Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

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Security of tenure
Box 5.18 Security of tenure-related challenges in
occupied Iraq
Shortly after the US-led occupation of Iraq in 2003, a number of challenges related to security
of tenure were identified, including:
• housing, land and property disputes;
• illegal and arbitrary forced evictions and displacement without any effective remedies;
• homelessness and inadequate housing and living conditions;
• housing, land and property registration and titling systems;
• unauthorized or irregular occupation of abandoned private and public land, housing and
property;
• inequality facing women in the exercise of housing, land and property rights;
• housing and property damage;
• pending housing privatization; and
• lack of a clear institutional framework and response.
Source: Leckie, 2003a
Security of tenure
rights are
increasingly seen as
a key area of
concern in postconflict
settings
Security of tenure is
a key element for
the integration of
the urban poor
within the city
Conflict, peace-building and security of
tenure
Security of tenure and related housing, land and property
rights issues also arise in the contexts of conflict and postconflict
peace-building. Security of tenure rights are
increasingly seen as a key area of concern in post-conflict
settings. In Iraq, for example, a range of such challenges was
identified in the immediate aftermath of the US-led occupation
of the country (see Box 5.18). The situation with respect
to most, if not all, of these challenges has worsened since
2003. By December 2006, the already disastrous situation in
Iraq had become far worse, resulting in a housing crisis
leading to a massive growth in slums and squatter settlements,
with nearly 4 million people facing displacement. 66
While the housing and tenure insecurity issues facing
the people of Iraq are particularly severe, these types of
issues occur in most countries engaged in, or emerging from,
conflict. Consequently, addressing housing, land and
property rights challenges in the aftermath of conflict is of
vital importance for reconstruction and peace-building
efforts. 67 This includes:
• attempting to reverse the application of land abandonment
laws and other arbitrary applications of law;
• dealing fairly with secondary occupants of refugee or
IDP land or housing;
• developing consistent land, housing and property rights
policies and legislation;
• redressing premature land privatization carried out
during conflict;
• reversing land sales contracts made under duress;
• protecting women’s rights to inherit land; and
• ensuring that owners, tenants and informal occupiers of
land are treated equitably. 68
The United Nations and other actors have a vital role to play
in ensuring that these issues are adequately and comprehensively
addressed since security of tenure rights challenges
are common to all post-conflict countries and territories, as
noted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO):
Providing secure access to land is an important
part of dealing with emergency humanitarian
needs, as well as longer-term social and
economic stability. Secure access to land helps
victims of conflicts to have a place to live, to
grow food and to earn income. Security of
tenure, without fear of eviction, allows people
to rebuild economic and social relationships.
More broadly, it allows local regions and the
country to establish their economies. It
supports reconciliation and prospects for longterm
peace. 69
International peace initiatives, both large and small, increasingly
view these concerns as essential components of the
peace-building process and as an indispensable prerequisite
for the rule of law. Yet, much remains to be done in the area
of developing a comprehensive United Nations policy on
these concerns. 70 As a result, citizens in some countries or
territories have seen their tenure rights taken very seriously
by peace operations, while in other countries or territories,
citizens facing precisely the same tenure predicaments that
face victims of conflict everywhere have seen their security
of tenure rights effectively overlooked.
THE GROWING
ACCEPTANCE OF THE
‘INFORMAL CITY’
Perhaps the key trend at both the international and national
levels is the growing recognition that informal settlements
and the informal or so-called ‘illegal’ city hold the key to
finding ways of conferring security of tenure on all of the
world’s dwellers. While, to a certain degree, due to default –
given the massive scale and lack of other options to address
these massive political challenges – the international
community has clearly recognized that informal settlements
are here to stay, that they are important sources of employment
and economic growth, and, in fact, that they are likely
to grow in coming years. While the squatter invasions of
unused public land so commonplace during the 1960s and
1970s have largely ceased, the existence of informal settlements
is a social phenomenon few are willing to deny.
Linked to this, there has been a growing recognition of a
‘right to the city’ as one antidote to the neglect shown
towards the informal city by policy-makers the world over.
There is also growing agreement, on all points of the
political spectrum, that secure tenure is a multifunctional
instrument in everything, from poverty alleviation, through
the protection of human rights, to the generation of assets
and capital. An emerging consensus that security of tenure is
a key element for the integration of the urban poor within
the city can also be discerned, as can the realization that –
given that security of tenure is multidimensional in nature,
often varying widely between countries and within