Housing as a Human Right
In local communities across Australia, pensioners, professionals, and single parents are living in their cars and couch surfing as house and rental prices skyrocket. In pockets across the Sunshine Coast, we are witnessing people living in tents near flooding creeks. No one is immune to this escalating housing crisis. One mishap, and anyone could find themselves homeless or struggling to put a roof over their heads.
But with housing as a human right, governments would have to treat housing as a human right when designing policies. In Finland, a human rights-based housing strategy has reduced homelessness by nearly 70%. Including housing in the Human Rights Act would provide people with the ability to challenge forced evictions and access to housing that is not inaccessible.
Australia is a signatory to international treaties that protect people’s right to adequate housing. However, Australia’s domestic laws do not recognise housing as a human right.
International Treaties
Housing as a human right is enshrined in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which Australia signed in 1973 and ratified in 1975. The right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing, is also recognised in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Australia is a party to seven core international human rights treaties, including the ICESCR, and is bound under international law to comply with their provisions.
Other treaties to which Australia is a party that address housing, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The right to adequate housing is further linked to the right to privacy, family, home, and correspondence under Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The Sustainable Development Goals that Australia has committed to include SDG11, which aims to “make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Target 11.1 calls explicitly for ensuring access for all to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services by 2030. The goal recognises that housing is not only fundamental for individual well-being but also a critical driver for achieving many other SDGs, such as those related to poverty, health, and education.
Queensland Human Rights Act
Queensland, along with ACT and Victoria, have enacted its own Human Rights Act, but none of them explicitly protect the right to adequate housing. Yet, Australia has commitments to several treaties that explicitly provide for housing as a right. So now is the time to change that, to petition the Queensland State Government to change the Human Rights Act 2019 to include the right to a secure and safe home.
Every Queenslander deserves the right to a secure and safe home.
The Petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws the attention of the House that the right to secure housing is not a right in law under the Human Rights Act 2019.
While the act provides rights to life, privacy, education, access to health, freedom of movement, expression, and participation in public life, it does not include the right to secure housing.
How can people experiencing housing insecurity be expected to enjoy the other rights in the act when they are unable to provide a safe, secure home for themselves and their families?
The act mentions children several times; a child cannot be afforded those rights if they are unable to have a secure home to place their head every night.
The preamble of the Human Rights Act 2019 recognises the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings and their equal and inalienable human rights. Where is the dignity and worth when you are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity?
Your petitioners, therefore, request the house to:
Recognise and acknowledge that Queenslanders have the right to a safe and secure place to live.
Review and add the right to a secure and safe home to the Human Rights Act 2019.