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266Towards safer and more secure citiesBox 11.4 Defining human securityThe former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said:Human security in its broadest sense embraces far more than the absence of violentconflict. It encompasses human rights, good governance, access to education andhealth care and ensuring that each individual has opportunities and choices to fulfilhis or her own potential. Every step in this direction is also a step towards reducingpoverty, achieving economic growth and preventing conflict. Freedom from want,freedom from fear and freedom of future generations to inherit a healthy naturalenvironment – these are the interrelated building blocks of human and, therefore,national security.Source: Commission on Human Security, 2003A focus on propertyrights alone mayserve … to justify agrossly unfair andunequal status quoThe question thusbecomes whetherthe concept of‘property rights’ isadequateThe term ‘housing,land and propertyrights’ ensures thatall residentialsectors are includedin legal analyses andin the developmentof plans, policiesand institutionsSecurity of tenure goes beyond propertyrightsExamining security of tenure within the context of theabove-mentioned recognized human rights also meshes wellwith treating security of tenure as a core element within theconcept of human security. This implies taking a more allencompassingvision of human rights as they relate to thetenure issue (see Box 11.4). Nobel Peace Prize winner JodyWilliams makes the link between human rights, humansecurity and property rights in a 2006 article, where shequestions the efficacy of a property rights (title-based)approach to solving the security of tenure crisis:But it remains to be seen how extracting oneright – the right to property – can possibly be …a long-term solution to meeting the complexneeds of the poor. Meeting those needs for thelong term would require addressing the political,social, cultural and economic factors (onboth the national and international levels) thatcreated the gross inequalities in the first placeand exacerbates them in a globalized world,thus depriving the poor of human dignity andthe full realization of their human rights. 21This is an important point, for in the realm of housing andland policy (as also discussed in Chapters 5 and 6), propertyrights approaches have often proven inadequate in fullyachieving the objective of universal access to a place to livein peace and dignity. Indeed, on their own, property rightsare often seen to undermine the pursuit of this goal. In somesituations, a focus on property rights alone may serve (as aconcept, as well as in law, policy and practice) to justify agrossly unfair and unequal status quo. In other instances,what are referred to as property rights are confused withhousing and land rights, effectively usurping them in aneffort to give an impression that all residentially relatedhuman rights requirements can be met via property rights.As such, the question thus becomes whether theconcept of ‘property rights’ is adequate for addressing themultifaceted questions relating to both land and housing,and the inadequate living conditions facing such a largeportion of humanity. Can property rights in and ofthemselves address the increasingly inequitable distributionof land in developing countries? Can programmes solelysupporting property rights lead to increasingly higher levelsof enjoyment of all rights related to the conditions in whichone lives? Most controversially, perhaps, does a purelyproperty rights approach help those without rights toactually achieve them?In certain instances, the recognition of property rightshas proven to be an important element or step in developinga legal system based upon the rule of law. The effectiveenforcement of property rights requires clear and transparentrules, as well as a functioning and independent judiciary– elements that are considered fundamental for the promotionand protection of human rights and the rule of law. Butwhile property rights could play a role in triggering theemergence of a human rights friendly environment, one canquestion, in the longer term, the impact of a system relyingprimarily on property rights for the full realization of allhuman rights. In practical terms, within the real world, doproperty rights actually protect only those who alreadypossess property? And what is their significance for thosehundreds of millions of people who do not possess theserights within the formal legal system?Housing, land and property (HLP) rightsAs one means of addressing these questions and, in effect, ofovercoming the limitations of the concept of ‘propertyrights’, the more inclusive terminology of housing, land andproperty (HLP) rights has been suggested as a far better (and,again, integral) term with which to describe the residentialdimensions of the property question, set within a humanrights framework. 22 Treating what are traditionally referredto as ‘property rights’ as the more all-encompassing ‘HLPrights’ promotes a unified and evolutionary approach tohuman rights and all of their associated residential dimensions.Moreover, such an approach – grounded deeply in theindivisibility and interdependence of all rights – allows all ofthe rights just noted to be viewed as a consolidated whole inbroad support of security of tenure initiatives. The term‘housing, land and property rights’ ensures that all residentialsectors are included in legal analyses and in thedevelopment of plans, policies and institutions addressingthe legal and physical conditions in which people in allsocieties live. Working with HLP rights also ensures that theterminology used in one country to describe the rightspossessed by everyone (e.g. ‘housing rights’) is treated as thehuman rights equivalent of terms such as ‘property rights’ or‘land rights’, and vice-versa. Using only the term ‘propertyrights’ can very easily result in the exclusion of certainsectors (tenants, co-operative dwellers, informal-sectordwellers without secure tenure, women, vulnerable groups,nomads, indigenous peoples and others), inequitable treatmentand, far too often, outright discrimination. In contrast,the term ‘HLP rights’ is universally relevant within all legaland political systems, and resonates in both developed anddeveloping countries.While HLP rights are each unique and complex legaland human rights concepts, they are, at the same time,