Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

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144 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 The World Bank, among others, argues strongly for the registration of all land where previous records are out of date or do not exist at all: Comprehensive and regularly updated housing, property and land registration systems are a crucial element of … security of tenure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 All countries have systems in place (even if desperately outdated, under resourced and not properly administered) for the registration of housing, land and residential property.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
Policy responses to tenure insecurity 145 evictions and other crimes. Fortunately, such crimes are not committed against all of the world’s urban poor; but they are, tragically, very widespread and constitute the most severe outcomes of practices that run counter to a world governed by, and based on, the principles of human rights. It is important to recall that it is through the existence of, and reliance on, such records that the housing and property restitution rights of refugees can be secured. As the ethnically driven forced displacements in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Tajikistan and elsewhere have made clear, removing people forcibly from their homes, confiscating personal housing and property documents, destroying housing and property and cadastral records have all been used by ethnic cleansers in their attempts to alter the ethnic composition of territory and permanently prevent the return of those they forcibly expelled from their homes. While little gain emerged from the Balkan wars of the past decade, the international community was at least unambiguous about the need to reverse ethnic cleansing and to ensure the right to housing and property restitution for everyone displaced during the conflicts in the region. Intractable political considerations aside, whenever such records are available following conflict, the task of determining housing and property rights is far easier and far more just. Where tenure rights were taken seriously, displaced persons were able to reclaim their homes or find some sense of residential justice, indicating that restitution may not be as infeasible as it may at first appear. For instance, an important restitution programme in Kosovo, coordinated by the United Nations Housing and Property Directorate, has provided legal clarity regarding tenure and property rights to 29,000 disputed residential properties in the disputed province since 2000. All but 6 per cent (1855 claims) had been fully implemented by 2006. Some 68 per cent of all claims were decided within three years. 31 Security Council Resolution 1244, which established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), placed a high priority on property restitution for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The resolution of property issues was also considered vital to ensuring restoration of the rule of law and stimulating economic growth and stability in Kosovo and the wider region. Early initiatives in the property rights sector culminated in the establishment, in 1999, of the Housing and Property Directorate and its independent quasi-judicial body, the Housing and Property Claims Commission, which aimed to achieve ‘an efficient and effective resolution of claims concerning residential property’. 32 This comprised a relatively novel development in international post-conflict peace-building operations and represented a significant step forward for the restitution of property rights of refugees and IDPs. It constituted a mass claims-processing mechanism, designed to resolve high numbers of property claims through the application of standardized proceedings. The process was goal oriented in that its procedures and evidentiary rules were designed to facilitate optimal efficiency in the resolution and implementation of decisions in a cost-efficient manner in order to meet with the urgent desire of refugees and IDPs to return to their homes, while Box 6.11 Towards a new approach to land registration A new and more appropriate land registration system should include the following components: • decentralized technical processes that are transparent and easily understood by local people; • land information management systems that can accommodate both cadastral parcels and non-cadastral land information; • new ways of providing tenure security to the majority through documentation of rights and boundaries for informal settlements and/or customary areas, without using cadastral surveys, centralized planning and transfer of land rights by property lawyers; • accessible records, both in terms of their location and their user friendliness; and • new technical, administrative, legal and conceptual tools. Source: Fourie, 2001, p16 at the same time preserving compliance with fair procedures and due process guarantees. LEGAL PROTECTION FROM FORCED EVICTION … the issue of forced removals and forced evictions has in recent years reached the international human rights agenda because it is considered a practice that does grave and disastrous harm to the basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of large numbers of people, both individual persons and collectivities. 33 Parallel to the policy discussions on provision of freehold title versus other forms of tenure, various debates have been under way within the human rights community on related questions, focusing primarily on the issue of forced evictions and the human rights and security of tenure impacts that this can have upon the urban poor. This process has resulted in the practice of forced evictions moving from being viewed and acted upon almost solely as an act synonymous with apartheid-era South Africa (but largely neglected elsewhere), to a globally prohibited practice that has received considerable attention by human rights bodies. In fact, during the past 20 years, forced evictions have been the subject of a range of international standard-setting initiatives, and an increasing number of planned and past evictions carried out or envisaged by governments have been widely condemned. In the past few years, governments ranging from the Dominican Republic, Panama, the Philippines and South Korea, to Turkey, Sudan and others have been singled out for their poor eviction records and criticized accordingly by United Nations and European human rights bodies. In 1990, in the first declaration that a state party had violated the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) decided that the evictions that were attributable to the Government of the Dominican Republic were not merely failures to perform The resolution of property issues was … considered vital to ensuring restoration of the rule of law … and stability in Kosovo
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ENHANCING URBAN SAFETY AND SECURITY
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First published by Earthscan in the
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INTRODUCTION Enhancing Urban Safety
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The preparation of
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x Enhancing Urban Safety and Securi
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xvi Enhancing Urban Safety and Secu
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xviii Enhancing Urban Safety and Se
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LIST OF FIGURES, BOXES AND TABLES F
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4 Understanding Urban Safety and Se
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1 CHAPTER CURRENT THREATS TO URBAN
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2 CHAPTER VULNERABILITY, RISK AND R
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29 simply ‘give up’ in the face
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46 Urban crime and violence Box II.
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48 Urban crime and violence it has
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50 Urban crime and violence Formal
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52 Urban crime and violence Contact
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54 Urban crime and violence Per 100
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56 Urban crime and violence Burglar
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58 Urban crime and violence Percent
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60 Urban crime and violence Figure
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62 Urban crime and violence Table 3
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64 Urban crime and violence Youth g
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68 Urban crime and violence Type of
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70 Urban crime and violence From a
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72 Urban crime and violence One vio
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74 Urban crime and violence High ho
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76 Urban crime and violence Abused
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78 Urban crime and violence General
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82 Urban crime and violence porate
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4 CHAPTER URBAN CRIME AND VIOLENCE:
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86 Urban crime and violence UN-Habi
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88 Urban crime and violence Box 4.2
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90 Urban crime and violence Box 4.4
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92 Urban crime and violence Legisla
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8 CHAPTER POLICY RESPONSES TO DISAS
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220 Natural and human-made disaster
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236 Towards safer and more secure c
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276 Enhancing Urban Safety and Secu
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12 CHAPTER MITIGATING THE IMPACTS O
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304 Summary of case studies Since i
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306 Summary of case studies • The
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308 Summary of case studies tions w
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310 Summary of case studies environ
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312 Summary of case studies others.
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314 Summary of case studies purpose
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318 Summary of case studies develop
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320 Summary of case studies tion ex
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322 Summary of case studies Housing
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324 Summary of case studies Prolong
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330 Statistical annex Islands, Micr
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332 Statistical annex NOMENCLATURE
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334 Statistical annex Population, u
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336 Statistical annex SOURCES OF DA
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410 TABLE C.7 continued Enhancing U
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INDEX ACHR (Asian Coalition for Hou
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Index 435 security of tenure 134 co
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Index 437 domestic abuse see intima
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Index 439 hazard management 169 haz
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Index 441 Kosovo, security of tenur
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Index 443 participation 38, 296-299
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Index 445 individual 34-35 municipa
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Index 447 gun ownership 78 Homeless
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