Homelessness, Human Rights, Litigation and Law Reform: A View from Canada

10 Austl J H R133, 2004

37 Pages Posted: 20 Aug 2014

See all articles by Bruce Porter

Bruce Porter

Social Rights Advocacy Centre

Date Written: 2004

Abstract

Although Canada has played an important role on the international stage in advocating for access to housing as a fundamental human right, Canada's international support for the human right to housing is increasingly at odds with its domestic policy and legislation. Since 1990 the rate of homelessness has risen to the point of being declared a “national disaster” in Canada’s largest cities. Given Canada's affluence, violations of the right to adequate housing in Canada are clearly the result of explicit legislative choices rather than a lack of resources.

As Canada has been subjected to increasingly severe criticism for its domestic policies with respect to the human right to housing and other social and economic rights, it has begun to abandon its historic role on the international stage in promoting social and economic rights. Despite findings in Canadian and other domestic courts that substantive claims to the right to adequate housing are justiciable, Canada has argued in international fora that economic, social and cultural rights such as the right to housing are vague, uncertain, and not appropriate for litigation. The devaluing of the right to housing in comparison to other rights in Canada is directly linked to the rise of homelessness and to the discriminatory assault on the equal citizenship of Aboriginal people, women and other groups most at risk of homelessness. Homelessness and the housing crisis in Canada is very much a crisis of human rights, and must be addressed as such.

The housing and resultant human rights crisis in Canada is part of a larger global crisis. The massive regressive structural changes implemented in Canada in 1994-95 were components of global structural adjustment policies. In response to pressures of globalisation, a more global perspective on human rights has challenged Canada's complacency regarding its denial of equal housing. Domestic and international advocacy must continue to be interconnected and must advance on both fronts in order to succeed in claiming and enforcing the human right to adequate housing.

Keywords: housing, poverty, human rights, Canada, international, social rights, economic rights, litigation, advocacy

Suggested Citation

Porter, Bruce, Homelessness, Human Rights, Litigation and Law Reform: A View from Canada (2004). 10 Austl J H R133, 2004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2483396

Bruce Porter (Contact Author)

Social Rights Advocacy Centre ( email )

Canada

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