scholarly journals Is the Right to Housing Being Realized in Canada? Learning from the Experiences of Tenants in Affordable Housing Units in a Large Canadian City

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Kaylee Ramage ◽  
Meaghan Bell ◽  
Lisa Zaretsky ◽  
Laura Lee ◽  
Katrina Milaney
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Housing Policies ◽  
Critical Determinant ◽  
Canadian City ◽  
Analysis Of Results ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach

Background: Housing is a critical determinant of health and a basic human right. Historically, Canada’s housing policies have not been grounded in a human rights-based approach. In the 1990s, a policy shift prioritized efficiency in government spending and deficit reductions over the provision of many social programs including affordable housing. With various levels of government now acknowledging and recognizing the need for more affordable housing, it is important to understand tenant experiences, perspectives, and needs to ensure policies and practices are supporting individuals appropriately. Methods: In total, 161 individuals participated in this study by completing online or in-person questionnaires. Results: Exploratory analysis of results revealed that although there were some positive benefits to affordable housing, many tenants continued to struggle financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally without adequate supports in place. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for affordable housing to be part of a system of care that provides supports along a continuum. The results further reiterate that placing a person or family in affordable housing does not guarantee that their lives have improved. Without robust affordable housing models that prioritize the empowerment of individuals and families, housing policies may fail to fulfil the right to safe and affordable housing for Canadians, especially when considering historically marginalized populations.

In The Face of Financialization: Cities and the Human Right to Adequate Housing

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-130
Author(s):  
Kaara Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Social Good ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Full Sense ◽  
The Right

The right to housing is a human right with broad but frequently overlooked implications, particularly in the urban environment. This difficulty is heightened in the context of what is known as the “financialization of housing”. Financialization involves the interconnections between global financial markets and housing, and, at the extreme, has prompted a climate in which housing is conceived less as a social good and more as a commodity. The result of the financialization turn is cities with a severe lack of affordable housing, a reality that is now a global phenomenon. This naturally leads to economic exclusions and displacements from cities, but, on a deeper level, also entails major collective consequences for the social and cultural fabric. Financialization thus threatens the right to housing in cities, particularly when the right is examined and understood in its full sense. And yet, cities have a duty to ensure the right to housing even in the face of financialization. Drawing on the jurisprudence of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights through its individual communications procedure, the European Court of Human Rights, and domestic cases from South Africa and the United States, this paper aims to elucidate this duty of cities in the realm of housing. A substantive rather than purely procedural shape of protection for the right to housing is pushed, which deliberates the connections between housing and the wider societal context, and the implicated concerns of resources, property, and urban community. In present times, our appreciation of home as a necessary nexus of safety, comfort, and productivity has come to the fore, as have our fears around economic insecurity, forcing us to confront and closely interrogate the right to housing.

scholarly journals Reaffirming Individual Responsibility in Distributive Justice: A Case Study of the Chinese Healthcare System

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Ziyu Liu ◽  
Martin Buijsen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
National Level ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Free Rider Problem ◽  
Justice In Health Care ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach

The human rights-based approach is widely employed in achieving distributive justice in health care. In the light of a common understanding of the approach, protecting the right to health as a human right relies heavily on addressing state accountability. However, the corresponding measures are put forward unevenly on the national level and generally achieve less than expected. Deficiencies, such as inefficient utilization and the free-rider problem, are increasingly obvious along with the aging population. In the context of the Chinese healthcare system, the paper suggests that drawing attention to the importance of individual responsibility is beneficial to improve the performance of the human rights-based approach in reforming healthcare systems towards more justice. Furthermore, raising the issue of individual responsibility can help to achieve equilibrium between the protection of individual rights and the sustainability of the healthcare system.

The right to housing

2020 ◽  
pp. 209-222
Author(s):  
Dessie Donnelly ◽  
Joe Finnerty ◽  
Cathal O’Connell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Group Participation ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Housing Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach

This chapter describes the human rights-based approach to housing and analyses it from a critical social policy perspective. The first section outlines the importance of housing as a human right, the second explores the distinctiveness of housing and a third section provides a case study of a community advocacy group, Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR), using international human rights instruments such as the UN International Covenant for Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) to promote housing rights. Finally, the prospects and limits of a human rights-based approach to housing are discussed.

scholarly journals The Human Rights-Based Approach to STEM Education

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Stem Education ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach ◽  
Education Science

This volume provides the first introduction to the right to science/STEM education, with contributions from international scholars and experts from organizations, including UNESCO, and from diverse disciplines such as human rights; science education; educational studies; anti-racist and decolonizing pedagogy; feminist and gender studies in science, technology, and engineering; and management and organizational studies. The book offers a thorough grounding in the right to education and its application in the STEM fields. It provides interdisciplinary perspectives that allow for a broad understanding of the human right to science education at all intersectional levels of STEM education and in STEM careers. Based on the Berlin Declaration on the Right to Science Education, adopted at the 1st International Symposium on Human Rights and Equality in STEM Education (October 2018), this volume suits as a textbook for university courses at the undergraduate or graduate level. It will also prove extremely valuable to researchers from a range of disciplines but, in particular, those interested in human rights, education, science/STEM education, as well as practitioners, program and curriculum developers, policy makers, educators, and, of course, the interested public.

scholarly journals Unveiling the Challenges in the Implementation of Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities on the Right to Access to Justice: A Case Study of Lesotho

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Henok Ashagrey Kremte
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Based Approach

Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantees access to justice in the context of disability as a human right and puts concrete and binding duties on state parties. It lays down a duty to safeguard effective access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others. Nevertheless, persons with disabilities are extremely susceptible to marginalization and discrimination in Africa and are often denied access to justice. The situation in the Kingdom of Lesotho is not an exception to this reality. The research thus aims at unveiling challenges in the implementation of Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the right to access justice in the Kingdom of Lesotho and proposes possible recommendations. To this effect, the country’s policies and legislative framework were reviewed to determine the extent to which the right to access justice of persons with disabilities is met and aligned with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Factors that hinder persons with disabilities from accessing justice mechanisms in the country were also scrutinized, and the research concluded that persons with disabilities face difficulties in accessing justice because of social, legal and structural obstacles, and recommended legislative, administrative, judicial and other measures. In reaching this conclusion, the research adopted four methodologies of data collection: interview, on-site visit, focus group discussions and desk review research. The research used a human-rights based approach to disability issues so as to frame the enquiry, design the tools for analysis, and made practical findings and recommendations.

The right to life: A comparative analysis of the relevant norms of the Constitutions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russian Federation

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-32
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Right ◽  
Criminal Legislation

The relevance of the work is determined by the fact that the right to life belongs to the basic constitutional human rights, therefore, its observance and protection is the duty of the state. Despite its undeniable importance, today the right to life anywhere in the world is not really ensured in sufficient quantities. The constitutional consolidation of the right to life raises a number of issues related to the concept, nature, legislative and practical implementation of this right. It should be noted that various aspects of the human right to life were considered in the scientific works of G.B. Romanovsky, O.G. Selikhova, T.M. Fomichenko, A.B. Borisova, V.A. Ershov and other Russian authors. The aim of the study is to study and comparative analysis of the legal content of the constitutional norm that defines the right to life, to comprehend and identify possible problems of the implementation of this right. To achieve this goal, this article discusses relevant issues of ensuring the right to life, proclaimed by Article 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and Article 27 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic. The results of a comparative analysis of these constitutional norms and the relevant norms of industry law allow us to determine, that there is no contradiction between Article 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the norms of the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation, which imply the death penalty as an exceptional measure of punishment, because a moratorium has been imposed on the death penalty in the Russian Federation since April 16, 1997. However, after the abolition of the death penalty in the criminal legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1998, there was a discrepancy between parts II and III of Article 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the criminal legislation of Azerbaijan Republic that requires the introduction of the necessary changes in the content of the analyzed constitutional norm. The value of the work is determined by the fact that the introduction of appropriate changes will contribute to the further improvement of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the effective implementation of the right to life of everyone.

Water for Life

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeline Baer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
National Level ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
The Right

Chapter 5 provides a case study of the human rights-based approach to water policy through an analysis of the Bolivian government’s attempts to implement the human right to water and sanitation. It explores these efforts at the local and national level, through changes to investments, institutions, and policies. The analysis reveals that while Bolivia meets the minimum standard for the human right to water and sanitation in some urban areas, access to quality water is low in poor and marginalized communities. While the Bolivian government expresses a strong political will for a human rights approach and is increasing state capacity to fulfill rights, the broader criteria for the right to water and sanitation, including citizen participation and democratic decision-making, remain largely unfulfilled. This case suggests political will and state capacity might be necessary but are not sufficient to fulfill the human right to water and sanitation broadly defined.

Is There a Right to Free Movement across Borders?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Song
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Right ◽  
Logical Extension

Chapter 6 examines three rights-based arguments for freedom of movement across borders. Three rights-based arguments have been offered in support of freedom of international movement. The first claims that freedom of movement is a fundamental human right in itself. The second adopts a “cantilever” strategy, arguing that freedom of international movement is a logical extension of existing fundamental rights, including the right of domestic free movement and the right to exit one’s country. The third argument is libertarian: international free movement is necessary to respect individual freedom of association and contract. This chapter shows why these arguments fail to justify a general right to free movement across the globe. What is morally required is not a general right of international free movement but an approach that privileges those whose basic human rights are at stake.

Readers' Liberation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Rose
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Investigative Journalism ◽  
Literary Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Right ◽  
Promotion Campaigns

The Literary Agenda is a series of short polemical monographs about the importance of literature and of reading in the wider world and about the state of literary education inside schools and universities. The category of 'the literary' has always been contentious. What is clear, however, is how increasingly it is dismissed or is unrecognised as a way of thinking or an arena for thought. It is sceptically challenged from within, for example, by the sometimes rival claims of cultural history, contextualized explanation, or media studies. It is shaken from without by even greater pressures: by economic exigency and the severe social attitudes that can follow from it; by technological change that may leave the traditional forms of serious human communication looking merely antiquated. For just these reasons this is the right time for renewal, to start reinvigorated work into the meaning and value of literary reading. For the Internet and digitial generation, the most basic human right is the freedom to read. The Web has indeed brought about a rapid and far-reaching revolution in reading, making a limitless global pool of literature and information available to anyone with a computer. At the same time, however, the threats of censorship, surveillance, and mass manipulation through the media have grown apace. Some of the most important political battles of the twenty-first century have been fought--and will be fought--over the right to read. Will it be adequately protected by constitutional guarantees and freedom of information laws? Or will it be restricted by very wealthy individuals and very powerful institutions? And given increasingly sophisticated methods of publicity and propaganda, how much of what we read can we believe? This book surveys the history of independent sceptical reading, from antiquity to the present. It tells the stories of heroic efforts at self-education by disadvantaged people in all parts of the world. It analyzes successful reading promotion campaigns throughout history (concluding with Oprah Winfrey) and explains why they succeeded. It also explores some disturbing current trends, such as the reported decay of attentive reading, the disappearance of investigative journalism, 'fake news', the growth of censorship, and the pervasive influence of advertisers and publicists on the media--even on scientific publishing. For anyone who uses libraries and Internet to find out what the hell is going on, this book is a guide, an inspiration, and a warning.

Strike Ballots, Democracy, and Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Breen Creighton ◽  
Catrina Denvir ◽  
Richard Johnstone ◽  
Shae McCrystal ◽  
Alice Orchiston
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Labour Organisation ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Strike Activity ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Worked Example ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Democratic Rights ◽  
The Right

The purpose of the research upon which this book is based was empirically to investigate whether the ballot requirements in the Fair Work Act do indeed impose a significant obstacle to the taking of industrial action, and whether those provisions are indeed impelled by a legitimate ‘democratic imperative’. The book starts from the proposition that virtually all national legal systems, and international law, recognise the right to strike as a fundamental human right. It acknowledges, however, that in no case is this recognition without qualification. Amongst the most common qualifications is a requirement that to be lawful strike action must first be approved by a ballot of workers concerned. Often, these requirements are said to be necessary to protect the democratic rights of the workers concerned: this is the so-called ‘democratic imperative’. In order to evaluate the true purpose and effect of ballot requirements the book draws upon the detailed empirical study of the operation of the Australian legislative provisions noted above; a comparative analysis of law and practice in a broad range of countries, with special reference to Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States; and the jurisprudence of the supervisory bodies of the International Labour Organisation. It finds that in many instances ballot requirements – especially those relating to quorum – are more concerned with curtailing strike activity than with constructively responding to the democratic imperative. Frequently, they also proceed from a distorted perception of what ‘democracy’ could and should entail in an industrial context. Paradoxically, the study also finds that in some contexts ballot requirements can provide additional bargaining leverage for unions. Overall, however, the study confirms our hypothesis that the principal purpose of ballot requirements – especially in Australia and the United Kingdom – is to curtail strike activity rather than to vindicate the democratic imperative, other than on the basis of a highly attenuated reading of that term. We believe that the end-result constitutes an important study of the practical operation of a complex set of legal rules, and one which exposes the dichotomy between the ostensible and real objectives underpinning the adoption of those rules. It also furnishes a worked example of multi-methods empirical, comparative and doctrinal legal research in law, which we hope will inspire similar approaches to other areas of labour law.

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