Obstacles, impediments, barriers
Local obstacles
Institutions
q
As far as human right to adequate housing and physical accessibility of
housing are concerned, are there gaps or shortcomings in the State, government
and other public institutions positioned to improve living conditions,
including the housing-rights entitlement of physical accessibility of housing?
q
What public institutions lack policies, or fail enforce building
regulations ensuring adequate physical access to public building for those with
special access needs, such as ramps and elevators for the physically challenged
and the elderly?
q Has there been a recent decrease in the quantity or quality of civil society institutions upon which the community now relies, particularly those providing advocacy and services for the elderly, physically challenged, HIV/AID patients and other groups with special physical access needs.
q Do the concerned private and nongovernmental institutions fail to guarantee gender equality in the defense, promotion and implementation of the human right to adequate housing, in particular, physical accessibility of housing?
q What informal institutions (including social norms) function so as to impede the enjoyment of the human right to adequate housing and, in particular, physical accessibility of housing?[1]
q
Do these institutions actually lack the will or capacity to protect
legal physical accessibility of housing for those in need?
q
Do these institutions actually lack the will, knowledge or capacity to
use the relevant treaty body Concluding Observations in work of monitoring and
lobbying officials
[1] The operative concept of
institutions here encompasses both bonding and bridging institutions.
"Institutions," in this sense, involve the rules of the game under
which formal and informal activity is conducted, and include public institutions,
private institutions, collective practices and norms, as well as changing norms
(e.g., brought about through the youth, technology, economic or demographic
shifts, and other emerging behaviours). According to Douglas C. North, 1993
Nobel economics laureate, institutions are "humanly devised constraints
that shape human interaction."