The Road Home

Mandela Nelson , Foreword, in Leckie Scott (ed), National perspectives on housing rights (2003), xvii.

Kothari Miloon , Implementation of Resolution 60/251 of the General Assembly of 15 March 2006 entitled ‘Human Rights Council Of Rights’, Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Mission to Australia: Addendum, A/HRC/4/18/Add.2, 32 (2007).

Ibid.

See Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counting the Homeless 2006 (2008).

Concluding Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – Australia, UN ESCOR, 42nd sess, UN Doc E/C.12/AUS/CO/4 [26] (2009).

See further Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Homeless People in SAAP: SAAP National Data Collection Agency Report Series, Annual Report 2004 – 2005 (2006), xvii; Annual Report 2006 – 2007 (July 2008), ix; Annual Report 2007 – 2008 (April 2009), vii.

AIHW, Women, children and teens, heavy users of SAAP, Media Release (3 April 2009), <aihw.gov.au/mediacentre/2009/mr20090403.cfm> at 23 October 2009. See also AIHW, Annual Report 2007–2008, above n 7.

AIHW, Demand for SAAP Accommodation by homeless people 2006–2007: Summary, Bulletin 64, October 2008, 2.

Ibid. See also AIHW, Demand for somewhere to stay continues to exceed available places for Australia's homeless, Media Release (10 October 2008), <aihw.gov.au/mediacentre/2008/mr20081010.cfm> at 23 October 2009.

Lynch Philip Cole Jacqueline , ‘Homelessness and Human Rights: Regarding and Responding to Homelessness as a Human Rights Violation’ (2003) 4 Melbourne Journal of International Law 139, 142.

Ibid 141.

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Homelessness and Human Rights (2008), 2–6.

These include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD); Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT); Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

General Comment No 3: The Nature of States Parties' Obligations (Art 2, Para 1, of the Covenant), UN ESCOR, 5th sess, UN Doc E/1991/23 (1990), <unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4538838e10.html> at 27 October 2009.

Otto Dianne Wiseman David , ‘In search of “effective remedies”: Applying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to Australia’ (2001) Australian Journal of Human Rights 2. See also McRae Rowan Nicholson Dan , ‘No place like home: Homelessness in Australia and the right to adequate housing’ (2004) Australian Journal of Human Rights 3.

CESCR, General Comment 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (1991).

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid 22.

CESCR, above n 14, 18

Ibid; CESCR, Substantive Issues Arising in the Implementation of the International Covenant in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Poverty and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN Doc E/C.12/2001/10 (2001) 4–5, [15]–[18].

CESCR, above n 16, 8.

Ibid.

Foscarinis Maria , ‘Homelessness and Human Rights: Towards an Integrated Strategy’ (2000) 19 St Louis University Public Law Review 327, 347.

Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, A Human Rights Based Approach to Development (undated).

See also Lynch Philip , ‘Homelessness, Human Rights and Social Inclusion’ (2005) 30(3) Alternative Law Journal 116, 117.

Hurwitz Deena R , ‘Lawyering for Justice and the Inevitability of International Human Rights Clinics’ (2003) 28 Yale Journal of International Law 505, 516.

Lynch , above n 26. See also Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies (2002).

Ibid. Refer also to Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies (2002). See also Leckie Scott , ‘Another Step towards Indivisibility: Identifying the Key Features of Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ (1998) 20(1) Human Rights Quarterly 81, 106; Gosley Anne , Stop and Listen … Don't Assume – Why the Homeless People's Association was formed (Paper presented at 3rd National Homelessness Conference, Brisbane, 6–8 April 2003).

See generally, Department for Constitutional Affairs (UK), Review of the Implementation of the Human Rights Act (July 2006); British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR), The Human Rights Act: Changing Lives (2007); Audit Commission (UK), Human Rights: Improving Public Service Delivery (October 2003).

Department for Constitutional Affairs, Review of the Implementation of the Human Rights Act (July 2006), United Kingdom, 19.

Ibid.

BIHR, above n 30.

Ibid. See also Human Rights Law Resource Centre, A Human Rights Act for All Australians (May 2009), 68.

BIHR, above n 30.

Ibid.

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, Emerging Change: The 2008 report on the operation of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities (2009), 3.

FCHY Committee, Housing the Homeless: Report on the inquiry into homelessness legislation (November 2009), 85.

Porter Bruce , ‘Homelessness, human rights, litigation and law reform: A view from Canada’ (2004) Australian Journal of Human Rights 133, 137.

Ibid.

Baker v Canada (Minister of Citizenship & Immigration) (1997)

In Vriend v Alberta (1998) SCJ No 29 1998, the Supreme Court held that no category of government decision-making is exempt from constitutional review, and that the Court has a constitutional duty to uphold rights, including those infringed by the failure of government to act.

Québec Commission des Droits de la Personne du Québec v Gauthier (1993) 19 CHRR D/312 (TDPQ)

Boulter v Nova Scotia Power Incorporated [2009] NSCA 17.

CERA, Human Rights in Housing in Canada: An Advocate's Guide (2008) 16.