Click here to read the speech, Can rights solve issues of poverty?
This address was delivered to the National Conference on Homeless Persons by the former Human Rights Commissioner, Chris Sidoti, in September 1996. Adequate housing is essential for human survival with dignity. Without a right to housing many other basic rights will be compromised including the right to family life and privacy, the right to freedom of movement, the right to assembly and association, the right to health and the right to development. Australia’s response to the right to housing has been a mixed one to date. On the positive side the right to housing is recognised and supported in documents such as Australia’s National Action Plan on Human Rights. However, there remains considerable room for improvement, especially in relation to particular groups of Australians, including children and young people, women, Indigenous peoples, and people with mental illness.
