83
areas etc. The Committee notes that such criminalization
raises concerns of discrimination and cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment…the State party should…abolish the
criminalization of homelessness laws and policies at the
state and local levels…”
365
The Law Center has strategically built up this commentary
from the Human Rights Committee and numerous other
U.N. human rights monitors addressing criminalization of
homelessness as cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment
- to provide evidence of an international norm that can
guide judges to make similar fi ndings domestically.
366
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD), also specifi cally condemned the criminalization
of homelessness in the U.S. and called on the U.S. to
“[a]bolish laws and policies making homelessness a
crime.” The Committee Against Torture, considered such
recommendations at its review of U.S. compliance in
November 2014, and asked the U.S. to address the issue at
its next review scheduled for 2018 (but the U.S. is overdue in
fi ling its report, so its review has been delayed).
367
The U.S.
365 Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations, CCPR/C/
USA/CO/4, ¶ 19, Apr. 23, 2014
366 See U.N. Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations on
the Fourth Report of the United States of America, ¶ 19, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/
USA/CO/4 (2014); U.N. Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rap-
porteur 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,
Raquel Rolnik, Mission to the United States of America, ¶ 95, U.N. Doc. A/
HRC/13/20/Add.4 (Feb. 12, 2012) [hereinafter UNHRC, Report of Raquel
Rolnik]; U.N. Human Rights Council, Final Draft of the Guiding Principles on
Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Submitted by the Special Rapporteur on
Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, ¶¶
65, 66(c), U.N. Doc. A/HRC/21/39 (July 18, 2012); U.N. Human Rights
Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human
Rights, ¶¶ 48-50, 78(c), U.N. Doc. A/67/278 (Aug. 9, 2012); Special
Rapporteurs on the Rights to Adequate Housing, Water and Sanitation, and
Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, USA: “Moving Away from the Crimi-
nalization of Homelessness, A Step in the Right Direction” (Apr. 23, 2012),
http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?News-
ID=12079&LangID=E; UNHRC, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the
Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquer-
que, Addendum, Mission to the United States of America, A/HRC/18/33/
Add.4, Aug. 2, 2011; Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking
Water and Sanitation, Stigma and the Realization of the Human Rights to Wa-
ter and Sanitation, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/21/42 (July 2, 2012); U.N. Human
Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Doudou
Diéne, Mission to the United States of America, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/11/36/
Add.3 (Apr. 28, 2009) [hereinafter UNHRC, Report of Diéne].
367 Committee Against Torture, Summary Record of the 1264th Session,
CAT/C/SR.1264, ¶ 37, Nov. 17, 2014, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/
CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/CAT_C_SR_1264_22881_E.pdf; Com-
mittee Against Torture, List of Issues Prior to Submission of the Sixth Periodic
Report of the United States of America, CAT/C/USA/QPR/6, ¶ 46, Dec.
19, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/
Download.aspx?symbolno=CAT%2fC%2fUSA%2fQPR%2f6&Lang=en.
also received, and accepted, a recommendation from its
2015 Universal Periodic Review by the U.N. Human Rights
Council to “amend laws that criminalize homelessness and
which are not in conformity with international human rights
instruments,”
368
Taken together, the three major human rights
treaty bodies, the Universal Periodic Review, plus a wide
range of other human rights offi cials have created a clear
and consistent standard establishing that criminalization of
homelessness violates human rights norms, which should
be given persuasive weight in evaluating the “opinions of
mankind.”
Rather than simply enjoining such laws only to see
communities make minimal changes to the laws but continue
criminalizing practices, international law may also provide
support for more expansive remedies – such as provision of
housing – to address underlying constitutional violations.
369
Given that the U.S. has ratifi ed the ICCPR, the Convention
Against Torture, and the Convention on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination (CERD), and is a signatory to the
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD), the U.S. has affi rmative obligations not
to infringe upon certain freedoms of homeless individuals.
Under its international legal obligations, many policies in
the United States that currently relate to both homelessness
in general and to tent cities and encampments in particular
violate international law. Forced evictions against tent city
residents and tent city closures without the provision of
adequate alternative or emergency housing—or even the
existence of tent cities instead of adequate housing—may
violate international law. Beyond the above-described
freedom from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment,
the ICCPR also recognizes the right to life, which has been
interpreted by the Human Rights Committee, to include the
right to shelter oneself from the elements.
370
368 Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review,
United States of America, A/HRC/30/12, ¶ 176.309 (July 20, 2015);
Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, United States
of America, Addendum, Views on Conclusions and/or Recommendations,
Voluntary Commitments and Replies Presented by the State Under Review, A/
HRC/30/12/Add.1, ¶ 12 (Sept. 14, 2015).
369 Eric Tars, Heather Maria Johnson, Tristia Bauman & Maria Fos-
carinis, Can I Get Some Remedy? Criminalization of Homelessness and the
Obligation to Provide an Effective Remedy, 45 Col. HRLR 738 (2014), http://
nlchp.org/documents/HLRL_Symposium_Edition_Spring2014_Can_I_Get_
Some_Remedy.
370 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 36: Article 6:
Right to Life, CCPR/C/GC/36 (Sept. 3, 2018), ¶26, http://docstore.ohchr.