Photo: RNZA visiting United Nations representative has called New Zealand's housing crisis a "significant human rights crisis" and it's time the right to housing was wrenched from the hands of the private market. The root of the crisis laid, she said, in the gutting of social housing and a speculative housing market. "Framing something as a human rights issue elevates the issue in importance." "Some of the things I found really lovely about the conference was the way [Farha] contextualised the Treaty really as a human rights instrument and a reminder that human rights and the Treaty are about human dignity. She said the Government was in the "throes of consulting with different stakeholders" and that the human rights based approach was something they could consider.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 19, 2020 19:07 UTC