Public statement | First published: here | October 3, 2024
With this year’s World Habitat Day theme focusing on youth and urban futures, it is impossible to ignore one key factor – the climate crisis – and what it means for fulfilling the right to housing in both rural and urban contexts, including for young people, today and in the future.
The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing has highlighted that the climate crisis is also a housing crisis.1 Extreme weather events exacerbated both in frequency and intensity by the climate crisis such as floods, heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires often damage or even destroy homes, land, and supporting infrastructure. Slow-onset events, such as desertification and rising sea levels, among others, can threaten the viability of housing and human settlements, undermining health and livelihoods, and often lead to forced migration as the local area becomes uninhabitable. These harms are disproportionately borne by countries that have contributed the least to global carbon emissions and by already marginalized people within those countries who are often the least protected due to decades of discrimination or neglect by authorities, thus deepening existing inequalities.2 The failure to act quickly and decisively to protect the right to housing from the impacts of climate change can only spell disaster for our urban and rural present and future.
Extreme weather events and disasters triggered the displacement of an estimated 26.4 million people in 2023, the third highest figure in the last decade.3 While not all disaster displacement is climate-related, climate change continues to make extreme weather events more common and more intense, increasing the risk of people being forced to flee their homes.4 In many cases, people move to cities where they may have no choice but to live in informal settlements, in inadequate conditions with little or no access to essential services such as water, sanitation and energy.5
The following three cases show that the failure of governments to act to mitigate the impacts of climate change on housing, to adopt measures to help people to adapt to these impacts and, where necessary to respond to loss and damage has serious human rights implications for all.
Indeed, instead of protecting the right to housing, in some cases, such as in Mexico and Kenya described below, the right to housing is violated by mitigation and adaption measures, where entire communities can be effectively forcibly evicted from their homes and lands by governments and/or not provided with adequate alternative housing and access to services
EL BOSQUE COMMUNITY, TABASCO, MEXICO
As UN Habitat observes this year’s World Habitat Day in the City of Querétaro, Mexico, it provides an opportunity to draw global attention to the El Bosque fishing community in Tabasco, southern Mexico.
The El Bosque community is on the frontline of the impacts of the climate crisis. Since 2019, due to constant tidal waves and extreme weather events, the coastline of El Bosque has been eroded by some 200 meters (about 656.17 ft), resulting in the destruction of homes and community infrastructure including the primary school, the kindergarten and the main road.6 The community reported to Amnesty International that the wells they used for drinking water and other domestic needs were contaminated with seawater; the healthcare services were neither regular nor adequate; electricity was intermittent; and due to the destruction of schools, children were forced to attend classes in an inadequate learning environment.7 Many people have been living in temporary shelters for long periods of time. However, in November 2023 at least 69 people living in a temporary shelter provided by the municipal government left, after reporting they had been mistreated by staff, together with not being provided with food or water for a whole day. Since then, most members of the community have had to rent alternative accommodation or stay with relatives. However, those unable to pay rent or without relatives to stay with have been left in a situation of homelessness or have had to return to the community despite the risk posed by the rising sea levels.
In February 2023, the Tabasco state congress approved the relocation of the community. In April 2023, El Bosque community started negotiations with the Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Secretaría de Desarrollo Agrario, Territorial y Urbano) and the National Housing Commission (Comisión Nacional de Vivienda) to be relocated. However, this process has reportedly stalled due to lengthy bureaucratic procedures.8 A year and a half after negotiations began, people from the El Bosque community are yet to be provided with alternative housing and remain vulnerable to extreme weather events.
I am a mother, my husband is a fisherman, and we had to leave our community to rent a place because coastal erosion reached us. Many of our neighbors have lost their homes… I had to leave the community because we no longer had access to transportation, no longer had access to a road, no health center, no water service, and we didn’t have electricity because our transformer had burned out. The few of us who remained in the community had to pool our money to buy a new transformer and restore electricity. It hasn’t been easy for me. I have to take my children to school. They’ve fallen behind in their studies because the road is in bad condition, and teachers can’t get in. Just as I am experiencing this, so are my neighbors. Our relocation is in progress, and we are worried because our community depends on fishing, and moving to another place, the way of living… Many wonder how we are going to live, how we are going to survive… Before, if I didn’t have anything to eat, had no food, you could just go to the shore, and it would provide you with a fish.
Cristina, member of the El Bosque community
INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN NAIROBI, KENYA
Kenya faced severe flooding in March, April and May 2024. According to the Red Cross, 101,132 households were affected, of which over 55,000 were displaced, and as many as 294 people lost their lives.9 In Nairobi, flood affected areas included the informal settlements of Mukuru, Mathare, Kibera, Korogocho, and Kawangware.10 Benna Buluma, human rights defender and founder of the Mothers of Victims and Survivors Network after her two sons were unlawfully killed by police officers during the 2017 electoral violence, was among those who died as a result of the floods in Mathare.11
Amnesty International has documented and denounced in previous research the living conditions of residents in those informal settlements who were forced to live in inadequate housing and had little access to clean water, sanitation, healthcare, schools and other essential public services.12
As underserviced areas, informal settlements often bear the brunt of flooding and accompanying landslides. Residents of these areas generally have no option but to continue to live in precarious conditions. The recent floods in Kenya reveal this persistent precarity and show how ill-conceived responses by the state compounded people’s suffering.
For example, as part of its disaster response, on 30 April, the government issued a directive followed by public security orders on 2 and 4 May calling for the ‘voluntary evacuation’ or ‘forcible relocation’ of homes and businesses that were within 30-metres of river valleys, affecting over 127,000 residents in Nairobi alone.13 However, the government failed to ensure that the evacuation was accompanied by a viable relocation plan, enumeration exercise, or a clear scheme for compensation and relief. While the authorities announced a compensation package of KES 10,000 (USD 78) per person to victims of the evacuation, impacted people said that this was not nearly sufficient to pay for alternative housing. Thousands of people, some of whom had already lost their loved ones and their belongings to the floods, were thus made homeless by these orders. According to some people affected by the forced evictions, not all people living close to riverbeds were asked to evacuate; the government targeted only people living in the informal settlements.14
On 14 May, the National Gender and Equality Commission concluded that “The unprecedented floods, worsened by climate change and poor planning, have uprooted families, disrupted essential services, and increased the risk of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) against women and girls”, since crowded shelters especially in informal settlements create an environment where women and girls are increasingly exposed to exploitation and violence.15 According to media reports, the authorities announced that 40,000 housing units would be built for people relocated from river beds in Nairobi, but by September this year, construction had started on only 4,050 of them.16
CAÑADA REAL, COMMUNITY OF MADRID, SPAIN
Governments may fail to protect people from the impacts of climate change in countries at all levels of income, including in high-income countries. Frequently, households living in poverty are the hardest hit, as they have the least access to adequate heat or cooling for their homes.17
One example is Cañada Real in Madrid, the largest informal settlement in Europe.18 Sectors 5 and 6 have had no access to electricity since 2020, and as a result some 4,000 people, including 1,800 children have endured both successive heatwaves and severe cold without access to cooling or heating. These sectors are primarily home to migrants, the majority of whom are of North African origin, and Spanish citizens, most of whom are Roma.19
With soaring temperatures in Spain in recent years, the continued failure of the authorities to ensure that people can protect themselves from extreme heat can impact people’s right to housing as well as their right to health, and in some cases, even life. As highlighted by the World Health Organization, poor insulation, heating, or ventilation in housing can exacerbate the effects of climate extremes.20
In Cañada Real, as the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights pointed out after his visit in 2020, people live without a health clinic, employment centre, school and on an unpaved road.21 The ongoing electricity outage adds to the precarious housing situation, persistent poverty, social exclusion, and continuous discrimination that residents in Sectors 5 and 6 face.22
The European Committee of Social Rights highlighted in 2022 that the prolonged and recurrent lack of electricity has had a very serious negative effect on living conditions of the Cañada Real population and that they were at risk of serious and irreparable harm to their lives. The Committee asked the Government to ensure that all affected persons have access to electricity and to offer appropriate alternative accommodation to those for whom it is not possible to safely ensure such access.23 This follows from a call by nine UN Special Rapporteurs on the Government of Spain to immediately restore electricity to Cañada Real in 2020.24
Although several agreements have been signed between the competent authorities – the most recent one in April 2024 to relocate 1,600 families25– from 2017 to date, only 239 families had been resettled,26 and the remaining continue to live without electricity.
I live in Cañada Real, specifically in Sector 6, which is marginalized, stigmatized, and completely neglected by the regional administration of the Community of Madrid. Since 2020, our electricity supply has been cut off, and we haven’t had power in our homes since then. This affects 4,000 people, including nearly 2,000 children. As of today, we are still without electricity. We have endured freezing winters without heating or hot water and suffered through unbearable heatwaves without air conditioning, fans, or even refrigerators to keep our water cool. For women, this creates an additional burden. We wash clothes by hand, dry them, cook on open fires, and heat our homes with wood-burning fireplaces. The lack of electricity puts our children at risk of illness, which also makes it harder for women to balance work or complete our studies. We continue to demand that the Community of Madrid and the Government of Spain restore our electricity, provide contracts, and establish a monitoring committee to resolve the situation.
Houda Akrikez, resident in Cañada Real and president of the Tabadol Cultural Association.
A TIME TO ACT
The impacts of climate change on the right to adequate housing are being felt globally in countries at all levels of income. However, in every country, it is often those who are the most marginalized and at risk of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that bear the brunt. This World Habitat Day, as activists, policy makers, and global leaders explore ‘urban futures’, Amnesty International urges greater focus on the intersection between the right to housing, the climate crisis, and discrimination. The future of our cities, towns, villages, and other settlements is precariously perched and highly susceptible to the vagaries of extreme weather events brought on by the climate crisis. Without addressing this, the future remains highly uncertain, including for young people and future generations.
In addition to phasing out fossil fuels, the primary driver of climate change, Amnesty International calls on the global community of policy makers and practitioners to ensure that they work towards improving disaster preparedness and ensuring that any adaptation and mitigation plans are strictly compliant with international human rights law and standards including on the right to adequate housing. It also calls on all states in a position to do so to adequately finance the UNFCCC Fund for responding to loss and damage. As highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, this involves the use of maximum available resources to devise and implement regional and/or local strategies in consultation with affected communities to identify and respond to climate risks and harms, ensuring inputs from and special measures to address the risks faced by groups at risk of marginalization and discrimination.27
Furthermore, it is imperative that any resettlement that is envisaged is planned and carried out only after it has been established as the only viable option to protect the lives and human rights of the affected communities, following genuine consultation with them, and in strict compliance with international human rights law and standards.
1 UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing as a Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, and on the Right to Non-discrimination in this Context (UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing), Report: Towards a Just Transformation: Climate Crisis and the Right to Housing, 23 December 2022, UN Doc. A/HRC/52/28, para. 1.
2 UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Report, 23 December 2023 (previously cited), para. 1.
3 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Global Report on Internal Displacement 2024, 14 May 2024, https://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2024/
4 IDMC, Global Report on Internal Displacement 2024, 14 May 2024 (previously cited).
5 UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Report, 23 December 2023 (previously cited), para. 11.
6 Guardian, “It’s time for us to go’: the Mexican fishing village swallowed by the sea”, 20 October 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/20/its-time-for-us-to-go-the-mexican-fishing-village-swallowed-by-the-sea
7 Amnesty International, “Climate displaced community needs urgent relocation” (Index: AMR 41/7387/2023), 8 November 2023, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr41/7387/2023/en/
8 Juan Manuel Orozco Moreno and Claudia Fry, “Submission provided in response to the Call for Input for the HRC56 Thematic Report on Climate Change and Internal Displacement”, 1 April 2024, Conexiones Climáticas and Department of Geography, University of Exeter, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/internaldisplacement/cfis/hrc56-climate-change/subm-hrc56-climate-change-ind-juan-manuel-orozco-moreno-claudia-fr-fry.docx
9 Kenya Red Cross, “Floods Operations”, 18 June 2024, https://www.redcross.or.ke/floods
10 Institute of Development Studies, “Double disaster: Flood fallout and state eviction in Nairobi & Karachi”, 23 May 2024, https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/double-disaster-flood-fallout-and-state-eviction-in-nairobi-karachi/
11 Amnesty International, “Impunity for mass rights violations risks global gains and human security”, 28 April 2024, https://www.amnestykenya.org/mass-rights-violations-risk-global-gains-human-rights-security/
12 Amnesty International, Kenya: The Unseen Majority: Nairobi’s Two Million Slum-dwellers (Index: AFR 32/005/2009), 12 June 2009, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr32/005/2009/en/
13 Amnesty International, “Solidarity statement on the recent evictions in Nairobi informal settlements”, 15 May 2024, https://www.amnestykenya.org/solidarity-statement-on-the-recent-evictions-in-nairobi-informal-settlements/
14 Amnesty International, “Solidarity statement on the recent evictions in Nairobi informal settlements”, 15 May 2024 (previously cited).
15 National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC), “Kenya floods: unequal burden on vulnerable groups and urgent action needed”, 14 May 2024, https://www.ngeckenya.org/news/10288/kenya-floods–unequal-burden-on-vulnerable-groups-and-urgent-action-needed
16 Capital news, “Ruto says 40,000 housing units to be built for people relocated from riparian land in Nairobi”, 9 September 2024, https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2024/09/ruto-says-40000-housing-units-to-be-built-for-people-relocated-from-riparian-land-in-nairobi/
17 World Health Organization, “Health risks”, Environment, Climate Change and Health, https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/healthy-urban-environments/housing/health-risks (accessed on 15 August 2024)
18 El País, “What to do with Cañada Real?”, 8 February 2012, https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/02/07/inenglish/1328627886_929407.html
19 Legal Clinic of the Master in Fundamental Rights of University Carlos III in Madrid, Light for the Cañada. The impact of the power outage in the Cañada Real Galiana on the rights of children and adolescents (translation), 2021, https://clinicajuridicaidhbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/luz-para-la-canada.pdf, Annex 8, p. 19.
20 World Health Organization Environment, “Exposure to heat and cold”, Environment, Climate Change and Health, https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/healthy-urban-environments/housing/health-risks (accessed on 15 August 2024).
21 UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights (UN Special Rapporteur on poverty), Report: Visit to Spain, 21 April 2020, UN Doc. A/HRC/44/40/Add.2, para. 67.
22 “Luz Ya para la Cañada Real” (Electricity Now for Cañada Real), complaint No. 206/2022 to the European Committee of Social Rights, 21 March 2021, https://rm.coe.int/cc206-casedoc1-en/1680a5e8aa
23 European Committee of Social Rights. Decision on admissibility and Immediate measures, Complaint No. 206/2022, 19 October 2022, https://rm.coe.int/cc-206-2022-dadmissandimmed-en/1680a8c283 .
24 UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, UN Special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, UN Special Rapporteur on poverty and UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, “Spain: Power outages put children’s lives at risk in informal settlement”, 22 December 2020, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/12/spain-power-outages-put-childrens-lives-risk-informal-settlement-un-experts
25 Community of Madrid, “The Community of Madrid starts the relocation of more than 1,600 families from Cañada Real with an investment of 110 million euros”, 15 April 2024, https://www.comunidad.madrid/noticias/2024/04/15/comunidad-madrid-inicia-realojo-1600-familias-canada-real-inversion-110-millones
26 Madrid 365, “First steps for the relocation of 1,600 families in Cañada Real”, 16 April 2024, https://madrid365.es/urbanismo/primeros-pasos-para-el-realojo-de-1-600-familias-en-la-canada-real-20240416-0855/
27 UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Report, 23 December 2023 (previously cited), para. 64.