The UN's special rapporteur on housing, Raquel Rolnik, a Brazilian academic, was dubbed a "Brazil nut" and "a dabbler in witchcraft who offered an animal sacrifice to Marx" in some of Wednesday's newspapers after she had called for the bedroom tax to be abolished.
Responding to the criticism in titles such as the Daily Mail and Daily Express, Rolnik told the Guardian: "My nationality is of no relevance to my role as a special rapporteur." She added: "What should matter is how to address the housing issues in the UK in a way that respects the rights of people living in the UK."
The row about the state of British housing began after the Guardian reported Rolnik's call on the UK government to retreat on welfare reform on Wednesday, following a 14-day fact finding mission around the UK. She said she had heard "shocking" accounts of how the policy was affecting vulnerable people in the UK.
Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps said he had written a formal complaint to the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon demanding an investigation and claiming Rolnik had not met relevant ministers or officials to discuss the policy. He demanded that she withdraw her report.
Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said Rolnik had undermined the impartiality of the UN, adding it was "staggering" she had come to her conclusions without access to official information – while Tory MP Stewart Jackson said Rolnik was a "loopy Brazilian leftie with no evidence masquerading as a serious UN official".
Rolnik said it was the most hostile response she had ever faced from a national government. "It was the first time a government has been so aggressive," she told Inside Housing. "When I was in the US I had a constructive conversation with them, accepting some things and arguing with others. They did not react like this."
The rapporteur was a minister in the centre-left Workers party in the last decade, but denied Tory accusations of political bias. "I didn't come here to investigate the bedroom tax, I came here as a normal country mission, to assess the situation. I came across the bedroom tax when I was here, but I am an independent investigator."
She also dismissed the claim that she had failed to meet the relevant ministers and officials before giving her preliminary findings. "I have met officials from many departments, and the details of these meetings are all listed within my report."
It is understood that as well as meetings with Eric Pickles, secretary of state at the department of communities and local government, and undersecretary Don Foster, she also met several other officials including the head of housing policy at the department for work and pensions.
On Wednesday an expert in international human rights, Professor Aoife Nolan from the University of Nottingham, criticised the government for its "hysterical" response to Rolnik's report. She contradicted Shapps's letter saying Rolnik had not been invited by the UK government.
"This is set out in the code of conduct for such appointment-holders," Nolan said. "Indeed, so open was the UK to the possibility of a visit from UN experts like Rolnik that in March 2001 it issued a standing invitation to all such UN appointment-holders.
"Rolnik did not simply 'come over'. She didn't fail to meet with government ministers … furthermore, complaints about [her] failure to meet face-to-face with the ministers responsible for welfare and housing – and hence an alleged lack of balance in her statement – seem somewhat ironic and misplaced, given that it was the government who did not act on her pre-visit request for those meetings."
A Conservative party spokesman said: "We stand firmly by Grant Shapps's letter and look forward to an early response."
Original Article
Source: theguardian.com
Author: Matthew Taylor
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