UN Special Rapporteur for Housing, events w/c 5 October, 2020

Invitation to virtual consultations with the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing on 7 and 8 October 2020

The Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopal, cordially invites representatives of civil society, local governments, UN agencies and entities, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders to two consultations on:

20 years Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing: taking stock and moving forward

In order to allow broad-based participation across different time zones, two similar meetings will be held. You can register to one of these two meetings.
• 7 October 2020 from 14:30-16:00 Central European Time (8:30-10:00 EST),
• 8 October 2020 from 20:30-22:00 Central European Time (14:30-16:00 EST).

Both meetings will be held in English. Advance registration is required. Please share within your networks. Meeting links for the webex sessions will be send shortly before the event. More information and registration is now available here.

Online survey

We would also like to strongly encourage you to complete by 1 November 2020 our online survey aimed at assessing impact of the work of the mandate, its working methods and identifying positive developments and challenges that would require in your view attention by the Special Rapporteur. Both, the consultations and the online survey, will inform his forthcoming report to the 46th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2021.

Direct access to the online survey

GA report: COVID-19 and the right to adequate housing: impacts and the way forward”

On the eve of UN-Habitat day on Monday, the report of the Special Rapporteur to the General Assembly has been published in all UN languages and is accessible as UN document A/75/148.
We hope that the report and its short and long-term recommendations will be helpful for your advocacy.

The official presentation of the report to the 3rd Committee of the General Assembly is preliminary scheduled for 21 October PM (15:00 NY time) and can usually be followed on UN TV live in the language of the floor and other UN languages.

Forthcoming events by the Special Rapporteur:

5 October 2020, 13:00 CET: The Special Rapporteur will participate remotely in the official UN Habitat day event together with the Secretary-General, the Executive Director of UN-Habitat that will take this year place in Indonesia.

5 October 2020, 15:00 CET: The SR will take part in an online event launching a publication on “Local struggles for housing rights in the context of climate change, urbanization and environmental degradation” organized by the Global initiative on economic, social and cultural rights and Misereor. More information and registration

8 October 2020, 20:00 KST: The Special Rapporteur will present a key note address to the Plenary Session of the World Human Rights City Forum in Gwangju/Republic of Korea on Local Governments Building the Post COVID-19 World: Public Services and Human Rights Challenges.

9 October 2020, 11:30 CET: The Special Rapporteur will deliver by video a statement to the Social Forum of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Room XX, that has this year the theme “Good Practices, Success Stories, Lessons Learned and Current Challenges in Combating Poverty and Inequalities”