Right to an adequate standard of living, including food, water and housing

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ICESCR Article 11 | International scrutiny | Commission work | More information | Comments

ICESCR Article 11

ICESCR Article 11 states:

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.
2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed:
   
   (a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources;
   
   (b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.

International scrutiny

General comments

• Committee on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights General comment 4: The right to adequate housing
• Committee on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights General comment 15 The Right to Water
• Committee on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights General Comment 12 The right to adequate food 

Other international scrutiny

• Special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing
• Toolkit on the right to adequate housing
• Special Rapporteur on the right to food
• Toolkit on the right to food
• Special Rapporteur on the right to water
• Toolkit on the right to water

Commission work

Housing

• Housing, homelessness and human rights page
• Submission on the Exposure Draft, Homelessness Bill 2012 - 23 August 2012
• Inquiry into national homelessness legislation - 1 September 2009
• Homelessness: Which way home? - 4 July 2008
• "Tenancy and the right to adequate and affordable housing" (Word)  or PDF: Speech by Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti for Ten Year Anniversary of Western Sydney Tenants' Service, 21 March 2000

More information

• Attorney-General's Department Guidance Sheet
• Principles and Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) 
• Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Fact Sheets on housing, water and food (PDF files)
• Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) 

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