A/HRC/37/53 disproportionate impact on women of forced evictions, inadequate water and sanitation and pervasive poverty. 38. Strategies should address the legacy of colonization and the systemic housing inequality and dispossession experienced by indigenous peoples. This requires specific measures led by indigenous peoples based on their right to develop their own housing priorities and strategies.15 39. Strategies should additionally recognize and be responsive to the unique housing experiences that result from intersectional and compound discrimination. For example, women with disabilities are more susceptible to violence in the home and less likely to have access to shelters or alternative accommodation, and women with physical disabilities may suffer particular hardship when water and sanitation facilities are not nearby. 40. Strategies should be responsive to emerging issues of marginalization, discrimination or xenophobia and address stigmatization and hatred. The increasing number of people on the move raises a particular challenge in this respect. Housing strategies must ensure the right to housing of migrants, regardless of documentation. The draft guidelines on migration produced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) provide guidance on these obligations.16 In practice 41. In many cases, although strategies claim to prioritize those most in need, they impose requirements that serve to disqualify them. For example, requirements such as cash down payments, personal identification, documentary proof of title or zoning approval, or historical occupancy, all act as barriers to many people in need of adequate housing. 42. In Afghanistan, a microfinance project provides small home improvement loans to low-income residents for renovations and upgrading. Originally the programme required residents to show documentary proof of title to their lands. However, in order to eliminate this barrier, alternative forms of proof are now accepted, such as the testimony of neighbours.17 43. In Uganda, the 2016 housing policy 18 recalls the country’s colonial past and the historical housing policy that only addressed the needs of Europeans while segregating Africans to the peripheries of urban areas. The current policy aims to ensure access to adequate housing for vulnerable groups, challenges stigmatization and discrimination, particularly of the 2 million persons living with HIV/AIDS, and addresses gender as a cross-cutting issue requiring measures to ensure women are involved in the design, formulation and implementation of housing projects and programmes. 44. In the city of Medellín, Colombia, a new transportation system targeted areas with the lowest quality of life. The system connects informal settlements to the city by cable car.19 45. As a measure to give effect to constitutional human rights provisions including dignity of the person, Portugal has adopted a multi-pronged action plan to eliminate homelessness by 2023 based on principles of non-discrimination and equality. The Strategy will include an interministerial commission that oversees the implementation of the strategy. 46. Organizations in Europe have recently partnered to develop a “homeless bill of rights” to raise awareness of the discrimination and inequality experienced by homeless 15 16 17 18 19 8 See the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Migration/Pages/VulnerableSituations.aspx. Information on file with the Special Rapporteur from the European Microfinance Award 2017. Available from http://mlhud.go.ug/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/National-Housing-Policy-May2016.pdf. See https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/ds2/stream/?#/documents/47914/page/1.