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Human Rights

At the moment the Canadian Human Rights Act does not specifically spell out that there is a right to adequate housing, although there is a right to some form of shelter.  Some studies and organizations that have drawn the link between human rights and housing include:

• “The Human Right to Adequate Housing”  Source: 2000 Report by the Centre on Human Rights and Evictions
• “Adequate Shelter: A Fundamental Human Right”  Source: Report of the National Liberal Caucus Task Force on Housing, 1990
• “Human Rights and Rental Housing”   Source: Ontario Human Rights Commission
• "Policy on Human Rights and Rental Housing"Source: Ontario Human Rights Commission
• "Sorry it's Rented" Source: 2009 Report by the Centre for Equality Rights in Accomodation
• "Poverty, Inequality, and Human Rights" Source: 2009 Report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Visit Canada Without Poverty at www.cwp-csp.ca to learn about human rights as well as structural causes of poverty, such as public policies that advance or constrain the social and economic development of individuals, families and communities.

You can also watch a short video exploring the evolution of human rights over time and how they are being disregarded in certain respects today.  Source: United for Human Rights Organization.

Would you like to see a poverty free Canada?  Click here to support the Dignity for All Campaign.

If you as a tenant feel that you are being denied housing or facing eviction due to discrimination, contact the BC Human Rights Coalition