Home Is Where the Heart Is: Sexual Orientation Discrimination and the Right to Adequate Housing in International Law

I. INTRODUCTION In 2006, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force reported that although only 3 to 5 percent of people in the United States are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual (LGBT), 20 to 40 percent of homeless youths are LGBT individuals.1 In part, the report attributed this vasdy disproportionate rate within homelessness to pervasive discrimination against LGBT individuals in housing practices, including refusal to accept LGBT individuals even at temporary shelters.2 In fact, in recent years, watchdog groups in Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, and the United States have documented similar and related problems.3 Although many state governments have attempted to address racial, ethnic, and wealth discrimination in housing, many of these governments have failed to explicitly deal with housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.4 Fortunately, international legal standards are increasingly addressing this issue. Recendy, more nations have begun to recognize both the human right to adequate housing and the need to treat sexual minorities as a protected group.5 Thus, international instruments mandating nondiscriminatory protection of the right to adequate housing should be construed to protect sexual minorities so as to recognize these emerging norms. In addition, to ensure consistent protection from housing discrimination, even nonparties to these instruments should recognize the existence of a customary norm of international law that includes sexual minorities among the groups protected from discrimination with regard to the right to adequate housing. Part II of this Note will discuss the sources and nature of the right to adequate housing in international law. It will examine the conventional sources and definitions of the right and describe the right to adequate housing within international custom. Part II also will focus on the prohibition against housing discrimination. In particular, it will discuss the source and meaning of the prohibition on discrimination as well as that prohibition's justiciability. Part II will finish by exploring the emergence of a customary norm recognizing sexual minorities as a group that should be protected from discrimination in general. Part III will argue further that, given the development of this norm, sexual minorities should be among the groups that international law protects from discrimination with respect to the right to adequate housing. II. DISCUSSION A. The Right to Adequate Housing in International Law The human right to adequate housing is well established under both conventional and customary international law. Many international instruments outline and create protections for the right to housing, including global multilateral treaties and regional international agreements. Furthermore, an increasingly strong principle of customary international law protects the right to adequate housing. 1. International Instruments Protecting the Right to Adequate Housing Global multilateral treaties provide the most comprehensive housing rights protections, while regional international instruments create an additional layer of protection and can be enforced effectively at a more local level.6 Both types of instruments are products of an international regime that strongly safeguards the right to adequate housing. a. Multilateral International Instruments Several major multilateral instruments recognize housing rights, creating the strongest and most broad-based protections for the right to housing and more clearly defining the right itself. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) , adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948, explicitly states that [e]veryone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including . . . housing.7 Although the UDHR is not binding law, it was the first agreement expressing a unified group of nations' intent to protect economic, social, and cultural rights, including the right to housing. …

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