Call for action | Commitment to dignified housing in Chile's constitution

As Chile is in the process of elaborating its new constitution, GI-ESCR, together with a group of citizen organisations, presented members of the constitutional convention their Commitment to dignified housing, calling on them to commit to key guidelines for incorporating this right into the new fundamental charter, in a country were over 81,000 families are deprived of housing. The partners also call on civil society to show their support by signing the Commitment.

According to the most recent census carried out by Techo Chile, more than 81,000 families live in camps throughout Chile. These are informal settlements, usually made up of precarious housing and without basic services such as drinking water, sewage or electricity. This is the highest figure since 1996 and reflects the difficulties and barriers that exist today in guaranteeing the human right to decent housing in Chile. Moreover, it represents only the "tip of the iceberg" of a huge number of households living in a housing deficit.

Currently, Chile's constitution does not recognise the right to adequate housing, and the current constitutional process offers a unique opportunity for the country to bring its legislation in line with international human rights standards.

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE COMMITMENT

Click on the image to read the Commitment to dignified housing (in Spanish only).

To advance in this direction, a group of citizen organisations presented the Commitment to dignified housing. The initiative calls on the the members of the constitutional convention to commit to key guidelines for incorporating this right into the new fundamental charter. It also asks civil society to support the commitment by signing it. Among the key elements of the Commitment, the following stand out:

• Recognising the human right to adequate housing

• Enshrining the right to the city as the collective dimension of the right to housing.

• Guaranteeing the primacy of the public interest in the regulation of land use.

THE PARTNERS

The Commitment to dignified housing is promoted by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), together with Techo-Chile, Fundación Vivienda, Urbanismo Social and Casa Abierta.