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 housing is not a human right in Queensland. In Finland, a human rights-based housing strategy has resulted in a nearly 70% reduction in homelessness. Including housing in the Human Rights Act would provide people with the ability to challenge forced evictions and put pressure on policies to ensure that they do not contravene a personal right to housing.
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 include 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.
We reached out to Paul Slater from Northwest Community Group after one of our community members introduced us to ask him if he would become our lead petitioner. Paul and Beau from Nourish Street, have been at the frontline of homelessness in Brisbane, providing direct support to people sleeping rough. They recently went to the Queensland Supreme Court and were granted an injunction against Moreton Bay City Council’s forced evictions in Kallangur. They will return to court in November. In the meantime, we are asking Queensland residents to petition the Queensland State Government to include housing in the Human Rights Act 2019.
Below is what we are asking. Here is the link to the petition. Please sign and share widely. In this escalating housing crisis, housing should be a human right.
Recognising Housing As A Human Right in Queensland.
Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the growing housing crisis across the state, with over 2,400 people sleeping rough in Brisbane City alone according to the 2024–25 Brisbane Zero Snapshot.
This number has grown with councils like Brisbane City and Moreton Bay taking punitive actions causing significant stress amongst people sleeping rough without the support services to help get people off the street.
Despite this, the Human Rights Act 2019 does not recognise housing as a human right. While it provides protections for health, education, privacy, and family, these rights fall apart when someone has no roof over their head.
Your petitioners therefore request the House to:
recognise that every Queenslander has the right to a safe and secure place to live
Amend the Human Rights Act 2019 to include the right to adequate housing - including rental and social housing - in line with international human rights obligations.
Petition link
What does it mean to have housing as a human right?
When housing is included in the Act each arm of government to act compatibly with this human right. Parliment must consider housing as a right when proposing and scrutinising new laws. Courts and tribunals, as far as possible, must interpret legislation in a way that is compatible with the right, and public entities such as local councils, state schools, police and government departments must also act compatibly with this right.