A/HRC/25/54
28.
Municipal authorities should revise existing legislation and planning regulations
based on the tenure assessment. Urban plans should integrate settlements into city systems,
facilities and infrastructures. The plan may, for example, designate low-income settlements
as “special zones” with regulations allowing for incremental upgrading. For example, the
zoning laws of some Brazilian cities establish social interest special zones, which contain
special regulations reflecting the reality of settlement configurations. This allows
settlements to be formally recognized as part of the city through participatory
mechanisms.33
29.
Urban plans should incorporate citywide strategies for any necessary resettlement.
They should identify available, suitable and safe locations for resettlement, ensuring access
to livelihood opportunities, services and facilities. Resettlement is only permissible under
international human rights law where it is assessed, in consultation with the community,
and subject to administrative and judicial review, that in situ upgrading is not viable due to
exceptional circumstances and the absence of feasible alternatives to eviction.34 Authorities
should not resettle any household until it has adopted a resettlement policy that is fully
consistent with their international human rights law obligations.
30.
States should work with settlement communities to recognize and secure their tenure
arrangements (both in situ or in preparation for resettlement). Relevant authorities should
facilitate people-driven settlement mapping and enumerations to gather settlement and
household data, using both oral and written evidence.35 States should encourage and enable
community organization and mobilization throughout this process, and remove any
impediments to freedom of assembly and association.36 Any community-level negotiation
with the State should only occur through legitimate representatives of the community. All
relevant actors should ensure that marginalized groups within the community meaningfully
participate in the process. The participation of such groups, including tenants, whose rights
and interests are often ignored, should be supported.
31.
Registering tenure rights in a land information system is an important step towards
tenure security. However, consideration must be given to the risk of sudden price hikes due
to registration that could lead to economic eviction of the poorest households, including
tenants. Tenure options that safeguard against these risks, such as cooperatives and CLTs,
should be promoted. Rentals should be secured during the registration process through
recorded contracts to protect tenants from unaffordable rent hikes. Consideration should
also be given to suitable secure tenure options that reflect the needs of households and
communities with mobile lifestyles.
32.
Settlement land information systems should be simple, affordable, accessible and
transparent. People should have opportunities to contest, clarify or query recorded tenure
arrangements through an appropriate process including public display of maps. Unlike
conventional cadastres, settlement land information systems should reflect varied and
overlapping tenure rights – not only freehold – and the spatial realities that exist in urban
settlements. For example, the Social Tenure Domain Model, developed by the Global Land
33
34
35
36
12
Rolnik et al., Zonas Especiales de Interés Social en ciudades brasileñas, paper presented at the Foro
Latinoamericano sobre Instrumentos Notables de Intervención Urbana, Quito, Ecuador, 2013.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 7 and the Basic
Principles, paras. 21 and 38–40.
See Paul Mundy et al., Count me in: Surveying for tenure security and urban land management (UNHabitat and GLTN, 2010). Available from
www.gltn.net/index.php/resources/publications/publications-list/finish/3-gltn-documents/80-countme-in-surveying-for-tenure-security-and-urban-land-management-eng-2010.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 21 and 22.