Questionnaire on women and adequate housing The purpose of this questionnaire is to solicit information from States, local authorities, civil society and other stakeholders for the preparation of a study on the topic of women and housing, which the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing will be submitting to the Commission on Human Rights in 2003 pursuant to its resolution 2002/49 entitled "Women's equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own property and to adequate housing". In developing this questionnaire, particular attention was made to the human rights principle of non-discrimination and the indivisibility of all human rights as articulated in his reports. The questionnaire is divided into two parts: the first part addresses general legal and policy framework; and the second part attempts to seek inputs on various elements and related issues concerning women and adequate housing, which are largely based on the General Comments No. 4 and No. 7 adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights but also reflect further developments in the recognition and interpretation of the entitlements of the right to adequate housing. Responses to this questionnaire will complement the analysis of a wide range of available literatures, materials and testimonies received. The report will also use information collected in the report by the Secretary-General (E/CN.4/2002/53), which was submitted to the Commission in 2002 in accordance with the previous resolution 2001/34. This questionnaire and responses received will also be used to guide the discussions at regional consultations and preparation of case studies and testimonies which the Special Rapporteur plans to undertake in 2002-2003. Due to limited capacity for translation, it is strongly encouraged that submissions will be made in English, and in electronic format to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the following address: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Attn: Mr. Rio Hada, Focal point on housing rights) Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland Fax: + 41 22 917 9010; E-mail: rhada.hchr@unog.ch The deadline for submission of response is 15 October 2002. Questions on general legal and policy framework Q1. Please provide information on relevant national legislation with regard to housing and related services. Please also specify whether the right to adequate housing is recognized in the Constitution or guaranteed in specific legislation. Q2. Does the Constitution provide that the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention on the All Forms of Discrimination against Women or other international human rights treaties which guarantee the right to housing, form a part of national law and have domestic applicability? Is there an effective judicial review process to ensure consistency of legislation with relevant provisions of the international human rights treaties, particularly those which specifically protect women's right to adequate housing? Q3. How do laws, policies and practices, through existing institutions (both formal and customary and traditional norms and practices), budgets and programs, ensure gender equality in the various entitlements of the right to adequate housing, including land, access to finance, civic services and information? Q4. What is your assessment of the housing situation of women belonging to particularly vulnerable groups, such as female-headed households, indigenous and tribal women, women with HIV/AIDS, women with disability, rural women living on subsistent farming, women victims of forced evictions or domestic violence, refugees and internally displaced women? Do they have access to justice and legal remedies? Please share case studies and testimonies where available. Q5. What are historical, traditional, cultural, religious and other factors affecting the equal access of women to housing, land and related services? Q6. How have the policies and processes of globalisation such as trade, finance, investment and debt affected women's right to adequate housing and access to related services? Q7. How have the women's right to adequate housing and access to related services been addressed in poverty reduction strategy and programmes in your country? Q8. Please share positive examples or "best practices" whereby Governments and civil society have endeavoured, separately or jointly, to protect and promote women's equal right to adequate housing. Q9. Please provide gender-disaggregated statistics on housing (urban/rural, forms of ownership, female-headed households, homelessness, access to basic services etc). Questions on specific elements of the right to adequate housing (a) Legal security of tenure: The legal right to secure tenure, whether freehold, leasehold, or other form of individual and collective rights to housing, involves protection from forced eviction, harassment and other threats. It also effectively guarantees access to, use of and control over land, property and housing resources. Q10. Do women and men enjoy equal tenure and property rights regardless of their civil status? How does the Government guarantee such security of tenure to women? What measures have been adopted to give full protection against forced eviction, based upon effective participation, consultation and negotiation with affected persons or groups? (b) Access to public goods and services: The right to adequate housing cannot be effectively realized without access to public goods and services, including, water, health-care, transport, fuel, sanitation, lighting and electricity, sewerage and waste disposal. Q11. What policies and measures have been adopted by the Government to provide or regulate such services to meet the needs of the community? Do women and female-headed households enjoy equal access to such services? Are the basic services privatized? If so, are there subsidies and/or different pricing mechanisms designed to ensure affordable access by the poor? (c) Access to land, water and other natural resources: Every community must have access to natural resources necessary for its survival and livelihood, including, inter alia, fuel, fodder, water and building materials. Q12. What are the laws, policies and measures adopted to ensure equitable distribution of land with emphasis on the gender equality and provision of necessary resources for poor households and other marginalized and vulnerable groups? Have land reforms, both urban and rural, been implemented to ensure its fair distribution as a public good? What steps have been taken to respect the housing rights of land-based indigenous and tribal peoples in general and women within these groups in particular? Q13. Do women and female-headed households have equal access to natural resources sufficient to their needs, including, inter alia, land, water, building materials, fuel and fodder? What measures have been adopted by the State to effectively regulate distribution and ensure the accessibility and affordability of such resources for women and female-headed households, including through subsidies? Q14. What measures have been adopted to ensure that clean and safe water is reliably accessible and provided in adequate supply for individual, family and community use? Do women enjoy equal access to safe drinking water and to water for agricultural or other domestic use? (d) Affordability: Individuals and communities should have access to affordable housing and must have the corresponding right to livelihood so as to be able to afford decent housing. Q15. Do women enjoy equal access to housing finance? What policies and measures have been adopted by the State, including through subsidies, tax incentives or market regulation, to ensure affordability of housing particularly for women and female-headed households? Is there a national definition of "affordability" of housing (e.g. a maximum of one-third of any household income be required to obtain adequate housing)? (e) Habitability: Adequate housing must provide needed space to live in dignity and peace. It must also provide protection from natural elements, structural hazards and disease vectors that are threats to physical well-being. The physical conditions of the home can affect the realisation of other rights, including the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health, as well as education, whereas the lack of conditions are not conducive to learning (especially for children). Q16. How do laws and policies that regulate the habitability of housing or define the habitability aspect of adequate housing, take into consideration special needs of women? Q17. What laws and policies have been adopted to regulate environmental degradation and to guarantee the right to a safe environment? (f) Physical accessibility: Disadvantaged communities and groups which often include women and female-headed households, must be allowed full and sustainable access to adequate housing and resources, including land, infrastructure and sources of livelihood and the state must take account of special housing needs. Q18. What measures and policies have been adopted to guarantee equality of access to adequate housing for women and female-headed households and other disadvantaged groups within communities (e.g. battered women, women with HIV/AIDS, women with disability, indigenous women, refugees and internally displaced)? (g) Location: Adequate housing must be in a place that enables access to employment, primary health-care, education and other social services and civic amenities. The financial and temporal cost of transport must not place excessive financial and other demands on the household. In addition, both rural and urban housing must be in a location that is safe, particularly from environmental hazards and pollutants. Q19. Do women face any particular constraints in accessing services and resources necessary for livelihood because of where they live? What are the policies and measures adopted to alleviate them? (h) Cultural adequacy: Housing configuration, spatial design and site/community organization should be determined locally and in harmony with a community's cultural preferences and attributes. Q20. Are women from all cultural, ethnic, religious or other background enabled to express cultural diversity and to participate in the planning process (see questions 23 and 24 below)? You are encouraged to share such cases and examples. (i) Freedom from dispossession, damage and destruction: Each individual and community has a right to a place to live without threat of removal from land, all forms of property, homes, resources, and all individual and collective holdings required to sustain livelihood. Q21. Does the State effectively safeguard the right not to be subjected to arbitrary interference of privacy, household, personal, and dispossession of land? What are the policies and measures adopted to protect women including female-headed households and what compensation, resettlement or provision for restitution is made where dispossession takes place? (j) Access to information: Individuals and communities must have access to appropriate data, documents and intellectual resources that impact upon their right to obtain adequate housing. Having access to appropriate data means being informed about potential industrial and natural hazards, infrastructure, planning design, availability of services and natural resources and other factors that affect the right. Q22. What laws and policies exist to facilitate access to information that impacts upon the right to adequate housing, including information about potential industrial and natural hazards, infrastructure, planning design, availability of services and natural resources? Are women regularly accessing such information and benefiting from it? (k) Participation: Effective participation in decision-making is essential to the fulfillment of all other rights, as well as the elements of the right to housing. At all levels of the decision-making process in respect of the provision of and right to adequate housing, individuals and communities must be able to express and share their views, they must be consulted and be able to contribute substantively to such processes that affect housing, including, inter alia, location, spatial dimensions, links to community, social capital and livelihood, housing configuration and other practical features. The state must ensure that building and housing laws and policies to not preclude free expression, including cultural and religious diversity. Q23. What policies and measures are adopted to ensure/encourage popular participation in decision-making process with regard to housing policies and planning? Are women sufficiently represented in the process? Q24. Do the housing laws and policies expressly protect, promote and fulfil the right to freedom of expression to ensure harmonious and effective design, implementation and maintenance of the community? (l) Resettlement, restitution, compensation, non-refoulement and return: Resettlement may be essential to survival in the case of natural or human-made disaster. Therefore, the congruent right to freedom of movement can be essential to the fulfillment of all other rights. Any resettlement arrangement, whatever the cause, must be consensual, fair and adequate to meet individual and collective needs. Q25. Are there special measures adopted in resettlement process that recognizes the need of women and female-headed households to sufficient access to the sources of livelihood, productive land, infrastructure, social services and civic amenities, as well as fair and adequate restitution and/or compensation for losses? (m) Privacy and security: Every woman, man, youth and child has the right to live and conduct her/his private life in a secure place and be protected from threats or acts that compromise their mental and/or physical well-being or integrity. Q26. What measures have been adopted to ensure physical security and personal privacy of women, including preventing domestic violence? (n) Access to remedies: Provision of domestic legal and other remedies is an important part of protecting the right to adequate housing. Individuals and groups must be protected from abuse by landlords, property developers, landowners or any other third party capable of abusing their rights. Where such infringements do occur, public authorities should act to preclude further deprivations as well as guaranteeing access to judicial redress including legal and equitable remedies for any infringement caused. Q27. Are there remedies and legal aid available for women? What are the measures adopted to ensure equal access of women to judicial process and remedies? Are there other innovative mechanisms such as self-help groups and women's collectives that can facilitate women's access to housing and livelihood? (o) Education and empowerment: Individuals and communities should have access to technical assistance and other means to enable them to improve their living standards and fully realise their economic, cultural and social rights and development potential. The State, for its part, should endeavour to promote and provide for catalysts and mechanisms for the same, including efforts to ensure that all citizens are aware of procedural measures available toward defending and realizing her/his right to adequate housing. Human rights education is a key part of such empowerment strategy. What has been achieved in terms of building capacities and awareness on the right to adequate housing among women in your country? What is your assessment of remaining needs and challenges?