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144Security of tenureBox 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 andrecorded on maps. It also contains any additional information about the parcels. Thecadastre 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 otherpublic services, and generation of maps.Source: World Bank, 2003b, p70taxation (see Box 6.10). In principle, land registries canbecome human rights tools as well, playing a vital role inensuring the full enjoyment of rights to housing and securityof tenure. Indeed, it is through regularly updated andproperly maintained land registries – which can functionequally well in both systems of formal and customary landadministration – that rights can gain recognition and, thus,stand a greater chance of enforcement in the event ofcompeting claims or disputes over the land in question. TheWorld Bank, among others, argues strongly for the registrationof all land where previous records are out of date or donot exist at all:Comprehensive andregularly updatedhousing, propertyand land registrationsystems are a crucialelement of …security of tenureHowever, … landregistration does notautomaticallyprovide security oftenureboundaries of land, developing processes for exchangingland, planning, valuation and the adjudication of disputes(see Box 6.9). 25While there are many views on the importance of landregistration and administration, few would disagree with theproposition that some appropriate, affordable, reasonablysimple to update and administer, and culturally sensitiveform of registering lands and homes, and of delineating landproperty boundaries, must be in place if security of tenure isto be treated as a right and if the quest for expanding theenjoyment of this right is to ever bear fruit. This is a viewwidely shared and one that is clearly consistent with theexisting and longstanding approaches of states the worldover. All countries have systems in place (even if desperatelyoutdated, 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 ofevery culture and society; but what matters is how theseprocesses are undertaken, to what extent they facilitatesecurity of tenure, and whether they are consistent with therelevant human rights issues involved.Although virtually never examined for their humanrights components, comprehensive and regularly updatedhousing, property and land registration systems are a crucialelement of the security of tenure process. Through registration,the legal conferral of security of tenure is madepossible, a public and transparent record of ownership anddweller rights exists, and all rights relating to housing can beprotected. And yet, hundreds of millions of urban dwellersthe world over do not, at present, have their housing, landand property rights registered within an appropriatedocumentation system. Equal numbers rely on informaltenure arrangements that may give them some measure ofprotection against eviction and abuse, but may not providethem with any type of enforceable rights. As noted above,evidence from a number of countries indicates that newcreative, innovative and process-oriented approaches seemto have considerable merit compared to those that focus onlarge-scale provision of freehold titles. Indeed, registeringcurrently unregistered land has proven destabilizing in manycountries and can quickly turn from a hopeful gesture to asource of conflict and disputes if carried out in an inappropriatemanner. 26Once land is registered, it is entered into cadastresand registries; these documents then become vital tools forthe enforcement of rights, urban planning measures and… a systematic approach, combined with widepublicity and legal assistance to ensure thateverybody is informed, provides the best way toensure social control and prevent land grabbingby powerful individuals, which would be notonly inequitable, but also inefficient. 27It also highlights the importance of registering all urban landas ‘a precondition to the establishment of effective urbanmanagement’. 28It is important to reiterate, however, that land registrationdoes not automatically provide security of tenure.Growing evidence points to registration processes actuallycontributing to a redistribution of assets towards wealthiersegments of society. Or, as noted by one observer: ‘As landbecomes scarcer, poorer and more vulnerable groups maysee their claims weakened and lose access to land, leading totheir increasing marginalization and impoverishment.’ 29Moreover, in countries such as Ghana, which has had registrationsystems in place for well over a century, thecumbersome nature of the registration process has led tovery few people actually registering land claims. This hasbeen acknowledged by many observers, who note that registrationof urban land may not be feasible in the short andmedium term in many countries due to the lack of resourcesamong local authorities and the observed inability ofregistries to keep pace with developments on the ground.Thus, the World Bank has noted that in ‘cases where landregisters are not operational or effective, it may, therefore,be desirable to establish land inventories which simplyrecord claims of landownership and property rights withoutthe legal authority to determine them’. 30Many have thus pointed to the need for new andmore appropriate forms of land registration, which, in turn,can facilitate the provision of security of tenure. The maincomponents of such a new and more flexible approach areoutlined in Box 6.11. There are many dangers associatedwith such processes of registration. But there are also majordangers now in a world where so many people are not able tohave their rights – even informal rights – properly recognized.Perhaps one of the strongest arguments in favour ofdeveloping proper housing, land and property registrationsystems hinges on the vital role that these institutions canplay in remedying severe human rights violations, such asethnic cleansing, arbitrary land confiscations, forced