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Security of tenure: Conditions and trends115bring the objective of security of tenure for all closer thanever to universal fruition. If a balance can be struck betweenthose favouring free market, freehold title-based solutions toinsecure tenure and those who view security of tenure bothas an individual and group right, as well as a key componentin any effective system of land administration and land registrationand regularization, it may be possible to envisage afuture of much improved tenure security for the urban poor.Indeed, viewed through the lens of human rights,among all elements of the right to adequate housing, it isclearly the right to security of tenure that forms the nucleusof this widely recognized norm. When security of tenure –the right to feel safe in one’s own home, to control one’sown housing environment and the right not to be arbitrarilyand forcibly evicted – is threatened or simply non-existent,the full enjoyment of housing rights is, effectively, impossible.The consideration of security of tenure in terms ofhuman rights implies application of an approach that treatsall persons on the basis of equality. While it is true that allhuman rights are premised on principles of equality and nondiscrimination,viewing security of tenure as a human right(rather than solely as a by-product of ownership or thecomparatively rare cases of strong protection for privatetenants) opens up the realm of human rights not merely toall people, but to all people of all incomes and in all housingsectors.The rights associated with ownership of housing orland tend, in practice, to generally offer considerably higher– and, thus, in legal terms, more secure levels of tenure –protection against eviction or other violations of housingrights than those afforded to tenants or those residing ininformal settlements. Thus, the right to security of tenureraises the baseline – the minimum core entitlement –guaranteed to all persons by international human rightsstandards. While security of tenure cannot always guaranteethat forced evictions will be prohibited in toto (particularly inlawless situations of conflict or truly exceptional circumstances),perhaps no other measure can contribute as muchto fulfilling the promise of residential security and protectionagainst eviction than the conferral of this form of legal recognition.Examining security of tenure simultaneously as both adevelopment issue and as a human rights theme clearlyreveals the multilevel and multidimensional nature of thisstatus and how it relates to people at the individual or householdlevel, the community level, the city level, and at thenational and international levels.This chapter provides an overview of the main conditionsand trends with respect to tenure security in urbanareas today. It provides a brief outline of various types oftenure, of variations in the levels of tenure security and adiscussion of the problems of measuring tenure security. Thisis followed by an analysis of the scale and impacts of tenureinsecurity and various types of evictions. The last sectionsfocus on groups who are particularly vulnerable to tenureinsecurity, and the reduction in tenure security often experiencedin the aftermath of disasters and armed conflict.TYPES OF TENURETenure (as distinct from security of tenure) is a universal,ubiquitous fact or status which is relevant to everyone,everywhere, every day. Yet, there is a wide variety of forms,which is more complicated than what the conventionalcategories of ‘legal–illegal’ or ‘formal–informal’ suggest. Onthe one hand, there is a whole range of intermediarycategories, which suggests that tenure can be categorizedalong a continuum. On the other hand, the types of tenurefound in particular locations are also a result of specifichistorical, political, cultural and religious influences. It isthus essential that policy recognizes and reflects these localcircumstances.On a simplified level, any type of tenure can be said tobelong to one of six broad categories – namely, freehold,leasehold, conditional freehold (‘rent to buy’), rent, collectiveforms of tenure and communal tenure. 6 In practice,however – and, in particular, with respect to the developmentof policy – it may be more useful to acknowledge thewide variation in tenure categories that exist globally. Table5.1 provides an overview of the many forms that tenure(each with varying degrees of security) can take throughoutthe world.The broad categories of tenure types identified inTable 5.1 reveal the complex nature of tenure and whysimple answers to the question of how best to providesecurity of tenure to everyone is a complicated process.One-size-fits-all policy prescriptions concerning security oftenure simply do not exist. It is correct and true to assertthat all should have access to secure tenure; but determiningprecisely how to achieve this objective is another story alltogether.Box 5.1 presents a brief overview of the variation oftenure categories typically available to the poor in urbanareas of developing countries, differentiating between theformality of settlements and the physical location in the city.Yet, the common denominator for most of these tenurecategories is inadequate degrees of tenure security.It is important to note that no one form of tenure isnecessarily better than another, and what matters most isinvariably the degree of security associated with a particulartenure type. Tenure is linked to so many factors and variables– including, as noted above, political, historical, cultural andreligious ones – that proclaiming that the formal title-basedapproach to tenure alone is adequate to solve all tenurechallenges is unlikely to yield favourable results. Whilecomplicated from a purely housing policy perspective, it isperhaps even more so from the perspective of human rights.For if human rights protections are meant to be equitable,non-discriminatory and accessible to all, and often capable offull implementation with a reasonably clear set of legal andpolicy prescriptions, this is certainly not always the case withregard to security of tenure. It can be done; but failing torealize the complex nature of tenure in any effort designedto spread the benefits of secure tenure more broadly is likelybe detrimental both to the intended beneficiary and policymakeralike.When security oftenure … isthreatened or simplynon-existent, the fullenjoyment ofhousing rights is…impossibleOne-size-fits-allpolicy prescriptionsconcerning securityof tenure simply donot existNo one form oftenure is necessarilybetter than another