Call for inputs to Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing ‘Land and the Right to Adequate Housing’ thematic report

The Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing will dedicate the next thematic report to the General Assembly in October 2025 to the topic of land and the right to housing.

This report will make the case for the importance of access to land for the realization of the right to adequate housing, whether in rural or urban settings. Towards that end, the report will showcase tenure systems and their relationship to housing, and land management, land development and land governance policies that have major impacts on the protection and realization of the right to adequate housing.

It will aim to identify the main challenges presented by dominant approaches to land tenure, management and development and best practices that can overcome such challenges.

The Special Rapporteur would appreciate receiving written contributions in English, Spanish or French, to be sent to hrc-sr-housing@un.org; and ohchr-registry@un.org by 25 May 2025.

The Special Rapporteur kindly requests States, local governments, UN bodies, International organizations, National Human Rights Institutions, civil society organizations, academia and experts to send inputs to inform his report.

The special rapporteur is in particular interested to receive responses to these questions (also available on the downloadable questionnaire):

1. Please describe the different land tenure regimes in your country, region or city and their impact on the right to adequate housing.
2. How is land ownership and land tenure distributed between public and private actors, between genders, different social, ethnic or racial groups and what impact does the distribution of land ownership and land use rights have on the right to adequate housing?
3. What challenges does your country, region, city, or your community face in accessing or acquiring land, land use or access rights for the purpose of the realization of the right to adequate housing?
4. To what extent are communal/collective land ownership, use or access rights recognized in law and practice in your country? What impact do such tenure arrangements have on the right to adequate housing?
5. Please describe the legal regime governing the expropriation of land in your country for public purposes. Please explain to what extent the legal regimes governing expropriation or the withdrawal of land use or access rights are compliant with international human rights standards and the protection against forced evictions, arbitrary resettlement and forced displacement in law and practice.
6. Please share any examples of land use, land governance or land management policies that have been successfully employed in your country, region or city to realize the right to adequate housing for all without discrimination.

More information.