International Human Rights and Strategies to Address Homelessness and Poverty in Canada: Making the Connection

Abstract

International human rights law has evolved from a system that considered social and economic rights as non-justiciable, to a more unified approach that recognizes the need for adjudication and remedy when socio-economic rights are violated. This paper is the first part of a two-part research project that considers what this new paradigm of social rights means for the design and implementation of programs and strategies to address poverty and homelessness, particularly in Canada. The paper reviews the international law sources of substantive and procedural rights that are relevant to poverty reduction and housing strategies. It describes how advocacy organizations have increasingly identified and challenged conditions of inequality and deprivation for Canadians in poverty within the international human rights framework, and it concludes that Canada needs better domestic procedures to hold all levels of government accountable for implementing the right to adequate housing and the right to an adequate standard of living in Canada.

Keywords: international human rights law, social rights, anti-poverty, housing, Canadian law