During the first week of the March session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the A 11 Initiative for Economic and Social Rights attended a meeting of organisations dealing with the right to adequate housing, organized by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The organizations gathered in the aim of reconceptualizing and returning the right to adequate housing to the Human Rights Council agenda.
At the same time that meeting served as an opportunity to consider the key findings of the last report of the United Nations Special Repporteur on Housing, as well as an opportunity to establish a platform for the exchange of experiences and cooperation of organizations that deal with the right to adequate housing in various different regions, contexts and legal systems. During the meetings it was decided that an International Alliance on the Right to Adequate Housing shuold be formed. This Alliance would serve to gather organizations that were on the aforementioned meeting, but also other groups, individuals and initiatives that contribute to the improvement of the right to adequate housing through their work. That Alliance will serve as an informal advocacy group for the improvement of the legal framework in the area of rights to adequate housing, but also to shift the focus back onto that right, especially in front of United Nations Treaty Bodies and the Human Rights Council.
Furthermore, the International Alliance for the Right to Housing will participate in the monitoring and implementation process of development goals centered in human rights, especially goal 11 which, among other things, envisions that access to adequate, safe and affordable housing and public services should be provided by 2030, as well as the improvement of slums.
Besides the A11 Initiative, the International Alliance for the Right to Housing gathers organizations from Nigeria, Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia, Canada, the United States of America, United Kingdom and Argentina.