Report of the U.N. Special Rapporteur (Miloon Kothari) on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living. March 2005
62. Certain sections of the world’s population face multiple forms of discrimination. For instance, the Dalits - a community facing historical caste-based discrimination and disenfranchisement in India, Nepal and to some extent Pakistan - suffer extreme human rights violations, including with regard to land and housing rights. A majority of Dalits are still prevented from owning land and are forced to live on the outskirts of villages, often on barren land. While the struggle for Dalit land rights is growing, land reforms intended to benefit the rural poor and Dalits have been ineffective due to weak legislative provisions, inadequate implementation, and a lack of State commitment. In Nepal, for instance, two out of every five Dalits are landless. According to the Human Development Report 2004, 15.32 per cent of Dalits living in Nepal’s hill areas are landless, and in the Tarai (plains), 43.98 per cent are landless (table 11). Nepal has 800,000 landless Dalits and 400,000 semi-landless. For those Dalits who do have access to housing, studies have pointed out that they tend to live in the poorest-quality houses, many of them being temporary thatched roof structures.
63. Brazil provides another example, where the Afro-Brazilian communities of Quilombos (former slave colonies) also face discrimination that severely impacts their ability to enjoy the right to adequate housing and forces them to the fringes of mainstream society (see E/CN.4/2005/48/Add.3). In the context for the need for a deeper analysis of the impact of the denial of economic, social and cultural rights, including housing, of descent- and ethnicity-based communities, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the new study initiated by the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in its resolution 2004/17.
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