May 28, 2010
Rialto Rights in Action Programme
Lorna Fox O’Mahony is Professor of Law at Durham Law School. Lorna’s research interests are strongly oriented around social analyses of property law, applying policy-oriented, socio-legal and theoretical perspectives to a range of property issues. This follows on from Fiona’s earlier post regarding the residents of Dolphin house here.
As a participant in the panel who heard the evidence at this hearing on Tuesday, and also participated last year in a similar hearing in Belfast organised by Participation and the Practice of Rights project, which focused on conditions in the ‘Seven Towers’ flats in the New Lodge area of Belfast, I would like to add some comments to Fiona’s post.
The Rialto Rights in Action project is a really positive process in many ways. As you say, it seeks to empower the residents as ‘rights-bearers’, and to bring pressure on Dublin City Council – and more fundamentally the Irish state – to bridge the gap between the formal obligations that the Council accept they have, and the reality of housing conditions for residents (who feel that the council is not listening to the issues and problems raised), and so to deliver on the right to adequate housing.
It is worth highlighting that there are two types of claim being made through this project (and the Belfast project). One is the right to adequate conditions, that is, not to have to pay rent to live with raw sewerage outside and inside your home, and with levels of damp and mould which are injurious to health, and experienced as embarrassing and stigmatising by the people who live there. It isn’t easy for residents to expose the inadequacies of their homes – a private space with significant implications for self-identity and social-identity – but the evidence submitted to the hearing showed a level of frustration with inaction on the part of the council to address the underlying causes of these problems. While the lack of funds claim is often, as you say, offered as an excuse to failing to deliver social and economic rights, we also know that lack of funds is always about priorities. Of course the state and the council have budgets, it is a question of where spending priorities lie. The scientific, statistical and testimonial evidence put forward in the hearing makes a powerful argument for prioritising basic living standards, and the use of international law and a rights-based discourse lends moral and political authority to that claim.
The other type of claim being made is for the right to participate in the decision-making process – as mentioned in the General Comment No 4 on the right to housing. As a strategy which seeks to empower residents, it also argues that any solutions to these problems must be made with the participation of the residents if they are to be appropriate and lasting solutions. As a very simple example, while public authority landlords tend to focus on the external appearance of ‘housing stock’, and its structural integrity, the residents are much more concerned with the interior and how they live in the property: whether it is a safe and suitable place which functions adequately as a home for them to live in with their families.
The hearing this week was the launch of a campaign: we had to be frank with residents that the rights-based approach and the UN Covenant wont provide them with a ‘silver bullet’ to solve their problems, and that there are no guarantees that the strategy will deliver results. The Belfast group has experienced some modest successes with some of their issues, although I understand that there are still obstacles to fully achieving participation, and on some of the problems with conditions. Much will depend on the Rialto group’s ability to sustain momentum, and with whether the media and the Irish people support their message that these conditions are unacceptable and an embarrassment to a developed nation.
It is also worth mentioning that the people who work with residents to train them and support them in making their claims do an amazing job, but it is very resource-intensive strategy. A local counsellor at the Rialto meeting made the point that there are other housing areas of inner-city Dublin with similar problems. It will be crucial to watch how events unfold, but those of us who are interested in this area have an opportunity here to try to sustain this focus on inadequate housing, and perhaps find out how powerful human rights discourse can be in delivering results.
Anyone who has dealt with Dublin Corporation/Dublin City Council over the years will know that the issue of maintainence has rarely been taken seriously by that body. This despite the fact that rents are used to create and keep people employed, give them a quality of life, human rights and maybe better living standards/accommodation than the people who contribute to their wages, salary and lifestyle.
From the top down attitudes towards those living in flat complexes are not countenanced and this in itself is a type of racism which must change.
The historical and prevailing culture within the DCC seems to be that people in ‘flats’ don’t really matter they are always moaning, giving out about the standard of work carried out (when and if it is carried out)and generally ungrateful for the accomodation they have been allocated.
I Agree with a previous article which states that the people who work with residents to train them and support them in making their claims do an amazing job and that it is a very resource/finance-intensive strategy. I also agree when people indicate that there are other housing areas of inner-city Dublin and elsewhere outside the Dublin area with similar problems. Indeed it will be critical that we watch how events unfold, and those of us who are interested in this area will have an opportunity to sustain this focus on inadequate and sub standard housing, and more importantly find out how powerful human rights can be in delivering results.
Ray
Interestingly, Ireland has not acceded to Article 31 of the Revised European Social Charter (http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/163.htm), which closes down one avenue of work for the residents if they want to maintain momentum:
“Article 31 – The right to housing
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to housing, the Parties undertake to take measures designed:
1. to promote access to housing of an adequate standard;
2. to prevent and reduce homelessness with a view to its gradual elimination;
3. to make the price of housing accessible to those without adequate resources.”
However, the State has acceeded to Article 30, on the right to protecton aganinst poverty and social exclusion, and the text of that article explicitly names housing:
Article 30 – The right to protection against poverty and social exclusion
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion, the Parties undertake:
1. to take measures within the framework of an overall and co-ordinated approach to promote the effective access of persons who live or risk living in a situation of social exclusion or poverty, as well as their families, to, in particular, employment, housing, training, education, culture and social and medical assistance;
2. to review these measures with a view to their adaptation if necessary.
The residents could consider linking up with one of the recognised international NGOs that can take collective complaint (http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/socialcharter/OrganisationsEntitled/INGOList2010_en.pdf), possibly in partnership with other residents groups in other local authority accommodation, to lodge a complaint against Ireland claiming a breach of Article 30.
Subscribers may be interested to know that there is a follow up to the earlier Belfast events I mentioned on the Right to Housing later this month (June 24), details at http://www.pprproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=1
I work with CAN and we facilitate the process now known as Rialto Rights in Action. Rialto Rights in Action is a coalition of residents, local community projects and CAN. We are resourced by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and work in collaboration with The Participation and the Practice of Rights Project in Belfast. This is the first time we have taken a human rights based approach to economic, social and cultural rights and it is a steep learning curve for all of us. While our background is in community development we are attracted to the rights based approach as many of the issues communities live with have not changed during the good or the bad times.
Rialto Rights in Action has taken the lived experience of residents (in this case how they have lived with dampness and sewerage for three decades) and related that to human rights standards. Starting with and validating peoples’ lived experience is central to the whole approach. Facilitating residents then to understand that they are rigts holders and can hold the duty bearers to account for the failure to protect, respect and fulfill thier rights has been an amazing experience of empowerment. It changes the language from need to right, the feeling from indaequacy/shame to pride and outrage and resets the whole new power dynamic of negotiation with those who have a responsibility to deal with the issues in question.
The public hearing that Lorna, Padraic Kenna, Murice Manning and Joe Duffy particpated in was powerful in many ways. To begin with, it allowed residents to say it as it is, with dignity and respect and to feel they were really heard. The panel validated their experience and indicators and reflected back to them the justice of their demands. This together with the extensive media coverage has helped to begin the process of a different knid of engagement with duty bearers. We have alreday met the Minister for Human Rights and Equality, who has agreed to support us in a number of ways, and are in the process of arranging other key meetings. It will be interesting to see over time, if these result in change on the ground, which is what we will measure at the end of the day.
We are very aware that the issues we are working on in Rialto exist in other areas too. Padraic did suggest to us that we could consider taking action under article 30 of the Council of Europe and we are going to pursue this possibility. Thank you tomboktu for that link above. We have relationships with other communities that would be interested in this and we will begin investigating this shortly.
I really like the idea of connecting academics, community and legal practioners together. We have much to offer each other and can not underestimate exactly what our contribution in different contexts can actually achieve. From our point of view, the contribution made by Lorna, Padraic, Maurice and Joe was invaluable to residents, and to the campaign.
Cecilia
Cecilia, thanks for this. Keep us updated?