Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

5
CHAPTER
SECURITY OF TENURE:
CONDITIONS AND TRENDS
Security of tenure is
a basic attribute of
human security in
general
Both the
international human
settlements
community and the
global human rights
community have
devoted increasing
attention to …
security of tenure in
recent years
Access to land and security of tenure are
strategic prerequisites for the provision of
adequate shelter for all and for the development
of sustainable human settlements… It is also
one way of breaking the vicious circle of
poverty. Every government must show a
commitment to promoting the provision of an
adequate supply of land … governments at
appropriate levels … should … strive to remove
all possible obstacles that may hamper equitable
access to land and ensure that equal rights of
women and men related to land and property
are protected under the law. 1
Few issues are as central to the objective of adequate
housing for all as security of tenure. While approaches
towards achieving this objective vary widely, it is clear that
virtually all commentators agree that secure tenure is a vital
ingredient in any policy designed to improve the lives of
those living in informal settlements throughout the world.
Furthermore, security of tenure is a basic attribute of human
security in general: a full, dignified life, wherein all human
rights can be enjoyed in their entirety. Those on the political
‘Left’ and those on the political ‘Right’ may have very different
views on how, and on the basis of which policies,
security of tenure can best be enjoyed by increasingly large
numbers of people. Yet, very few disagree about the central
importance of tenure security to the broader question of
housing, slum improvement and, increasingly, the protection
and promotion of human rights. Indeed, the United Nations
has long and consistently expressed its concerns in this
regard, repeatedly urging that special attention should be
paid to improving the access of the poor to land and housing
with secure tenure. 2
And, yet, despite this widespread agreement, security
of tenure remains extremely fragile for hundreds of millions
of the urban and rural poor. Furthermore, the security of
tenure of millions of poor people throughout the world is
deteriorating as land values within cities continue to rise, as
affordable land becomes increasingly scarce, and as housing
solutions are increasingly left to market forces. A number of
additional factors contribute to these deteriorating conditions,
including the rapid and continuing growth of informal
settlements and slums; structural discrimination against
women, indigenous peoples and others; and displacement
caused by conflict and disaster. If these global de facto realities
are contrasted against the clear normative framework
elaborating rights to secure tenure, the world faces nothing
less than a severe security of tenure crisis. With more than
200,000 slums existing today globally, 3 mostly located across
the cities of developing countries, and with nearly 80 per
cent of urban dwellers in the least-developed countries living
as residents of such slums, then questions of tenure security
are daily concerns affecting well over one fifth of humanity. 4
While security of tenure is often perceived primarily
as a housing or human settlements issue, interestingly, both
the international human settlements community and the
global human rights community have devoted increasing
attention to the question of security of tenure in recent
years. It is true that many housing and urban researchers, as
well as local and national government officials, do not
initially view tenure concerns necessarily as an issue of
human rights. Yet, the human rights movement – judges,
United Nations bodies, lawyers, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs) and
others – have increasingly embraced and considered tenure
security. This, coupled with the growing treatment of
security of tenure as a self-standing right by a range of international
and national legal and other standards, has led to a
unique convergence of effort and approach by the global
housing community, on the one hand, and the human rights
community, on the other. Although the formal links between
security of tenure and human rights comprise a reasonably
recent policy development, the link between human rights
and tenure issues stretches back to the first United Nations
Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) in Vancouver
(Canada) in 1976. 5
Thus, it appears that the difficulties faced by many
within the human rights field to fully appreciate the human
rights dimensions of poverty, slum life and displacement – as
well as the sometimes naive and biased views on the appropriate
role of law in human settlements – seem increasingly
to be issues of the past. This emerging convergence between
fields traditionally separated by artificial distinctions has
generated a series of truly historical developments in recent
years which, if continued and expanded, could arguably