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Introduction
Violations of the human right to adequate housing affect women and men in different ways. When working to enforce housing rights, it is therefore crucial to apply a gender perspective. Between 2002 and 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing (SRAH), Mr Miloon Kothari, together with civil society organisations, organised seven regional consultations on Women and the Right to Adequate Housing , inviting representatives from women’s rights and housing rights groups. During these consultations, the participants received information on women’s and housing rights and training on how to advocate for them. Thereafter, they provided testimonies about the situation in their specific countries. These testimonies serve as material for a report that the SRAH will present to the Commission on Human Rights. The consultations also functioned as a forum for groups and individuals to meet and share ideas and experiences and as a link between UN and the civil society.

Cross-cutting issues
Drawing from the consultations a number of issues can be identified that seem to be central in the international field of women and housing. The following list is a summary of these.

• Structural discrimination

Women’s greater vulnerability to violations of the right to adequate housing originates from a structural subordination of women due to gender roles and patriarchal arrangements prevailing in all the regions, although manifesting itself differently in different places.

• Women’s rights and access to land and adequate housing in a legal context

Although some countries have laws that discriminate against women regarding ownership, land titling, access to credit and inheritance, in most of the countries men and women have equal legal rights.  The problem is, often, that the laws are not implemented, or a that there is a lack of awareness about them among both women and men.

• Intersectionality/multiple discrimination

Gender is not the only motive for discrimination, and not all women are discriminated in the same ways. The concept of intersectionality is used to demonstrate how different relations and identities interact in creating patterns of power. An intersectional approach to women’s housing rights may increase understanding and enable more relevant interventions.

• Gender-based violence

Domestic, extra-familial and/or authoritarian violence seem to be widespread problems in all of the regions. The gender-based violence itself is an obstacle to equal housing rights. Simultaneously, inadequate housing makes women more vulnerable to violence.

• Globalisation and economic liberalisation

Globalisation refers to a variety of processes, affecting different groups and regions in different ways. Urbanisation, human trafficking and privatisation of basic services are examples of such processes that may affect women and their housing rights negatively.

• Environmental issues

Environmental issues are closely linked to women’s rights to adequate housing. Housing built on toxic grounds, water shortages and destruction of nature are examples of environmental problems that tend to obstruct women’s enjoyment of their rights.

• Armed/ethnic conflicts

Armed conflicts impede women’s rights to adequate housing for example by damage or destruction of houses or by forcing people to leave their homes, often to end up in refugee camps. Furthermore, conflicts take the lives of many men, in many cases leaving behind widows without access to the family home because it is registered in the husband’s name.

• Knowledge and understanding of contexts

In the work for women’s rights to adequate housing, more knowledge and understanding – based on research and reliable statistics – is needed on particular geographic, social, economic and cultural contexts and on the specific situation of certain groups of women.