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Most Countries Fail to Fulfill Landmark Habitat Commitments
Most states have failed to fulfill the pledges they collectively made at a landmark Habitat conference in Istanbul in 1996, a U.N. special reporter on adequate housing Miloon Kathari told a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York Thursday.
On the second day of a review and appraisal by a special session of the U.N. General Assembly on progress made in ensuring adequate shelter for all in the past five years since the Istanbul conference, Kathari said that despite reaffirmation of the right to adequate housing within the U.N. human rights system and in national legislation, its implementation and realization are far from reality for the majority of the world's poor.
He noted that the U.N. Global Report on Human Settlements had given a "very grave picture" of the state of housing and living conditions across the world.
On Wednesday, Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of the UN Center for Human Settlements (Habitat), told a joint press conference that with 1.2 billion people in the world still lacking adequate housing, the goals set five years ago by the Second UN Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul remain "elusive."
She emphasized the importance of bringing shelter back into the UN strategy for fighting poverty. "The delivery of shelter will not come about by decree alone but will require investment at different levels," she said.
The on-going U.N. General Assembly special session, also known as "Istanbul + 5," continued its deliberations Thursday. The debate this morning focused on the combination of successes and obstacles of individual countries, primarily in the developing world, in meeting the twin goals of the Habitat Agenda: adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development.
The three-day special session is expected to close on Friday.
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