resources necessary for the effective fulfilment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur;

12.Requests the Special Rapporteur to continue to report, on an annual basis, to the Human Rights Council and, on a biennial basis, to the General Assembly, as of its eighty-second session;

13.Decides to continue its consideration of this matter under the same agenda item.

52nd meeting

30 March 2026

[Adopted without a vote.]