<\/p>\n
5 March 2024<\/p>\n
Citing alarming examples in Aleppo, Grozny, Mariupol, Myanmar, Sudan and Gaza, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, said an \u201cincreasingly systematic, massive and arbitrary destruction of civilian housing and infrastructure\u201d during too many conflicts around the world is in blatant violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen or are seeing such destruction in Aleppo, Grozny, Mariupol, Myanmar and now, in Gaza and parts of Sudan,\u201d he told the\u00a0Human Rights Council<\/a>, the UN\u2019s top human rights body.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people lose their homes, they lose more than physical structures. A home is more than property; it is also the repository of memories, hopes and aspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Israel declared war following Hamas\u2019s deadly attacks in October, more than 70 per cent of all housing stock in Gaza, and more than 80 per cent in parts of northern region have been damaged or destroyed, displacing over 1.5 million persons.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is happening in Gaza shocks the conscience of humanity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n More than one million people are now crowded into Rafah, grossly lacking in adequate shelter during winter, facing starvation and disease.<\/p>\n \u201cAll that makes housing \u2018adequate\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 access to services, jobs, culture, schools, religious places, universities, hospitals \u2013\u00a0have all been levelled<\/strong>,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said, adding that the scale and intensity of destruction in Gaza is \u201cfar worse\u201d than in Aleppo, Mariupol or even Dresden and Rotterdam during the Second World War.<\/p>\n He said that last week, with other Special Rapporteurs, \u201cI called upon States to stop arms transfers to Israel that are being used to destroy housing and displace the people in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSuch arms transfers risk complicity in systematic violations of the right to adequate housing, which may constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or acts of genocide under international law,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n The international community must take action to prevent and end massive violations to the right to adequate housing, he said, referring to his call to the General Assembly in 2022 for recognition of these violations as \u201ca crime against humanity of its own standing \u2013 domicide\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI regret to note that so far my call has not seen adequate response,\u201d he told the Human Rights Council.<\/p>\n Action areas must aim to outlaw the use of explosives with wide-area impacts in populated areas through an international treaty. Further, such crimes should be investigated through national and international tribunals and impunity for perpetrators must end, according to his 2022 report.<\/p>\n In his report, he also drew attention to a range of housing-related concerns, among them calling on States and other actors to renew their commitment to ensure affordable housing and to address homelessness.<\/p>\n He also provided several recommendations, including strategies for averting affordability crises, strategies for safeguarding against human rights violations stemming from housing unaffordability, and strategies for addressing the repercussions of housing unaffordability.<\/p>\n The number of people displaced due to conflict, disasters, development or climate change has sharply increased and is expected to continue to grow, he said.<\/p>\n Some of the drivers of large-scale displacement include unplanned urbanization, land speculation and over-commodification of land and housing and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n As such, he underlined a need to develop resettlement guidelines to ensure that any plans are carried out in conformity with human rights.<\/p>\n Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and form part of what is known as its\u202fSpecial Procedures<\/a>. They are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations.<\/p>\n Special Rapporteurs are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and receive no salary for their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 5 March 2024 An independent UN housing rights expert condemned on Tuesday the arbitrary destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure during conflicts, comparing the ongoing bombardment of Gaza with strikes against Dresden during the Second World War. Citing alarming examples in Aleppo, Grozny, Mariupol, Myanmar, Sudan and Gaza, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the Special Rapporteur on […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2477,2545],"document-source":[1602,5073,6852,6169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2029,1741,6844],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-294082","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-news-item","document-category-un-news-item","document-source-human-rights-council","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-adequate-housing","document-source-un-news","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-subject-house-demolitions","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-war-crimes","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294083,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/294082\/revisions\/294083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=294082"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=294082"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=294082"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=294082"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=294082"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=294082"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=294082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gaza: Massive destruction<\/h2>\n
Calls to end \u2018domicide\u2019<\/h2>\n
Homelessness and displacement<\/h2>\n
Special Rapporteurs<\/h2>\n