Legislative Policy Requirements and Obstacles of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Realizing the Right to Adequate Housing

Abstract

The right to adequate housing, as one of the fundamental social rights, occupies a prominent position within legal systems and state welfare policies. In the Iranian legal system, this right is explicitly recognized under Article 31 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nevertheless, the persistence of the housing crisis and the inability of a considerable proportion of citizens to access adequate housing raise a fundamental question regarding the extent to which governmental legislative policymaking has succeeded in realizing this right and the structural and institutional barriers that impede its achievement. The present study aims to explain the requirements and challenges of governmental legislative policymaking in the realization of the right to adequate housing. It employs a descriptive–analytical method and draws upon legal documents, development plan laws, and official reports. The findings indicate that housing policies incorporated into post-Islamic Revolution development plans, although they have undergone discursive and methodological transformations, have generally lacked coherence, continuity, and a sustainable rights-based framework. An examination of programmatic regulations demonstrates that the predominance of broad and generalized approaches, the absence of effective enforcement mechanisms, institutional inconsistency, and policy instability have created a gap between legislation and implementation, ultimately weakening the realization of the right to housing. In this regard, the challenges associated with the realization of this right can be classified into five categories: structural–institutional, economic–financial, legal–legislative, socio-cultural, and executive–managerial challenges, which mutually reinforce one another. The study concludes that the sustainable realization of the right to adequate housing requires a transition from temporary and program-oriented policies toward comprehensive, rights-based, and institutionalized legislation. Accordingly, the enactment of a comprehensive housing law, the strengthening of integrated governance, the reform of financing systems, the diversification of housing models, and the establishment of policy stability and continuous evaluation mechanisms are proposed as the most significant legislative policy requirements in this field.