Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

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Security of tenure
Box 6.10 What are cadastres and land registries?
Cadastres and registries are key land administration instruments:
• A land registry handles information on landownership and transactions.
• The cadastre contains information on the boundaries of parcels as defined by surveys and
recorded on maps. It also contains any additional information about the parcels. The
cadastre provides the basis for a number of other functions, such as land-use planning,
management and disposal of public lands, land valuation and taxation, provision of other
public services, and generation of maps.
Source: World Bank, 2003b, p70
taxation (see Box 6.10). In principle, land registries can
become human rights tools as well, playing a vital role in
ensuring the full enjoyment of rights to housing and security
of tenure. Indeed, it is through regularly updated and
properly maintained land registries – which can function
equally well in both systems of formal and customary land
administration – that rights can gain recognition and, thus,
stand a greater chance of enforcement in the event of
competing claims or disputes over the land in question. The
World Bank, among others, argues strongly for the registration
of all land where previous records are out of date or do
not exist at all:
Comprehensive and
regularly updated
housing, property
and land registration
systems are a crucial
element of …
security of tenure
However, … land
registration does not
automatically
provide security of
tenure
boundaries of land, developing processes for exchanging
land, planning, valuation and the adjudication of disputes
(see Box 6.9). 25
While there are many views on the importance of land
registration and administration, few would disagree with the
proposition that some appropriate, affordable, reasonably
simple to update and administer, and culturally sensitive
form of registering lands and homes, and of delineating land
property boundaries, must be in place if security of tenure is
to be treated as a right and if the quest for expanding the
enjoyment of this right is to ever bear fruit. This is a view
widely shared and one that is clearly consistent with the
existing and longstanding approaches of states the world
over. All countries have systems in place (even if desperately
outdated, under resourced and not properly administered)
for the registration of housing, land and residential property.
Once again, the systems exist and are part and parcel of
every culture and society; but what matters is how these
processes are undertaken, to what extent they facilitate
security of tenure, and whether they are consistent with the
relevant human rights issues involved.
Although virtually never examined for their human
rights components, comprehensive and regularly updated
housing, property and land registration systems are a crucial
element of the security of tenure process. Through registration,
the legal conferral of security of tenure is made
possible, a public and transparent record of ownership and
dweller rights exists, and all rights relating to housing can be
protected. And yet, hundreds of millions of urban dwellers
the world over do not, at present, have their housing, land
and property rights registered within an appropriate
documentation system. Equal numbers rely on informal
tenure arrangements that may give them some measure of
protection against eviction and abuse, but may not provide
them with any type of enforceable rights. As noted above,
evidence from a number of countries indicates that new
creative, innovative and process-oriented approaches seem
to have considerable merit compared to those that focus on
large-scale provision of freehold titles. Indeed, registering
currently unregistered land has proven destabilizing in many
countries and can quickly turn from a hopeful gesture to a
source of conflict and disputes if carried out in an inappropriate
manner. 26
Once land is registered, it is entered into cadastres
and registries; these documents then become vital tools for
the enforcement of rights, urban planning measures and
… a systematic approach, combined with wide
publicity and legal assistance to ensure that
everybody is informed, provides the best way to
ensure social control and prevent land grabbing
by powerful individuals, which would be not
only inequitable, but also inefficient. 27
It also highlights the importance of registering all urban land
as ‘a precondition to the establishment of effective urban
management’. 28
It is important to reiterate, however, that land registration
does not automatically provide security of tenure.
Growing evidence points to registration processes actually
contributing to a redistribution of assets towards wealthier
segments of society. Or, as noted by one observer: ‘As land
becomes scarcer, poorer and more vulnerable groups may
see their claims weakened and lose access to land, leading to
their increasing marginalization and impoverishment.’ 29
Moreover, in countries such as Ghana, which has had registration
systems in place for well over a century, the
cumbersome nature of the registration process has led to
very few people actually registering land claims. This has
been acknowledged by many observers, who note that registration
of urban land may not be feasible in the short and
medium term in many countries due to the lack of resources
among local authorities and the observed inability of
registries to keep pace with developments on the ground.
Thus, the World Bank has noted that in ‘cases where land
registers are not operational or effective, it may, therefore,
be desirable to establish land inventories which simply
record claims of landownership and property rights without
the legal authority to determine them’. 30
Many have thus pointed to the need for new and
more appropriate forms of land registration, which, in turn,
can facilitate the provision of security of tenure. The main
components of such a new and more flexible approach are
outlined in Box 6.11. There are many dangers associated
with such processes of registration. But there are also major
dangers now in a world where so many people are not able to
have their rights – even informal rights – properly recognized.
Perhaps one of the strongest arguments in favour of
developing proper housing, land and property registration
systems hinges on the vital role that these institutions can
play in remedying severe human rights violations, such as
ethnic cleansing, arbitrary land confiscations, forced