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Summary of case studies313against forced evictions through the adoption of the legalinstruments of urban adverse possession and the ‘specialsocial interest zones’. The latter recognize informal settlementsas part of the city and provide special regulations forland use and occupation.Many social movements, NGOs, academic institutions,professional entities, workers’ unions and socialorganizations have actively engaged in the processes madepossible by the new constitution, the City Statute and othernew legislation. These range from the elaboration of participatorymunicipal master plans to the implementation ofnational public policies. As a result, many programmes andinvestments have been discussed, implemented andmonitored with the direct participation of a range of civilsociety organizations.The main policy initiatives arising out of these newpieces of legislation were the National Programme toSupport Sustainable Urban Land Regularization (ProgramaPapel Passado) and the National Social Housing System,which identified the limits, possibilities and challenges toimplementing comprehensive and integrated social housingprojects (see also Box 6.27). Both programmes weredesigned in accordance with the principles and guidelinescontained in the City Statute, and provide for the implementationof the instruments regulated by this new legislation.The former programme, created in 2003 to providesupport to states and municipalities and to regularize unionproperty, seeks to grant landownership titles to householdsliving in informal settlements. The programme also attemptsto provide financial and technical support to states andmunicipalities for the purpose of implementing land regularizationand social housing projects. The National SocialHousing System was created to regulate an institutional andfinancial scheme designed to support different socialhousing projects, including the participation of states,municipalities and NGOs. Its introduction implies that Brazilnow has a comprehensive social housing system that cansupport and fund social housing and land regularizationprojects.However, even with the introduction of these twoprogrammes, the achievement of concrete results – such asthe provision and registration of landownership titles, theeffective support from states and municipalities to housingprojects, and the empowerment of communities and socialmovements – is still a challenge. Many institutional, legaland political obstacles still need to be removed, both at thenational and at local levels, before the integration of socioenvironmentalpolices and legislation can adequately benefitthe regularization of urban informal settlements.Brazil has enshrined in its national legislation mosthousing rights laid down in the international human rightsinstruments. Even so, this has not always resulted in more orbetter access to adequate housing and land for the poor. It isthus appropriate to call on the courts to protect the right toadequate housing more effectively, and to consider and applyinternational human rights law directly when deciding casesinvolving rights of possession, forced evictions and landconflicts affecting vulnerable urban residents. Within theBrazilian legal system, the civil code has traditionally beenapplied by the judiciary to give privilege to full ownershiprather than possession in those cases where there is aconflict between the two. These decisions undermine thefulfilment of the social function of property and the applicationof instruments to protect security of tenure, which areenshrined in the City Statute.For housing rights to be fully respected, it is essentialto obtain recognition from public officials that considerationof human rights is a key objective in the application of urbanand housing policies. The Brazilian experience shows thatsocial participation is possible and that it results in fruitfuloutcomes, when all relevant stakeholders engage together inactions based on a consistent and strategic urban-politicalplatform.The struggle for tenure in CambodiaIn October 2006, the Australian television network ABCaired a piece on mass evictions occurring in Phnom Penh,which recorded this observation from the US ambassador toCambodia:There’s too many land disputes, too many richpeople, greedy companies. Property is really thekey to prosperity and freedom and once peopleare not secure in what they own, everythingelse falls apart.This statement is a good summary of the importance of landto the poor in Cambodia. If the growing disputes over landand the resulting evictions of thousands of households fromthe city are to end, efforts must be made to better understandthe motivation and pressures creating these tragicevents. From this, possible alternatives may be found.In assessing these events it is also essential to understandthe legal context of urban settlements in Cambodiasince everyone who returned to Phnom Penh after thecollapse of the Khmer Rouge regime was a squatter (see alsoChapter 5). Thus, among the important revisions to the1992 Land Law adopted in 2001 was a clarification ofadverse possession rights. Under the revised law, Article 30allowed any person who had occupied a piece of land peacefullyand without contest for five years or more to requestdefinitive title to the land. While this provided the prospectof title for many urban residents, there were still manyobstacles for them to overcome. These included a generallack of awareness about the process of requesting title; thecost of such requests; the process and costs of appeals; thecorruption of the bureaucracy and the courts; and the lack ofaccess to the legal process, particularly when disputesoccurred.Throughout 2006 and early 2007, evictions tookplace at a rapid rate in both urban and rural areas of thecountry. There was a pattern to these evictions: companies,often owned by prominent national and local politicians,used the police and the army to evict people from land that,under the 2001 Land Law, should have been theirs. In urbanCambodia, particularly in Phnom Penh, additional pressurecame from companies demanding land for development