A/HRC/25/54 discrimination and which has the intention or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights.60 51. Property status and place of residence, including a settlement that is not legally recognized, are prohibited grounds of discrimination.61 States should adopt deliberate, concrete and targeted measures to combat discrimination against individuals and groups on the basis of their tenure status in the enjoyment of their human rights.62 The prohibition on discrimination applies whether or not the tenure arrangements are recognized under law, and whether or not there is documentary evidence of tenure status. 52. Access to basic services and facilities. People without an officially recognized tenure status are often denied access to basic services and facilities. In some situations, public and private service providers, including of water, sanitation and electricity, require the presentation of title as a prerequisite for connection or delivery. In other situations, access to social facilities, such as school enrolment, is conditional on a registered address. States should take measures to ensure that access to basic services and facilities, whether publicly or privately provided, is not dependent on tenure status, official registration of residence, or the presentation of title.63 53. Access to social security. Social security is critical to guaranteeing human dignity and the enjoyment of human rights when people are faced with circumstances that deprive them of their capacity to otherwise realize them.64 Sometimes homeless persons or individuals without a registered address are unable to access social security either owing to eligibility criteria or indirect bureaucratic obstacles.65 These obstacles amount to discrimination on the basis of tenure status. States should take all necessary steps to remove barriers faced by persons who are homeless or have an ambiguous tenure status in receiving social security, including by ensuring that a registered address and other residence requirements are not a de jure or de facto prerequisite to receiving benefits. 54. The collection of official data. Individuals without legally recognized tenure, including those living in urban settlements, homeless and displaced persons, are often not covered in censuses and other official data collection. When their information is ignored, their lack of legal tenure status effectively denies them official recognition as members of society.66 This exclusion exacerbates their invisibility in policy design and budget allocations essential to the realization of their human rights. States should ensure that such individuals are counted and included in all official data collection processes.67 55. Land administration programmes, housing policies and urban planning. Discrimination on the basis of tenure status is prevalent in land, housing and urban policies. Land administration programmes typically only register freehold rights, while ignoring the multiple other existing tenure forms.68 Housing policies commonly also promote freehold, 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009) on nondiscrimination, para. 2. Ibid., paras. 25 and 34. Ibid., para. 36. Ibid., general comment No. 15 (2002) on the right to water, para. 16. Ibid., general comment No. 19 (2007) on the right to social security, para. 1. Ibid., general comments No. 20, para. 29; No. 19, paras. 4, 39 and 64. See Sheela Patel and Carrie Baptist, “Documenting the undocumented”, Environment and Urbanization, 24, No. 3, March 2012, p. 3. See Uruguay, 2011 census with disaggregated data on housing based on all forms of tenure (its response to the questionnaire). Natalie Bugalski, A Human Rights Approach to Development of Cambodia’s Land Sector: A discussion paper (Equitable Cambodia and Heinrich BöllStiftung, 2012), pp. 22–25 and 35–36. 17