Review Panel on Homelessness Amongst Women and Gender-Diverse People
On Friday, May 11, the Federal Housing Advocate directed the National Housing Council to launch a human rights-based review panel on the Government of Canada’s failure to prevent and eliminate homelessness amongst women and gender-diverse people, and particularly those who are Indigenous. This issue has reached such a crisis point that the Federal Housing Advocate now recognizes it as one of the top human rights issues in Canada.
The Advocate’s newly announced review is based on two powerful Human Rights Claims submitted by the Women’s National Housing & Homelessness Network (WNHHN) and the National Indigenous Women’s Housing Network (NIWHN) last year, highlighting the systemic and dignity issues of women, gender-diverse, and Two-Spirit people across the country.
When Will This Review Panel Take Place?
This review panel is set to take place sometime in late 2024.
The panel will begin with a written hearing followed by oral hearings. In both written and oral hearings, individuals and organizations are encouraged to submit evidence of systemic human rights violations in housing, as it relates to the topic of the review panel, and propose solutions. The review panel will then use the evidence and findings to create human rights-based findings and recommendations to the Government of Canada.
We will update this page as soon with more information on when this review panel beings is released by the National Housing Council.
“This review panel will give people with lived experience of gender-based homelessness and housing precarity—as well as frontline and civil society allies—an opportunity to share their experiences and solutions, and hold the government accountable in a way that was not possible before.”
Overview of Review Panels
This will be the second human rights-based review panel to ever be conducted in Canada.
Review panels are one of the key human rights-based accountability mechanisms created under Canada’s right to housing legislation of 2019, the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA). They offer a new avenue for access to justice that puts the experiences and dignity issues of those most affected by Canada’s housing policies and investments (or lack thereof) at the centre.
Review panels rely on public participation from individuals and communities, and involves multiple open hearings (written and oral) to gather evidence of systemic human rights violations in housing that will be used to create human rights-based findings and recommendations directed to the Government of Canada.
