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  • Minimum core obligation
  • A minimum core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of each of the right to housing is incumbent upon every State party to the relevant human rights treaties (ICESCR, ICERD, etc.). “Thus, for example, a State party in which any significant number of individuals is deprived of… basic shelter and housing, or of the most basic forms of education is, prima facie, failing to discharge its obligations… [A]ny assessment as to whether a State has discharged its minimum core obligation must also take account of resource constraints applying within the country concerned. Article 2 (1) [of ICESCR] obligates each State party to take the necessary steps `to the maximum of its available resources.’ In order for a State party to be able to attribute its failure to meet at least its minimum core obligations to a lack of available resources it must demonstrate that every effort has been made to use all resources that are at its disposition in an effort to satisfy, as a matter of priority, those minimum obligations.[1]


    [1]  Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 3: The nature of States parties’ obligations (art. 2, para. 1, of the Covenant),” para. 9.