USING THE “HUMAN RIGHTS BASED APPROACH” TO TACKLE HOUSING DEPRIVATION IN NA IRISH URBAN ESTATE

Autores

  • Rory Hearne National University of Ireland, Galway
  • Padraic Kenna National University of Ireland, Galway

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5902/2316305413005

Resumo

Housing rights are becoming significant as a tool for highlighting needs and raising

housing standards across the world. These rights are now an integral part of economic, social, and cultural rights within international human rights instruments, while the right to adequate housing is recognised legally at national and international levels. Among the methods of implementing these rights the “Human Rights Based Approach” (HRBA) is used by NGOs, community organisations and rights advocates. Many housing rights issues arise in relation to standards in social housing, urban regeneration and social housing policy development. This article examines a case study where the HRBA has been applied by local authority tenants in partnership with community development organisations and supported by human rights expertise to campaign for improvements to substandard housing conditions and deprivation within a Dublin inner city social housing estate. It appraises the adoption of the HRBA as a response to inadequate housing conditions and delayed regeneration programmes. The impact of poor housing on the health of tenants was an integral element of the arguments used. The outcomes of using the HRBA for the rights holders (the tenants) are assessed. Overall, this campaign led to significant improvements in conditions. The factors underlying the success centred on the way in which the HRBA framework, with its focus on measurable indicators of human rights violations, enabled community development organisations to create a human rights based public campaign that exerted considerable political pressure through the empowerment of tenants, leveraging of human rights experts, and considerable media publicity. The development of solutions in parallel with the local authority was also important. This approach transcended many established NGO and State approaches to addressing poverty.

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Biografia do Autor

Rory Hearne, National University of Ireland, Galway

Co-ordinator in the Dolphin House estate where he is working with the local community to implement a Human Rights Based Approach.

Padraic Kenna, National University of Ireland, Galway

Padraic Kenna is a graduate of the School of Law, University of Warwick and holds a PhD from NUI. At University College London he studied the Law of Property Development and Company Law. He has worked with a range of statutory and other agencies in the UK and Ireland in an advocacy role and in the development and management of housing. Dr Kenna lectures in real property/land law, law of equity and trusts, Irish legal systems, sociology of law, housing law and policy, regulation, English land law, law of local government and other topics, to the LLB, BCL, LLM in Public Law and other graduate and post-graduate courses. He has examined international human rights and housing law with particular reference to the application of international and comparative legal instruments and norms to Irish housing law and policy, leading to Housing Rights and Human Rights (Brussels, FEANTSA, 2005) and Housing Law and Policy in Ireland, (Dublin, Clarus Press, 2005). His most recent publication Housing Law, Rights and Policy (Dublin, Clarus Press, 2011) provides a comprehensive examination and critical analysis of contemporary housing law and policy. Dr Kenna established, with others, the FEANTSA Expert Group on Housing Rights, in 2004, which led to the decision of the European Committee for Social Rights Collective Complaint relating to Article 31 of the European Social Charter by France (FEANTSA v France). A Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of both the International Journal of Law in the Built Environment and the Irish Human Rights Law Review he was one of the Irish Legal Experts Group for the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRALEX) until 2010. Dr Kenna is also affiliated to the NUI, Galway, Centre for Disability Law and Policy where he is engaged in research, teaching and PhD supervision. He joined the Law School in 2002.

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Como Citar

Hearne, R., & Kenna, P. (2014). USING THE “HUMAN RIGHTS BASED APPROACH” TO TACKLE HOUSING DEPRIVATION IN NA IRISH URBAN ESTATE. Revista Direitos Emergentes Na Sociedade Global, 2(2), 410–435. https://doi.org/10.5902/2316305413005

Edição

v. 2 n. 2 (2013)

Seção

Doutrina Internacional - Direitos Emergentes na Sociedade Global