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	Voices of society’s most disadvantaged must be heard to achieve sustainable development by Irene Khan, Ian Fry, Farida Shaheed UN Office for Human Rights (OHCHR)   Oct. 2023   UN expert urges action to end global affordable housing crisis   A UN expert has warned of a severe affordable housing crisis, despite housing being a fundamental human right long recognised under international law.   “The world is grappling with a situation where more and more people are unable to afford their housing costs. Millions lack the financial means to access safe, secure and habitable housing,” said Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing.   In his report to the UN General Assembly, the expert stressed that thousands of people are evicted every day simply because they cannot pay their housing costs, contributing to rising homelessness.   He noted that a staggering 1.6 billion people around the world lack adequate housing and basic services, with projections that this could rise to 3 billion by 2030. It is estimated that 100 million people worldwide are homeless.   “States, intergovernmental organisations and institutions should make more concerted efforts to address the underlying causes of housing unaffordability,” Rajagopal said. He pointed to several causes, including housing financialisaton, lack of local government authority, and weak tax policies.   In his report, the Special Rapporteur highlighted the ripple effects that occur when people are unable to afford housing, putting their well-being and physical and mental health at risk. “When their rights to security of tenure, livelihoods and access to energy, safe water and sanitation are weakened, it ultimately violates the right to a life in dignity,” Rajagopal said.   The expert outlined concrete steps that States can take to achieve the goal of affordable housing for all. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to ensuring affordable housing for all, and States should choose options that best suit their specific needs and circumstances,” he said.   “Inclusive participation can tailor responses to different needs,” Rajagopal said. He stressed the importance of pursuing policy and institutional options that hold the promise of better outcomes, including co-housing, land banks, and rent regulation.   The Special Rapporteur warned that the affordable housing crisis does not affect everyone equally, but falls disproportionately on vulnerable groups who already face discrimination.   He urged States to recognise affordability as an integral part of the right to adequate housing in their national or constitutional law, which is lacking in most cases.   “As a global call to action to counteract and prevent the negative effects of the escalating trend towards unaffordable housing, this report should serve as a major catalyst for achieving affordable housing for all,” the expert said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-expert-urges-action-end-global-affordable-housing-crisis   June 2023   Closing the gap between the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals to leave no one behind and its realisation on the ground, requires urgent action to reinforce respect for freedom of opinion and expression, says Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.   “If development is to be meaningful, then the voices of the most disadvantaged in society must be heard and heeded, and civil society and media must be free to hold the powerful to account,” Khan said in her report on freedom of expression and sustainable development to the Human Rights Council.   “Those who dare to speak truth to power or shine the light on human rights violations, illicit financial flows, tax evasion, corruption and illegal exploitation of natural resources are being gagged, threatened, prosecuted, attacked or killed with impunity,” Khan said.   “Laws on access to information have been widely adopted but requests for information are often denied because of a culture of official secrecy, serious gaps in the scope and implementation of the laws, lack of capacity and resources, a tokenistic approach to participation and uneven access to the Internet,” she said.   “New technologies are creating new inequalities, disproportionately affecting women and girls, Indigenous communities, the poor and the marginalised,” she warned.   The connectivity of those who are already well connected is being enhanced while billions who could have been connected for a fraction of that sum were left unconnected, Khan said.   Khan underscored the value that free flow of information and public debate bring to sustainable development. “They empower individuals, promote accountability, allow Governments to be better informed and more responsive to the needs of their people, and make markets more efficient, generating social and economic dividends,” the expert said.   She urged States to follow good practices of multistakeholder partnerships to build transparency and trust, media freedom to enable reporting on corruption and wrongdoing, and civic space to promote meaningful engagement with communities.   The expert called on companies, including the digital technology sector, to undertake human rights due diligence across their value chain and disclose the impact of their activities on human rights and sustainability.   “As world leaders prepare for the High-Level Summit on Sustainable Development in September, States which most vocally support the Sustainable Development Goals must come forward to invest more heavily in the rights to expression, information and participation that the 2030 Agenda so clearly endorses,” Khan said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/06/voices-societys-most-disadvantaged-must-be-heard-and-heeded-achieve   June 2023   UN expert calls for full legal protection for people displaced by climate change   A UN expert today called for full legal protection for people displaced by the impacts of climate change in order to guarantee their human rights.   “The effects of climate change are becoming more severe, and the number of people displaced across international borders is rapidly increasing,” said Ian Fry, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the context of climate change.   “In 2020 alone, 30.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to weather-related events. Droughts were the main factor,” Fry said in his latest in his latest thematic report to the Human Rights Council. “We must take immediate steps to give legal protection to these people.”   The Special Rapporteur said that people displaced by climate change face multiple human rights violations including of their rights to food, water, sanitation, housing, health, education and, for some, their right to life.   “The human rights implications of climate change displacement, in particular across international borders, are significant and truly disturbing,” the expert said.   He called it “profoundly worrying” that large numbers of people displaced across borders die or go missing every year at both land and sea borders. More than 50,000 lost their lives during migratory movements between 2014 and 2022, Fry’s report said.   “It is equally shocking to note that more than half of those deaths occurred on routes to and within Europe, including in the Mediterranean Sea,” he said.   According to the Special Rapporteur, displacement due to climate change can result from different types of situations, from sudden to slow progressing events like sea level rise or droughts.   Most people affected by these events are forced to move. Women and children being the most impacted by disasters and the effects of climate change, also make up for the majority of displaced people.   “The international community must realise its responsibility to protect people displaced across borders by climate change impacts,” the expert said.   Fry explained that the world was not operating in a total vacuum in terms of legal protection of people displaced due to climate change. He said there were several international human rights safeguards to address the issue.   “The Human Rights Council should prepare a resolution for submission to the UN General Assembly urging the body to develop an optional protocol under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to address displacement and legal protection for people all over the world affected by the climate crisis,” the expert said.   “Until then, I urge all nations to develop national legislation to provide humanitarian visas for persons displaced across international borders due to climate change, as an interim measure,” he said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/06/un-expert-calls-full-legal-protection-people-displaced-climate-change   June 2023   53rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed   Education is a human right - Joint Statement on children’s education   I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Dominican Republic, Luxembourg, and a group of 64 other countries.   Everyone has the right to education: it is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which we commemorate the 75th anniversary, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other core human rights instruments.   Regrettably, worldwide, 244 million children and young persons are not getting an education for social, economic and cultural reasons.   The cost of education remains a significant barrier, disproportionately affecting children and adolescents from low-income families, girls, children with disabilities and school age persons in vulnerable situations. Conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the global education crisis.   Furthermore, 4 out of 10 children and young persons do not complete secondary school and nearly half of all children of the world are not enrolled in pre-primary education. A vast majority of countries have not achieved gender parity in secondary education.   Education is a human right and plays a crucial role in the fight against inequality and for the consolidation of sustainable development.   Today, we call on all Member States to guarantee access to free, quality, and inclusive education for all children from pre-school through secondary school, and ensure its adequate funding.   We support efforts to strengthen the right to education, including the explicit right to full free secondary and at least one year of free pre-primary education.   * Joint Statement: http://tinyurl.com/5yvrw3c7   * Securing the right to education: advances and critical challenges - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed   In her first report to the Human Rights Council, 25 years after the establishment of the mandate on the right to education, the Special Rapporteur reviews achievements, particularly on how the right to education is understood today and the obligations it entails, as well as contemporary and emerging issues that need to be considered to ensure the right to education for all, today and in the future.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5327-securing-right-education-advances-and-critical-challenges http://gi-escr.org/en/our-work/on-the-ground/statement-in-support-of-un-special-rapporteur-on-the-right-to-educations-new-report-at-hrc-53 http://gi-escr.org/en/education http://www.abidjanprinciples.org/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/28/more-70-countries-pledge-strengthen-right-free-education http://www.right-to-education.org/news/joint-declaration-academic-freedom-made-73-states-recognises-abidjan-principles http://www.ei-ie.org/en/workarea/1312:fighting-the-commercialisation-of-education http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-education/privatisation-and-commodification-education http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-education/annual-thematic-reports Visit the related web page
	Attacks on health care have a devastating impact on people already suffering from war by Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition   June 2023   A new report published by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) documents 1,989 attacks and threats against health care facilities and personnel across 32 countries and territories in armed conflict and situations of political violence throughout 2022.   The reported figure represents the most severe year of attacks against health care in the last decade globally. Over half of all attacks were reported in just two countries, Ukraine and Myanmar. The report identifies more than 750 attacks perpetrated by the Russian Federation on health care in Ukraine alone–the most committed in a single year in one country.   “Over the last year, we identified a 45% increase in reported incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in conflict zones as compared to 2021,” said Christina Wille, director of Insecurity Insight, which led the data collection and analysis for the report.   “Health workers have been systematically targeted with violence, killed, arrested and kidnapped while health facilities have been destroyed with explosive weapons and robbed of essential medicine and equipment.”   Of these violent incidents, the report identifies: 1,989 total reported incidents of violence against health facilities and health workers; 704 incidents where health facilities were destroyed or damaged; 232 health workers killed; 298 health workers kidnapped; 294 health workers arrested.   Despite the alarmingly high global rates of reported attacks on health, the number of violent incidents documented in the report is likely an undercount due to difficulties of data collection given insecurity, communication blockages, and fear of retaliation for reporting.   “Some of these assaults are well-known and frequently reported, especially the bombing and shelling of hospitals and clinics,” said Leonard Rubenstein, chair of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “But less visible acts, like attacks on vaccinators in seven countries, deprive millions of children protection from measles, polio and other diseases, as vaccination campaigns have to be suspended.”   Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the report documents 782 violent incidents against health throughout the first 10 months of the conflict alone, many attributed to the destruction of the health infrastructure, shooting at ambulances and deaths of health workers.   In Myanmar, at least 271 violent incidents have been reported since the February 2021 coup d’etat by Myanmar’s junta, in which health workers were arrested or brutally killed for caring for wounded and bombing of health facilities.   “The assaults have a devastating impact on the availability of health care to people already suffering from war. As health systems are destroyed, health workers flee, and essential supplies and medication are looted, severing access to health for years after attacks take place,” added Wille.   “The far-reaching impacts of attacks on health are as disturbing as their frequency. Health workers were arrested and killed in countries where political instability has endured, including Iran, Myanmar and Sudan.   In protracted conflicts in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, the occupied Palestinian territory and Yemen, the report found severely high rates of attacks on health. Across the wider Sahel, the report also reveals how insecurity for health care providers has been growing as the humanitarian space has been shrinking.   “The suffering patients and health workers endure from these war crimes cannot be undone, but accountability for the attacks can bring them a measure of justice. Global attention to Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine must become an inflection point in prosecuting the perpetrators of these crimes there and everywhere,” added Rubenstein.   The report makes a series of pointed recommendations to the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC), UN Secretary General, legislators of UN member states, the World Health Organization (WHO), and medical, nursing, and public health organizations. Specifically, the Coalition calls on these entities to:   End impunity through prioritizing prosecutions of war crimes and attacks on health. Strengthen prevention against the obstruction and prevention of the delivery of health care through reform of law and military doctrine and training and restrictions on arms transfers.   Reform the World Health Organization’s system for collecting and disseminating data on attacks on health care. Strengthen global, regional and domestic leadership on the protection of health care across states and UN bodies. Support health workers through ministries of health, UN member states, donors, and health organizations.   “When one doctor is killed or a hospital bombed, thousands of patients are deprived of health care,” said Erika Dailey, director of advocacy and policy at Physicians for Human Rights.   “The way to protect the right to health is to ensure that these critical civilian resources are fully protected under the law. If these devastating, cascading harms are to be stopped, perpetrators must be held criminally accountable.”   * The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition is a group of more than 40 organizations working to protect health workers and services threatened by war or civil unrest.   http://safeguarding-health.com/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2024/05/international-community-urged-to-end-impunity-for-violence-against-healthcare-in-conflicts/ http://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/attacks-on-health-are-becoming-the-new-reality--we-must-stop-this-becoming-the-norm http://phr.org/news/2022-marks-most-violent-year-against-health-workers-and-facilities-in-conflicts-in-the-last-decade-report/ http://insecurityinsight.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/SHCC-Report-Ignoring-Red-Lines.pdf http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01115-7/fulltext http://www.msf.org/attacks-medical-care http://www.globalr2p.org/resources/resolution-2286-protection-of-civilians-s-res-2286 Visit the related web page
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