Implementing R2H in Canada - A Responsibility of All Governments

In order to explain how the different levels of government can be held accountable for implementing the right to housing, it is important to understand Canada’s commitment to this right under the NHSA, and how the responsibilities and mechanisms created under the NHSA apply to all levels of government. [...] The NHSA is the first legislation in Canada to declare that the right to housing is “a fundamental human right affirmed in international human rights law” and commit the federal government to “the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing as recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.” In concrete terms, this commitment means, among other things. [...] The federal government’s legislative commitment to the right to housing in the NHSA is linked to an existing commitment of all governments in Canada to ensure that their laws, policies, programs and decisions are consistent with the right to housing under international law. [...] Recommendations submitted to the federal government under the NHSA may also address the role of the federal government in coordinating multi-jurisdictional strategies for the realization of the right to housing. [...] The federal government’s commitment to the right to housing under international law, however, may offer a way to reframe norms and standards linked to the right to housing as shared obligations and commitments to human rights rather than as conditions imposed unilaterally by the federal government.