Decision adopted by the Committee under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, concerning communication No. 99/20191*, 2**
- *Adopted by the Committee at its seventy-fourth session (25 September–13 October 2023). ↩
- **The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication: Aslan Abashidze, Mohamed Ezzeldin Abdel-Moneim, Nadir Adilov, Mohammed Amarti, Asraf Ally Caunhye, Laura-Maria Crăciunean-Tatu, Peters Sunday Omologbe Emuze, Santiago Manuel Fiorio Vaesken, Ludovic Hennebel, Joo-Young Lee, Karla Vanessa Lemus de Vásquez, Seree Nonthasoot, Lydia Carmelita Ravenberg, Julieta Rossi, Preeti Saran, Shen Yongxiang and Michael Windfuhr. Pursuant to rule 23 of the rules of procedure under the Optional Protocol, Mikel Mancisidor de la Fuente did not participate in the examination of the communication. ↩
The author is R.J.H., a national of Spain. She submitted an individual communication on behalf of herself and her daughter, C.Z.J., and her son, E.Z.J., born in 2001 and 2003 respectively. She claims that the State party would violate her rights, and those of her children, under article 11 (1) of the Covenant if it evicted them without ensuring that they have alternative housing. The author is represented by counsel.
In 2014, the author began paying €250 per month to rent a property from a private individual. She was unaware that the individual was not the owner of the property. The author discovered that the individual to whom she was paying rent was not the owner of the property only when the Unión de Créditos Inmobiliarios claimed possession of the property and filed for eviction on the ground that she was squatting there. On 3 September 2018, Court of First Instance No. 7 of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat set 24 January 2019 as the eviction date for the author and her family. On 17 December 2018, Barcelona City Council issued a report confirming that the family were in a situation of social vulnerability and that the author’s income was €969 per month. On 21 December 2018, the author submitted a letter requesting that the eviction decision be set aside or that the eviction be suspended on the grounds of, inter alia, her situation of vulnerability, her health problems and the fact that she had applied for social housing. At the time of submission of the individual communication, the author had not received a response to her letter. The author claims that her eviction violates her rights and those of her children under article 11 of the Covenant and asks the Committee to request the State party to take interim measures to suspend the eviction since she has no alternative housing.
On 21 January 2019, the Committee, through its Working Group on Communications, registered the communication and requested the State party to take interim measures to suspend the eviction of the author and her family pending the consideration of the communication or to provide them with adequate alternative housing, in genuine and effective consultation with them.
On 16 July 2020, the State party submitted its observations on the admissibility and merits of the communication, which were transmitted to the author for her comments. In the absence of a response from the author, the secretariat sent reminders asking if she had lost interest in the communication. The secretariat received no response from the author.
At its meeting on 9 October 2023, the Committee, having noted that the author and her counsel had failed to respond to repeated requests for comments on the State party’s observations on the admissibility and merits of the communication and for confirmation of their continued interest therein, decided to discontinue consideration of the communication, in accordance with rule 18 of its rules of procedure under the Optional Protocol.