Background
In March of 2026, the United Nations Human Rights Committee will convene for its 145th session to review Canada’s compliance of human rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Canada ratified (i.e. signed on to) the Covenant in 1976 and is required to report to the United Nations on the laws, policies, and actions it has taken to carry out the Covenant. This will be Canada’s 7th review.
The National Right to Housing Network, Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network, and Canadian Centre for Housing Rights have made a submission ahead of this session to provide context on Canada’s housing and homelessness crisis, along with key questions and recommendations that should be brought forward by the Committee during the review.
“It is widely agreed that one of the most egregious systemic violations of human rights in Canada is widespread homelessness and housing precarity amongst the most disadvantaged groups.” – NRHN, WNHHN, CCHR 2026
Our Joint Submission
It was during Canada’s review in 1999 that the Committee first recognized that homelessness has severe consequences, including death, and affirmed that the right to life in article 6 requires positive measures to address this systemic violation.
Canada has, however, taken the position that homelessness and housing fall within the realm of economic, social, and cultural rights under the ICESCR and on this basis denied access to effective remedies for violations of the right to life and non-discrimination linked to homelessness or forced eviction.
In our joint submission to the Committee ahead of Canada’s 7th review under the ICCPR, we offer the following key recommendations:
- Homelessness and the Right to Life: Canada’s must implement positive measures and strategies with clear goals and timelines to reduce and eliminate homelessness, including rights-based responses to encampments that ensure access to basic necessities essential to life and dignity and access to adequate housing
- Evictions and Effective Remedies: Canada must ensure effective legal safeguards to prevent evictions into homelessness and displacement of vulnerable groups from affordable housing, including providing legal representation and amending legislation to apply proportionality and ensure access to effective remedies where eviction foreseeably places life and security at risk.
- Discrimination in Housing: Discrimination on the ground of homelessness and housing status must be recognized as a prohibited ground of discrimination and systemic discrimination in housing policy and practice must be addressed. This must include the displacement of disadvantaged groups from their communities and neighbourhoods through the financialization of housing.
Endorsements
Organizations
Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO)
BC Poverty Reduction Coalition
Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH)
Canadian Center for Women Empowerment (CCFWE)
Canadian Lived Experience Leadership Network
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
Disability Without Poverty
EFry Hope and Help for Women
Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)
HIV Legal Network
Huronia Transition Homes
Intentional Success Corp
International Human Rights Clinic, University of Manitoba
John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights
Maytree
Peel Poverty Action Group
Quebec Homelessness Prevention Collaborative (Le Collectif québécois pour la prévention de l’itinérance)
Social Housing & Human Rights
South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO)
The NB Coalition of Persons with Disabilities (NBCPD)
The Yellowknife Women’s Society
YWCA Niagara Region
YWCA Toronto
Individuals
Abe Oudshoorn
Arthur Perry
Carolyn Whitzman
Chantal Perry
Dawn Wheadon
Debbie McGraw
Dr. Mary Vaccaro
Floriane Ethier
Francisco Urrutia
Haily MacDonald
Jesse Jenkinson
Meseret Haileyesus
Sarah Buhler
Victoria Boyle