NNWN/ New Delhi,2017-09-29

The Housing and Land Rights Network( HLRN) has welcomed the Indian government for accepting United Nation's' recommendations related to sustainable rural and urban development, poverty eradication, farmers’ rights, and the human rights to adequate housing, land, water, sanitation, food, and the environment.This signifies an important step for India in meeting its commitments under international law, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Paris Agreement, the HLRN stated.
The Government of India has accepted 152 of the 250 recommendations made to it under its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Universal Periodic Review ( UPR) is a United Nations peer review mechanism in which the human rights record of all 193 UN member states is examined at the Human Rights Council, every four-and-a-half years. India’s third UPR (UPR III) was held on 4 May 2017, during which 112 UN member states proposed 250 recommendations to India. Of these recommendations, India “accepted” 152 and “noted” 98.
The UPR III recommendations accepted by India are in line with those made by other UN bodies, including the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. A number of these recommendations, however, have not yet been implemented by India. The HLRN however urged the government to use the UPR III recommendations as a point of convergence, including the adoption of a strong human rights approach to missions, policies, and laws that impact sustainable development, housing, land, water, and related human rights in the country.
Implementing the UPR III recommendations will also help India in improving the execution of national schemes including the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Housing for All – 2022), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Swachh Bharat Mission, National Urban Livelihoods Mission, while also meeting its constitutional and other national legal obligations.
The HLRN urged the state governments and relevant ministries to ensure that human rights-based indicators are developed to implement the UPR recommendations and to link them with the implementation of relevant SDG and various national schemes, the HLRN statement said.
Recognizing and protecting housing and land rights of the rural and urban population, especially of women, is critical to fulfilling SDG and UPR III commitments. The HLRN stressed on the need for a national moratorium on forced evictions and forced relocation of the urban and rural poor. With every home that the state demolishes, India backtracks on its goal of providing ‘housing for all by 2022.’ Between January 2016 and August 2017, HLRN estimates that at least 40,000 families have been evicted in urban India. Forced evictions result in the violation of multiple human rights, including the rights to adequate housing, work/livelihood, education, health, food, land, water, sanitation, and security of the person and home.
The government should work towards adopting a human rights-based definition of ‘public purpose’ to check against indiscriminate and rampant land-grabbing, displacement, and resultant landlessness and homelessness. Initiatives of ‘land pooling’ and ‘land banks’ must incorporate human rights principles, including of transparency, participation, and the free and prior informed consent of all affected persons, while ensuring protection against violation of land rights of individuals and communities. Human rights impact assessments and environmental impact assessments must be carried out for all projects, including under the Smart Cities Mission. The HLRN urged the Indian government to work in collaboration with civil society, social movements, and local communities to fulfil its national and international legal and moral commitments, while ensuring social justice for all. UPR III has presented an important opportunity for India to integrate a human rights approach towards social justice issues in the country, and thereby to fulfil its voluntarily accepted commitments to the United Nations