Background
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process where the human rights records of all United Nations (UN) member states, including Canada, are reviewed by their peers. It is designed to encourage countries to make progress towards their human rights obligations and commitments by receiving feedback and recommendations from other UN member states. With Canada’s review coming up later this year (November 2023), civil society organizations are currently being invited to make submissions on key human rights issues across the country.
Our Submission
Our submission, produced in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR), outlines human rights-based concerns and recommendations related to inadequate housing and homelessness in Canada, for international consideration and questioning in Canada’s upcoming UPR.
Building on international concerns and recommendations voiced by other countries during Canada’s third UPR in 2018, the submission speaks to the following themes:
- Canada’s implementation of the right to housing under the National Housing Strategy Act (2019), including through the National Housing Strategy
- Urban, rural, and northern Indigenous housing
- Financialization of housing and inadequate regulation of private actors
- Homeless encampments
- Intergovernmental agreements and shared right to housing commitments
- Security of tenure, jurisdictional divides, and the evictions crisis in Canada
- Justiciability of economic and social rights
Partner Submissions
You can also read related submissions from:
- Maytree, which focuses on implementing Canada’s right to housing legislation (the National Housing Strategy Act) at every level of government
- Ontario Human Rights Commission, which touches on housing affordability, accessibility, and discrimination (including in the context of Indigenous reconciliation)