1. The European Committee for Social Cohesion (CDCS)
gave the following Terms of Reference to the Group of Specialists on Access
to Housing (CS-LO):
2. It emerged from the work done in the
framework of the Project on Human Dignity and Social Exclusion (HDSE) that
giving vulnerable groups access to housing and enabling them to retain it
are challenges for all Council of Europe member States. Housing has a
special place in the European Social Charter and the revised European Social
Charter. Article 16 of the European Social Charter provides for the
protection of family life through the provision of family housing and
Article 19 § 4 guarantees to migrant workers a treatment by the contracting
party not less favourable than that of their own nationals with regard to
their accommodation. Article 4 of the Protocol stipulates that elderly
persons should be provided with housing suited to their needs and their
state of health or with adequate support for adapting their housing. Article
31 of the Revised European Social Charter recognises the right to housing.
The newly established Specialist Group shall therefore:
a. Take stock of existing work in the field of access to
housing by the Council of Europe (…) and other bodies;
b. Starting from policy issues identified by the HDSE Project
and results of other Council of Europe activities, make proposals on how to:
- respond to emergencies
- prevent evictions and, if necessary, ensure rehousing
- maintain and expand the supply of quality housing
- meet specific needs of vulnerable groups including the
homeless, refugees and migrants
- draw up area-based policies (town planning, urban policy,
regeneration of the countryside);
c. Make proposals with regard to comparative research on the
housing dimension of social exclusion and the exchange of information on
good practice;
d. Promote networking and exchange of experience between
practitioners in the various fields of housing policy.
e. Develop policy guidelines on facilitating access to
housing, with a view to preparing a recommendation.
3. The detailed terms of reference of the Group
of Specialists on Access to Housing (CS-LO), reproduced in Appendix I,
expire on 31 December 2001.
4. TheGroup of Specialists on Access to Housing
(CS-LO) has held 6 meetings in Strasbourg on the following dates:
1st
meeting : 8-9 June1999
2nd
meeting : 6-8 December 1999
3rd
meeting : 24-26 May 2000
4th
meeting : 11-13 December 2000
5th
meeting : 23-25 April 2001
6th
meeting : 11-12 October 2001
5.
The first five meetings were chaired by Mr Antonio MONTEIRO MESQUITA
(Portugal), the sixth meeting was chaired by the CS-LO’s Vice-Chairperson,
Ms Srna MANDIC (Slovenia). Mr Henri MOREAU (Belgium) was elected
Vice-Chairperson for the sixth meeting The list of participants at the
meetings of CS-LO is to be found in Appendix II.
6.
At its first meeting (Strasbourg, 8-9 June 1999), the CS-LO
- examined a background paper on Access to Housing by Dr. Dragana Avramov
(consultant) and various other documents which had resulted from the HDSE
Project and contained sections concerning housing, thus taking stock of
existing work in the field of access to housing by the Council of Europe and
other bodies ;
- held an extensive exchange of views
on its Terms of Reference and on ways to fulfil the mandate contained
therein, welcoming the fact that a number of non-governmental experts were
integrated fully into the work of the CS-LO Group;
- decided, in order to create a forum for CS-LO members for a regular
exchange of experience and policy practice, that a part of each meeting
should be devoted to the discussion of a specific theme, in accordance with
the principal themes listed in the Terms of Reference (cf. paragraph 4 b. of
the terms of reference).
7. At its second
meeting (Strasbourg, 8-9 December 1999), the CS-LO
- heard and discussed national contributions on the specific theme
“Policies to prevent evictions and, if necessary, ensure re-housing”;
- adopted a programme of work, agreeing that it would concentrate on
access to housing for disadvantaged groups, rather than on general housing
policies;
- decided to prepare a questionnaire for the attention of all Council
of Europe member and observer States in order to obtain more information on
the housing conditions of disadvantaged groups in Europe;
- agreed that the questionnaire should request, inter alia,
examples of national good policy practice on access to housing for
disadvantaged categories of persons.
8. At its third
meeting (Strasbourg, 24-26 May 2000), the CS-LO
-heard
and discussed national contributions on the specific theme “Policies to
respond to housing emergencies”;
-
discussed the draft questionnaire which had been prepared and revised by the
Consultant and the Secretariat in accordance with comments from the Group;
-
considered the draft questionnaire paragraph by paragraph, had an extensive
debate on the key concepts, and asked the Secretariat and the consultant to
prepare a final draft questionnaire based on the debate and send a revised
draft to the Group for comments before finalising the questionnaire;
-
considered different ways of distributing the questionnaire, and agreed that
six questionnaires should be sent to each Council of Europe member and
observer State, i.e. one questionnaire to the central authorities, two to
local authorities - preferably of the capital city and a rural area - or
regional authorities, and three to voluntary organisations/research
institutes working in the field of housing. Questionnaires would be sent
directly to all the above-mentioned bodies and returned directly to the
Secretariat. The questionnaire is reproduced in Appendix III of the present
document.
9. At its fourth
meeting (Strasbourg, 11-13 December 2000), the CS-LO -devoted one half day to the discussion of a specific theme. This
time, the theme was "Policies to maintain and expand the supply of quality
housing";
-was informed by the Chairman and the Secretariat on the meeting of 18
September 2000 of the Chairpersons of the different committees on “Access to
Social Rights” with the Bureau of the CDCS; -
approved a change of consultant (Mr Ivan Tosics, an independent Hungarian
housing researcher), to replace the previous consultant, Mr
Alistair C. Blunt, who was unable to continue working
with the CS-LO further to his acceptance of a full time and long-term
consultancy in Kirgistan, Central Asia; -noted that out of a total of 264 questionnaires, 77 had
been completed and sent back to the Secretariat. Replies were received from
30 member States. The response rate was highest from national ministries:
Replies were received from 27 countries. Replies by NGOs were received from
20 countries. The response rate from local/regional authorities was,
unfortunately, very low: Only 13 replies were received. -undertook a preliminary analysis of replies to the
questionnaire on “Access to Housing for disadvantaged categories of
persons”;
-held an extensive exchange of views on priority themes for the policy
guidelines on Access to housing for disadvantaged categories of persons.
10.
At its fifth meeting (Strasbourg, 23-25 April 2001), the CS-LO
-examined the draft report on “Access to Housing for disadvantaged
categories of persons”, prepared by the consultant, Mr Iván Tosics. The
CS-LO examined the draft report by splitting up in three working groups. The
findings of the working groups were reported back to the plenary. -considered a set of draft policy guidelines, prepared by the
Secretariat in co-operation with the consultant; -received a report by the Secretariat on the meeting of the
Chairpersons and Consultants of the Committees on Access to Social Rights
(Strasbourg, 23 March 2001);
-held an exchange of views on possible themes for future Council of
Europe work in the field of housing and recommended to the CDCS to initiate
a new activity on the contribution of housing policies to social cohesion
in the year 2002, as a follow-up to the CS-LO;
-discussed its co-operation with the EU and the United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and heard statements by
representatives of the European Commission and UNECE.
11. At its sixth and final meeting (Strasbourg, 11-12 October 2001), the
CS-LO
-
examined and adopted the Policy Guidelines on Access to Housing for
Disadvantaged Categories of Persons;
-
examined and, subject to some final modifications to be made by the
consultants after the meeting, adopted the Report on Access to Housing for
Disadvantaged Categories of Persons as prepared by Iván Tosics and Sándor
Erdösi Jr., Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest (Hungary), with the
contribution of Ms. Srna Mandic (Slovenia);
-
examined and adopted its draft Final Activity Report;
-
instructed the Secretariat to submit the above-mentioned documents to the
CDCS; -examined and held an exchange of views on the draft
Compilation of selected examples of national housing policy measures as
prepared by Ms. Anne Margrethe Kaltenborn Lunde and Mr Yogeswaran Kandiah of
the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development,
and agreed that, after some final modifications, the
document should be made available to the Council of Europe member States
through the members of the CS-LO and the CDCS; -agreed that the written contributions submitted by
members of the CS-LO in the context of the discussion on specific themes
during the different CS-LO meetings are a very helpful resource for the work
of all members of the CS-LO and that these contributions should also be made
available to members of the CDCS upon request.
12. Being aware that it is a strategic objective for the CDCS and a major
component of its strategy for social cohesion to bring together the results of
the different committees on Access to Social Rights, the CS-LO has co-operated
closely with the Group of Specialists on Access to Social Protection (CS-PS)
and the Committee of Experts on Promoting Access to Employment (CS-EM) to
facilitate that work.
13. On 23 March 2001, the Chairman, Consultant and Secretary of the CS-LO
participated in a first co-ordination meeting which had the objective of
launching the new activity and the Editorial Group for the Report on Access to
Social Rights (CS-ASR).
14. The CS-LO notes that the discussion of a specific theme at each
meeting served as a very useful forum for a regular exchange of experience and
policy practice between the members of CS-LO. The written
contributions submitted by members of the CS-LO in the context of the
discussion of these specific themes are a very helpful resource for the work of
all members of the CS-LO. The CS-LO recommends that this practice should
be continued in all future activities on access to social rights.
15. The involvement of NGO representatives in the work of the Group of
Specialists was highly valued by all members of the Group of Specialists on
Access to Housing (CS-LO) and should be continued in all future activities on
access to social rights.
16. In
addition to the policy guidelines on Access to Housing for Disadvantaged
Categories of persons for the attention of member States (cf. Appendix I to the
present document), the CS-LO puts forward a number of recommendations for
possible future housing research and policy development work in the field of
access to housing in part IX of its Policy Guidelines.
17. Also in Part IX of its Policy Guidelines, the CS-LO has made some
recommendations with regard to the work of the new Committee on the
Contribution of Housing Policies to Social Cohesion, which will begin its work
in 2002. The CS-LO hopes in particular that the new Committee will make an
appropriate contribution to the monitoring process of Article 31 of the
Revised European Social Charter on “The Right to Housing”, and devise a
framework for monitoring and evaluating the implementation and impact of the
Guidelines adopted by the CS-LO.
18. The CS-LO is convinced that the results of the work of the CS-LO will provide a
useful input to both the work of the new Committee on the Contribuion of
Housing Policies to Social Cohesion and the Editorial Group for the Report on
Access to Social Rights (CS-ASR).
19.
When it was set up in 1999, the CS-LO entered into a new area of work for the
Council of Europe. At the end of its three year terms of reference, the CS-LO
notes with satisfaction that it has been able to establish its value and that
its work in the field of housing policy has been well received in member
States. Useful contacts with other international bodies and NGOs have also been
established.
20.
The CS-LO is also pleased to note that, as a spin-off from its work,
co-operation and assistance on housing issues and projects has developed both
with member States and through the Council of Europe Development Bank as well
as the Stability Pact for South-East Europe.
21.
Finally, the CS-LO joins the Secretariat in thanking the Norwegian authorities,
and particularly the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, for
the secondment to the Council of Europe of Ms. A.M. Kaltenborn Lunde to assist
in setting up and running the new activities on housing, and Ms. Kaltenborn
Lunde personally for her valuable contribution and her commitment.
22.
The CS-LO, having finalised its work in accordance with its Terms of Reference,
submits a number of documents to the CDCS (cf. section IV below).
- examine and adopt the Policy Guidelines on Access to Housing for
Disadvantaged Categories of Persons (document CS-LO (2001) 26), also
reproduced in Appendix I of the present document) as prepared by the CS-LO
and adopted at its sixth and final meeting (Strasbourg, 11-12 October 2001),
and authorise dissemination of these policy guidelines;
- take note of the report on Access to Housing for Disadvantaged
Categories of Persons (document CS-LO (2001) 17 rev.) as prepared by Iván
Tosics and Sándor Erdösi Jr., Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest
(Hungary), with the contribution of Ms. Srna Mandic (Slovenia), and adopted
by the CS-LO at its sixth and final meeting (Strasbourg, 11-12 October
2001), and agree on a written procedure for approving the public circulation
of the report;
- examine and adopt the present draft Final Activity Report of the
Group of Specialists on Access to Housing (CS-LO);
- take
note, by written procedure, of the Compilation of selected examples of
national housing policy measures as prepared by Ms. Anne Margrethe
Kaltenborn Lunde and Mr Yogeswaran Kandiah of the Norwegian Ministry of
Local Government and Regional Development and authorise the distribution of
the document to Council of Europe member States through the members of the
CS-LO and the CDCS;
- that the written contributions submitted by members of the CS-LO in the
context of the discussion on the specific themes during the different CS-LO
meetings are available for members of the CDCS upon request to the
Secretariat.
1. It emerged from the work done in the framework of the Council of
Europe’s Project on Human Dignity and Social Exclusion (HDSE) that giving
disadvantaged groups access to housing, employment, social protection,
health and education is a challenge facing all Council of Europe member
States. While there is usually a legal entitlement to social rights, there
are various obstacles to their realisation for many persons in practice.
The Council of Europe has therefore initiated a series of activities on the
promotion of access to social rights for all.
2. In this context, the Group of Specialists on Access to Housing (CS-LO)
started its work in June 1999. As the first Council of Europe Committee to
systematically address housing policy issues, the CS-LO provided an
opportunity for an intensive exchange of experience among its members and
for launching a large-scale and empirical pan-European data collection from
Council of Europe member and observer States about national policies on
access to housing for disadvantaged categories of persons.
1. The significance of housing and the corresponding responsibilities of
national governments have been recognised in a number of international
documents. These include the Council of Europe’s European Social Charter of
1961 (Art. 16), its additional Protocol of 1988 (Art. 4), and the Revised
European Social Charter of 1996 (Art. 31), the UN Habitat Agenda adopted at
Istanbul in 1996, and the “Declaration on cities and other human settlements
in the new millennium” adopted by the Special session of the UN General
Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the
Habitat Agenda (New York, 6-8 June 2001).
2. In the context of housing policies, the basic human rights covered by
the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to respect for
private and family life and the home (Article 8) and the right to peaceful
enjoyment of possessions (Article 1 of Protocol No.1), must be particularly
respected and protected. In the UN Habitat Agenda, Governments reaffirm
their commitment to ensuring the full realisation of the human rights set
out in international instruments and in particular, in this context, the
right to adequate housing as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and provided for in the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, taking into account that the right to adequate housing
shall be realised progressively.
3. Council of Europe member States should give particular attention to
developing an “enabling” framework for their housing policies, in accordance
with the recommendations of the UN Habitat Agenda. Within the overall
context of such an enabling approach, member States should, in accordance
with Article 61 of the UN Habitat Agenda, take appropriate action in order
to promote, protect and ensure the full and progressive realisation of the
right to adequate housing and access to adequate housing for disadvantaged
categories of persons.
4. To ensure the provision of affordable housing to disadvantaged
categories of persons, the public authorities must create an appropriate
legal framework for housing markets with regard to property rights, security
of tenure and consumer protection, to make the necessary institutional
arrangements, to adopt policies to expand the supply of affordable housing
and provide better legal security of tenure and non-discriminatory access to
housing for all.
5. The provision of housing for disadvantaged categories of persons
requires action not only by public authorities at all levels, but by all
sectors of society, including the private sector and non-governmental
organisations, as well as by partner organisations and entities of the
international community. Disadvantaged categories of persons themselves and
civil society organisations should be enabled to play a proactive role
through agenda-setting participatory mechanisms.
6. The public sector's contribution to correcting imperfections in the
market continues to be necessary, as it helps implement the different types
of measures essential to enable disadvantaged categories of persons, whose
problems cannot be solved by the market or even by the social housing sector,
to gain access to adequate and financially affordable housing and basic
services.
7. There is a strong interdependence between housing policy and other
policies concerning access to social rights such as social protection,
employment, health, and education. Public authorities at all levels and
relevant international bodies are therefore encouraged to promote and
develop integrated approaches concerning access to social rights by
disadvantaged categories of persons.
8. Housing policy objectives should be taken into account in all
political decisions and legislative matters which have direct or indirect
impact on supply and demand on the housing market and affect housing
production and housing provision. Important fields in this respect include
fiscal and tax policy, civil code legislation as well as legal conditions
for finance and property markets and land use planning.
9. Housing policies at all levels should meet the needs and requirements
of disadvantaged categories of persons. National authorities should
therefore have or develop a strategy on access to housing for disadvantaged
categories of persons with well-defined objectives, standards, procedures
for monitoring policy outcomes, and taking into account the above-mentioned
interdependence with other policy fields.
10. Each member State should have and effectively enforce laws and
regulations to prevent any discrimination in access to housing.
11. Multiply disadvantaged persons and persons in need of care should
receive specific support to satisfy their special housing requirements and
should be entitled to appropriate social services and social support.
12. In countries that have privatised considerable parts of their public
housing stock in recent years, appropriate housing policy measures should be
introduced which counteract undesirable consequences of housing
privatisation and restitution for disadvantaged categories of persons. For
example, in countries with a high rate of “poor owner-occupiers”, more
emphasis should be given to a general housing allowance system and to public
support for the renewal of housing units, for the benefit of both owners and
tenants in restituted dwellings.
13. Public authorities should ensure regular collection of relevant
statistical information in the whole country on the housing situation of
disadvantaged categories of persons, as such information is of crucial
importance for developing, targeting, implementing and
monitoring specific policy measures and assistance programmes. The
collection of such information should be standardised on the basis of common
European criteria.
1. All Council of Europe member States should consider to ratify and implement international legal instruments
relating to housing policy, including, in particular, Article 31 of the
Revised European Social Charter (the right to housing).
2. Countries which have not yet done so are encouraged to develop a
comprehensive legal framework on access to housing for disadvantaged
categories of persons, taking account of market constraints and
opportunities, and respecting international standards, to support national
housing policies.
3.
In addition to enshrining the right to housing in legislation, care should
be taken that there are appropriate mechanisms for giving effect to that
right for all legal residents.
4.
For persons in situations of extreme hardship, and in accordance with
Recommendation No. R (2000) 3 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council
of Europe to member States, the governments of all Council of Europe member
States should recognise, where this is not already being done, the existence
of an individual, universal and enforceable right to the satisfaction of
basic human material needs. This right should contain as a minimum the right
to food, clothing, shelter and basic medical care, and be open to all
citizens and foreigners, whatever the latter’s position under national rules
on the status of foreigners, and in the manner determined by national
authorities.
5.
Each country should define in its legislation the concept of “adequate
housing”, taking account of the human rights dimension and paragraph
60 of the Habitat Agenda, and the economic means and cultural aspects of the
country.
6.
Standards of adequate housing should be applied not only to new construction,
but also gradually to the renovation of existing housing stock.
7.A
transparent system of property rights and adequate administrative
implementation of property legislation should exist in all member States.
8.
National authorities should provide information on the legal framework to
public officials with responsibilities in the housing field at the national,
regional and local level, and to civil society organisations.
1. Member States should, where necessary, develop or continue to develop
an appropriate and effective institutional structure to ensure co-operation
between the public authorities and other actors in the field of housing
policy, including relevant civil society organisations working in this
sector.
2. Within a national housing policy framework which provides, inter alia,
for the necessary allocation of resources required by local authorities to
fulfil their functions, there should be a significant degree of local
autonomy and participation in decision-making, implementation, and resource
mobilisation and use.
3. The role and responsibilities of local authorities and civil society
organisations in housing policy and the distribution of tasks between them
should be clearly and legally defined.
4. Public authorities should promote, facilitate and support the
establishment of civil society organisations at all levels to participate in
the provision of housing for disadvantaged categories of persons, and
provide resources for their operation as appropriate.
5. Representatives of civil society should participate in the
development of housing policy and in decision making so as to ensure that
the needs and priorities of the disadvantaged are identified and met.
6. Governments should facilitate access by disadvantaged categories of
persons to decision-making and planning structures and legal services
through the provision of such facilities as legal aid and free legal and
citizen’s advice centres.
1. The supply of affordable housing should be increased, including
through encouraging and promoting affordable home ownership and increasing
the supply of affordable public, co-operative and private housing through
partnerships among public and private initiatives, creating and promoting
market-based incentives while giving due respect to the legal rights and
obligations of both tenants and owners.
2. The market should offer a variety of different types of dwellings,
including housing which is suitable and affordable for people with low
incomes. The public authorities should establish a legal framework, together
with an effective system of housing allowances or other appropriate measures
designed for people with low incomes and/or access problems, particularly in
local housing markets where affordable housing is in short supply.
3. To ensure an adequate supply of serviceable land, and particularly to
make land available for social housing construction, governments should
consider fiscal incentives and other measures, as appropriate, to promote
the efficient functioning of the market for vacant land with a view to
facilitating the construction of affordable housing.
4. In situations of housing shortage, measures should be taken that
create incentives to the private rental market to let vacant dwellings where
there is no legal impediment to their rental.
5. To facilitate access to land and security of tenure, particularly for
disadvantaged categories of persons, governments at the appropriate levels,
including local authorities, should provide institutional support,
accountability and transparency of land management, and accurate information
on land ownership, land transactions and current and planned land use.
6. There is a great demand for housing finance. Governments should
therefore create a framework for a variety of possibilities for
disadvantaged categories of persons to gain access to housing finance where
appropriate. In order to make tenure or home ownership affordable,
governments should subsidise the finance of housing provision or housing
production for these groups. Such subsidised housing should be allocated on
the basis of transparent and objective criteria.
7. As an alternative or in addition to subsidising housing finance, a
system of means-tested housing allowances should be established where
appropriate. Housing allowances can be an effective and well-targeted
instrument to make housing affordable for low income groups.
8. In order to increase the affordability of housing for low income
households, Governments should consider introducing savings schemes and
credit facilities such as low interest-rate or zero-interest loans,
including micro-credit schemes.
9.Providers of housing for disadvantaged categories of persons should
be eligible for preferential financing measures.
1. Special
care needs to be taken to promote a social mix so as to avoid housing-based segregation and ghettoisation of the poor, and geographical
imbalances between supply and demand, all of which would inevitably create
even worse access to housing for the disadvantaged.
2. In order to address the large-scale deterioration of the existing
housing stock, countries concerned should develop policies and incentives
for a mixed approach combining repair and renovation schemes, with new
construction only where appropriate.
3. In order to prevent or reduce the problems of concentration of
stigmatised housing stock in urban areas, measures should be taken to
conceive housing development programmes in such a way as to offer real
opportunities to disadvantaged persons to integrate with communities, inter
alia, through the rehabilitation or construction of residential housing in
town centres.
4. Local initiatives should be developed which are aimed at the social
regeneration of run-down housing estates and impoverished housing areas.
Emphasis should be placed on rebuilding the social and community
infrastructure of these areas and improving the quality of life of their
residents. 5. At the local level, participation by residents is an important
component of housing, habitat and social regeneration schemes. Initiatives
should be taken to support such participation by, for example by
- promoting participation by residents and owners in the
management, repair and renovation of their homes,-
giving support to the forming of residents’ associations, e.g. through
advice on their operation and management,
- supporting the establishment and running of national networks of
local neighbourhood housing schemes in order to promote co-operation and to
develop and share good practice.
1. To reduce vulnerability, Governments at the appropriate levels,
including local authorities, should protect all people from and provide
legal protection and redress for forced evictions that are contrary to the
law.
2.Avoiding evictions should take precedence over re-housing.
3. Legislation on evictions should clearly set out the procedure of
evictions and include a timeframe within which tenants must be informed
about a pending eviction.
4. Local authorities and appropriate civil society organisations should
be informed of pending evictions to enable them to provide counselling and
mediation services and/or assistance to persons at risk of eviction.
5. There should be clear national legislation concerning foreclosure and
evictions, with legal assistance according to legally defined conditions for
re-housing/re-settling in case of unavoidable eviction and particular
protection for households with children and persons in need of care.
6. In the case of households at risk of eviction, all appropriate
measures should be taken to ensure access to essential services that are
necessary for a dignified and normal existence must be guaranteed (e.g.
electricity, drinking water, and heating where necessary).
7. In the case of unavoidable evictions, housing authorities or other
legally mandated authorities, in co-operation with social services and other
appropriate bodies, should seek, under legally defined conditions, an
alternative suitable solution which treats the person concerned with respect
so as to facilitate his or her social integration.
8. Where necessary, a strategy should be adopted to reshape the informal
housing market, to regularise or find alternatives to illegal settlements,
and establish non-profit and participatory bodies.
1. All governments should promote shelter and support basic services and
facilities for education and health for the homeless, displaced persons,
women and children who are survivors of family violence, persons with
disabilities, older persons, victims of natural and human-made disasters and
people belonging to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including temporary
shelter and basic services for refugees.
2. Governments should develop, adopt and enforce appropriate norms and
by-laws for land-use building, and planning standards that are based on
professionally established risk and vulnerability assessments.
3.Governments should enable the participation in disaster planning and
management of all disadvantaged categories of persons, in recognition of
their particular vulnerability to human-made and natural disasters.4.In areas
of potential emergency, Governments should encourage, promote and support
effective solutions, innovative approaches and appropriate building
standards to address critical risks of vulnerable communities, through,
inter alia, risk-mapping and community-focused vulnerability reduction
programmes.
5.Governments or other appropriate administrative bodies need to be able to
quickly provide the financial resources necessary to implement emergency
policy and rehabilitation measures, ensuring that the particular needs of
women, children, persons with disabilities and disadvantaged categories of
persons are considered in all communications, rescue efforts, relocation,
rehabilitation and reconstruction.
6.Governments should identify and support approaches to cope with the urgent
shelter requirements of returnees, internally displaced persons, and victims
of natural disasters, including as appropriate, the construction of
temporary housing with basic facilities, taking into account gender-specific
needs.
7.There should be procedures to monitor how, when emergencies occur, legal
and administrative procedures are followed by regional and local authorities.
1.The CS-LO welcomes the decision of the CDCS to set up a new Group of
Specialists in 2002 on the "Contribution of Housing Policies to Social
Cohesion". Based on the findings of the CS-LO,the work of the new
Group of Specialists might include the following tasks:
-
prepare a glossary of the main terms used in discussing the social aspects
of housing policies in Europe;
-
provideappropriate background information to the monitoring
process of Article 31 of the Revised European Social Charter on "The Right
to Housing";
- give particular attention to the sub-regional level, as
important lessons could be drawn from a comparison of policies, practice and
assistance activities in a smaller group of neighbouring countries;
- consider organising in the medium term joint activities with the
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) (cf. paragraph 66
below), with a view to increasing the visibility and impact of the two
organisations as two of the main European actors in the field of housing
policies;
- explore the scope for co-operation with the EU “National Housing
Focal Points”, in particular on EU Housing Statistics with a view to
including social cohesion indicators into these statistics;
- devise a framework for monitoring and evaluating the
implementation andimpact of the guidelines adopted by the CS-LO.
2.During its work, the CS-LO found many examples which showed that
there is a strong interdependence between housing policy and other policies
concerning access to social rights such as social protection, employment,
health, and education. It therefore advises the Editorial Group for the
Report on Access to Social Rights (CS-ASR) that the Report on Access to
Social Rights should promote the development by public authorities, at all
levels, of integrated approaches concerning access to social rights by
disadvantaged categories of persons, and make recommendations to that
effect.
3.The involvement of NGO representatives in the work of the CS-LO was
highly valued by all its members and should be continued in all future
activities on access to social rights.
4.The Social Cohesion Indicators, currently being developed by the
Social Cohesion Development Division of the Council of Europe, should
include indicators that take into account the housing situation in member
States.
5.The Council of Europe, where possible in co-operation with the
Council of Europe Development Bank, should continue its assistance
activities in the housing field at member State and sub-regional level,
particularly with regard to improving social infrastructure, reducing
discrimination and housing segregation, and addressing the housing situation
of minorities, refugees and displaced persons.
6.The Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of
Europe, in particular through the local and regional chambers of its
Commission on Social Cohesion, should consider initiating activities on the
local and regional aspects of housing policies.
7.The results of the CS-LO’s work should be communicated to the UNECE
Commission on Human Settlements in order to follow up the very useful
contacts established by the CS-LO. The UNECE Commission on Human Settlements
does highly relevant work on the economic and technical aspects of housing
policies, which is complementary to the Council of Europe’s work on the
social aspects of housing policies.
8.The Council of Europe should also explore the scope for co-operation
with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing who has recently been
appointed by the Office of the United nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (UNCHR).
9.As far as information on the housing situation in European countries
is concerned, the CS-LO recommends that Council of Europe member States
consider to
-
improve the comparability of housing statistics with a view to their
ultimate standardisationon the basis of common European criteria;
- find
ways, where necessary, to better inform public officials and the
general public on international agreements in the housing field to which
their countries are contracting parties (in particular Article 31 of the
Revised European Social Charter).
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