The Right to Adequate Housing: From Practice to Policy to Practice

The lecture traced the evolution of the Right to Adequate Housing since the early 1990’s concentrating on the work done by civil society campaigns and movements around the world and their influence on the interpretation of this critical human right at the UN human rights bodies. The lecture also summarized the many obstacles that impede the implementation of this well articulated human right, including the impact of the current economic crisis in many regions of the world. Mr. Kothari used his experience as a civil society scholar/activist for the past 25 years and as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing (from 2000-2008) to also elaborate on the nature of the recommendations that have emerged from the United Nations, including the need for radical changes that are necessary at social, political and economic levels, to ensure the realisation of the Right to Adequate Housing.