Housing Rights - The New Benchmarks for Housing Policy in Europe?

Abstract:     
Rights to housing are regularly proposed as the solution to poor housing and homelessness by advocates and campaigning organizations. This approach is viewed as having the international acclaim and legal clarity to transcend political wrangling, resource deficiancies, programmatic and policy conflicts, and theoretical dissonance in housing approaches. Implementation of housing rights is obliged and promoted within both a programmatic approach, as well as a violations and remedies approach (opportunities for litigation in the event of breaches). There are, however, important contextual issues for the development of housing rights within industrial economies with hegemonic housing market ideologies and developed welfare systems, especially in European countries. The article examines the nature and extent of housing rights as emanating from United Nations, Council of Europe and European Union instruments, laws and precedents.

Keywords: housing rights, Council of Europe, European Union, human rights, international law, housing

JEL Classification: K 10, K 33, L 50, O 20, R 14,

Accepted Paper Series