UN Human Rights Council to Review U.S. Tomorrow

Experts Identify Affordable Housing as Key Issue

Press Type: Press Release   Associated Program: Human Rights

Released: 11/2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE               
November 4, 2010

UN to Review Status of Human Rights in U.S.
Experts Identify Affordable Housing as Key Issue

When: Friday, November 5, 2010

Where: The United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland

What: Universal Periodic Review of the United States

On Friday, the United States will undergo its first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council.  The U.S. will answer direct questions from the Council and other UN member nations about its human rights policy, including the failure to ensure Americans right to housing.  Following the review, there will be a press conference with housing and human rights experts, as well as a town hall meeting with representatives from the United States.

Agenda:
The press is welcome to attend the following:

2:00  2:30  Press Conference

ACANU Library - Press Room 2

Panel:

           Ajamu Baraka, US Human Rights Network
           Jamil Dakwar, American Civil Liberties Union
           Risa Kaufman, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute

 Available for Q&A:
           Salvador Reza, National Day Laborers Organizing Network
           Eric Tars, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty

3:30  5:00  Town Hall Meeting
Room XXVIII

The U.S. government delegation will take questions on the UPR and human rights policy from the media, advocates, and others.  The delegation includes Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner, as well as State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh.

Background:

The Universal Periodic Review process holds all UN member nations accountable to international human rights standards, which clearly state that housing is a basic human right.  Each country is reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council every four years.

Last spring, as it prepared its report for the UPR, the U.S. State Department held consultations with advocates and experts across the country.  Housing rights violations were featured prominently in these discussions, as millions of Americans are sliding into poverty and homelessness. Advocates urged that federal intervention is necessary to ensure domestic housing rights.  This echoed the March 2010 report of the UNs top housing rights expert, Raquel Rolnik, who observed that the U.S. has been cutting public housing funding for years.

In response, a coalition of over 60 national and local housing organizations, coordinated by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, delivered concrete recommendations for ensuring Americans housing rights, including increasing funding for new public housing and using vacant federal properties to provide temporary housing for homeless people.

The Human Rights Council will take the testimony of the U.S., as well as the recommendations of Ms. Rolnik and the housing coalition, into account when it prepares its final report on U.S. compliance with human rights standards.

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The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty's mission is to prevent and end homelessness by serving as the legal arm of the national movement.  To achieve its mission, the Law Center pursues three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education.

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