HOUSING RIGHTS
Notes
1
Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1.
2
Grootboom & Ors v. Government of the Republic of South Africa (2000), (11) BCLR 1169
(CC). It was the first case to confirm the justiciability of economic and social rights in
the new Constitution.
3
Available at: www.utulsa.edu/law/classes/rice/INTERAMER_CT_HUMAN_RTS_
Mayagna.htm 30 September 2004. See also Anaya, S.J., ‘The Maya Petition to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights: Indigenous land and resource rights and the
conflict over logging and oil in southern Belize’, in Merali, I. and Oosterveld, V. (eds),
Giving Meaning to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Philadelphia, University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2001, pp. 180–211.
4
See Report of the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, UN doc. E/CN.4/2002/59,
para. 38.
5
Neither the Additional San Salvador Protocol to the ACHR nor the ACHPR contain any
express provision. However, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has read the
right to land into the ACHR when it declared in Awas Tingini (see note 3) that the
Nicaraguan government violated the indigenous community’s property rights, and the
right to judicial protection under Articles 21 and 25 of the Convention, when it demarcated land belonging to the community, since the property rights arose through the
traditional occupancy and use of the lands by the community. Similarly, the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has read the right to housing into the
Charter by deriving it from the rights to property (Art. 14), health (Art. 16) and family (Art.
18) in Social and Economic Rights Action Center and Center for Economic and Social
Rights v. Nigeria (Communication no. 155/96, 30th Ordinary Session, October 2001)
concerning the violation of the rights of the Ogoni people by a consortium of oil producers; see also the Working Group on the Rights of Indigenous Populations/Communities
in Africa, Report on Indigenous Populations/Communities, November 2003, available at:
www.iwgia.org/sw2073.asp
6
See Article 11(2) protecting against arbitrary interference with private life, family and
7
See Leckie, S., Housing as a Need, Housing as Right: International Human Rights Law
home and Article 21 protecting the right to property.
and the Right to Adequate Housing, London, Human Settlements Programme,
International Institute for Environment and Development, 1992, pp. 80–6.
8
Alexkor Ltd v. The Richtersveld Community and Ors (2004) 5 SA 460. The court ruled that
the customary rights of the community had survived the transition to common law and
subsequent legislation.
9
President of the Republic of South Africa & Ors v Modderklip Boerdery (Pty) Ltd, SCA
213/03, 2004.
10
Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985) 3 SCC 545
11
See for example Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation v Nawab Khan Gulab Khan (1997) 11
37