Our joint UN submission on Canada’s housing & homelessness crisis

February 3, 2026

We join the National Right to Housing Network and Canadian Centre for Housing Rights in calling on Canada to meet its human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

In March 2026, Canada will appear before the United Nations Human Rights Committee for its review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Ahead of this review, the National Right to Housing Network, the Women’s National Housing & Homelessness Network, and the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights submitted a joint brief raising serious concerns about homelessness, evictions, and discrimination in Canada.

This submission makes a clear case: homelessness is not only a social policy failure — it is a civil and political rights issue. Read the submission here.

The ICCPR is a binding international human rights treaty that Canada has ratified. It protects fundamental rights such as the right to life, equality, non-discrimination, and access to effective remedies.

While housing is often framed as a social or economic issue, the ICCPR makes clear that civil and political rights cannot be realized when people are forced to live without safe, secure housing. States must not only refrain from violating rights, but must take positive steps to protect them.

Our joint submission aims to ensure that Canada’s housing crisis, and its human rights consequences, are fully considered during the ICCPR review.

It highlights how homelessness, forced evictions, and unequal access to justice undermine rights protected by the Covenant, including the right to life, equality before the law, and freedom from discrimination. It also asks the Committee to clarify Canada’s legal obligations and press for meaningful action.

Systemic discrimination is another core focus. Indigenous peoples, women, gender-diverse people, racialized communities, people with disabilities, and others experience disproportionate housing precarity and homelessness. These patterns are not accidental — they are shaped by structural inequities, financialized housing markets, and policy failures that entrench inequality.

While the submission acknowledges progress, including Canada’s recognition of the right to housing in domestic law, it makes clear that implementation has fallen short.

Rights without timelines, targets, or enforcement mechanisms remain out of reach for too many people.

The submission urges the Human Rights Committee to press Canada to take concrete action, including:

Recognizing that the right to life includes a duty to prevent and eliminate homelessness, supported by rights-based strategies with clear goals and timelines.
Strengthening legal protections against evictions into homelessness, including access to legal representation and proportionality in eviction decisions.
Addressing discrimination in housing, including recognizing homelessness or housing status as a prohibited ground and tackling systemic inequalities that place marginalized communities at greater risk.

Canada’s housing crisis is a human rights crisis. As Canada appears before the UN, this submission makes clear that civil and political rights cannot be separated from housing conditions on the ground. Ensuring safe, secure housing is not optional — it is essential to protecting life, dignity, and equality.

The ICCPR review is a critical opportunity to hold Canada accountable and to reaffirm that housing justice is human rights justice.