A/HRC/43/43/Add.2 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Leilani Farha, visited France from 2 to 12 April 2019 at the invitation of the Government. The purpose of her visit was to identify positive outcomes and existing challenges with respect to the realization of the right to adequate housing in the country. 2. The Special Rapporteur thanks France for its invitation and its cooperation during the visit. She also thanks all of her interlocutors, including government officials, mayors, lawyers and civil society representatives, for the fruitful discussions and the sharing of information. 1 She warmly thanks those individuals and families whom she met living in various degrees of inadequate housing or homelessness who shared their personal experiences with her. 3. France has in many ways embraced the right to adequate housing, having adopted a number of ambitious housing laws and policies. Most notable is the fact that the right to adequate housing is both enforceable and justiciable. Despite the fact that France is a frontrunner in this regard, for a number of groups the right to adequate housing has become increasingly under threat. 4. In many metropolitan regions, for example, those who claim their right to housing in court have to wait for years before being provided with access to adequate housing. The country has one of the largest social housing stocks, yet social housing is scant for those most in need, forcing the most vulnerable to turn to the lowest echelons of the private market, often owned by “slumlords”. Discrimination against marginalized groups is frequently reported in the private housing market. Homelessness is on the rise, and informal settlements with deplorable conditions are growing in size and number. 5. While living standards in France have drastically improved over the past 50 years for the majority of the population, the poverty rate has stalled at 14 per cent, and extreme poverty is on the rise. Although most people in France enjoy a high standard of living, approximately 6 per cent of the population are estimated to live in substandard housing and approximately 18 per cent are in a vulnerable situation owing to increasing housing costs. An impressive and widely known national hotline (115) allows people who are homeless or living in dire housing conditions to call and seek immediate assistance, but owing to the volume of calls in Paris, for example, less than a third of the calls are answered. There is an unconditional right to shelter, regardless of administrative status, but shelters are at capacity. Despite significant efforts to prevent and reduce homelessness, the number of people living on the streets, in shelters, in so-called “social hotels” or in substandard housing continues to rise. In light of those challenges, a number of the people with whom the Special Rapporteur met were questioning whether the right to housing had become merely rhetoric. 6. As the seventh largest economy in the world, with a long tradition of social housing and human rights, it is difficult to justify the housing conditions experience by the most vulnerable in France. Although France faces a growing housing crisis, which is also a human rights crisis, the Government cut spending for the housing allowance of social housing tenants by 1.5 billion euros in 2017, incentivized the selling-off of social housing units, and increased taxes for social housing providers, potentially curbing their ability to develop much-needed housing. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to reverse this course and strengthen its commitment to the right to adequate housing. II. Legal framework A. International human rights law 7. France has ratified most international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which sets out the right to adequate housing in article 11, and its Optional Protocol, which allows individuals to submit communications after the exhaustion of domestic remedies. According to the Covenant, France has the obligation to progressively realize the right to adequate housing through 1 See appendix. 3