The project on Housing Rights is partnered with the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. This project supports and facilitates various needs associated with the mandate of the Special Rapporteur (SR). The aim of the mandate is to monitor and promote the right to adequate housing globally for the most vulnerable and marginalized groups. The SR requires research assistance and assistance in the dissemination of information about the right to adequate housing. The focus of this project is to assists the SR in meeting the goals of her mandate, which includes:
  1. Producing annual thematic reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council
  2. Developing accessible materials and tools regarding the right to adequate housing globally
  3. Producing a newsletter on the right to housing with global reach. 

Providing assistance to a SR is a unique and privileged opportunity for University of Ottawa students and opens the possibility of making a significant impact on the further recognition and implementation of the right to adequate housing globally. The work involves rigorous research on diverse topics related to housing rights across the world such as the role of sub-national governments in implementing the right to housing, housing strategies framed in human rights, access to justice and remedies for the violation of the right to adequate housing, and homelessness. 

Students benefit from an intimate understanding of how the United Nations human rights system works, and the relationship between international human rights, geopolitics and the application of human rights at the domestic level.

Details on the role of the Special Rapporteur and her work can be found on the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights website

Project Partner: United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing

Academic Advisor: Professor John Packer

Project Coordinator: Sharmila Mahamuni, former HRREC Member