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Property Rights Versus Living Rights

by David Korten

One of the most hotly debated issues of the UN Habitat II conference help in Istanbul in June 1996 was whether its Global Action Plan (GAP) would recognize housing as a basic human right. NGOs were adamant that access to adequate shelter be recognized as a human right. Some governments--most notably the United States--have waged a campaign to exclude any such language from conference documents. In the end the voices of the people prevailed and the right to housing was reaffirmed by the official delegates.

The housing crisis is real. The United Nations estimates that 100 million people presently sleep outside with no shelter at all or sleep in public buildings such as railway, bus, or metro stations. If the definition of homelessness is expanded to include people living in insecure or temporary shelters-