EVICT Talk with Dr. Michelle Oren & Prof. Rachelle Alterman – The Right to Adequate Housing Around the Globe

December 16, 2021

The Right to Adequate Housing Around the Globe

Oren and Alterman’s recent book chapter presents some of the findings from their worldwide content analysis of clauses pertaining (explicitly) to housing within national constitutions. The chapter analyzes and compares the various forms in which housing rights are articulated in the wording of each constitution.  Then, these are evaluated according to the Adequate Housing CRITERIA set out by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) General Comment No. 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (Art. 11 (1) of the Covenant), that is regarded as the most authoritative international legal interpretation of “adequate housing”.

The purpose of the analysis is to stimulate cross-national discussion of the role of constitutional housing rights in guiding housing law and policy within each country’s legal context.

Oren, Michelle and Alterman, Rachelle, The Right to Adequate Housing Around the Globe: Analysis and Evaluation of National Constitutions (November 24, 2020). Sandeep Agrawal, Ed. 2022. Rights and the city: Problems, progress and practice , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3737155

About the speakers

Rachelle Alterman is professor emerita (non-retired) of planning and law at The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and Senior Researcher at the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research.

Dr. Michelle Oren is a postdoctoral fellow at Bar-Ilan University. Her doctoral dissertation is entitled “The Constitutional Right to Housing: a public policy approach” completed at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.

The EVICT Monthly Talk Series takes place every third Thursday of the month. For the next talk, please see our event page for further information.