Chile: The proposed new Constitution is a “unique opportunity” to confirm the right to adequate housing

“Sunday’s referendum in Chile provides a unique opportunity for Chile to join to the growing number of countries that have legally recognized the right to adequate housing in their Constitution”, said the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, on Friday.

The expert stressed that the new Magna Carta that the people of Chile will vote this Sunday in a “historic referendum” will replace the current Constitution drafted during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Rajagopal advocates that states give full legal recognition to the right to adequate housing, a fundamental guarantee contemplated in the UN human rights treaties that Chile has ratified.

“In 2018, my predecessor -Leilani Farha- recommended Chile the inclusion of an explicit reference to the right to adequate housing in its Constitution, along with the full range of economic, social and cultural rights, all of which must be enforceable before the courts”, recalled the rapporteur.

Similarly, he stressed that also “the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the UN has urged Chile to guarantee the comprehensive recognition and necessary legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights in the new constitutional text.”

Lastly, and reinforcing his opinion, the expert stressed that “recently, the Guidelines for Enforcing the Right to Adequate Housing They have called on all States to recognize the right to adequate housing as an enforceable right through the applicable constitutional and legislative provisions.”

The special rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system, is the umbrella name for the Council’s independent investigative and monitoring mechanisms that deal with specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. world. The experts of the Special Procedures work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organization and provide services in their individual capacity.