DOI helps in the landmark case on the right to adequate housing in Spain

The Dullah Omar Institute was involved in a landmark decision by UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on right to adequate housing in Spain.

This decision involved a family who were evicted from their home they had rented in Madrid, Spain, on 3 October 2013, after their lease contract expired (M.B.D. et al. v. Spain (Communication No. 5/2015). In its decision, the Committee on CESCR found that evictions should not render individuals or families homeless and that States party are under an obligation to provide suitable alternative accommodation to individuals or families that would be rendered homeless during an eviction. More importantly, the Committee held that protection from evictions applies to tenants in rental accommodation whether public or private. The government of Spain was found wanting of its obligation to realise the right to adequate housing under the ICESCR. The intervention by the ESCR-Net’s Strategic Litigation Working Group helped in providing international and comparative material to support the CESCR’s proper determination of the case and showing the relevance, once again, of third party interventions for the drafting of general recommendations, aimed at preventing similar violations in the future.

ESCR-Net’s Strategic Litigation Working Group members, Amnesty International, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Socioeconomic Rights Project, Dullah Omar Institute, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), Social Rights Advocacy Centre (SRAC), Observatori DESC, Ana Maya Aguirre and Jackie Dugard,