A/HRC/22/46
85.
Some innovative planning regulations exist to secure tenure for the most
marginalized.71 A significant example is the Brazilian ―Special Zones of Social Interest‖
(ZEIS).72 ZEIS is a planning instrument, based on the constitutional recognition of the
social function of property,73 regulating the use and occupation, for social housing
purposes, of public or private properties. It is used to recognize existing informal
settlements as well as to define unoccupied areas of the city as areas for social housing.
86.
Regulations on ―inclusionary zoning‖, which provide that any new city development
must include ―mixed types of housing‖, including a minimum percentage for social
housing, are another positive example. Several cities in Canada and the United States have
adopted such measures, while they are also envisaged in planning legislations in Colombia,
France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.74
87.
Finally, an issue relevant to any planning is the role of planning policies and related
institutions in supporting initiatives by communities of the urban poor and communitydriven upgrading.75 In many countries, urban poor associations have been very successful in
gaining access to secure housing and land. However, community initiatives without clear
government support can be limited to areas that are not contested (for example, of low land
value) while communities supported can be vulnerable to evictions.
E.
Recognizing and recording the diversity of tenure forms and rights
88.
As mentioned in section II, development actors and Governments are increasingly
moving towards more flexible and expansive ways of recording and recognizing tenure
forms and tenure rights. 76 Tools and approaches are being developed and implemented to
that end. They often build upon existing practices or rights, 77 and involve communities
(such as participatory mapping). 78 There are also legal instruments to recognize or
regularize tenure rights, such as ―adverse possession‖ in common law systems or the
similar concept of ―usucapiao‖ in Brazil.79
89.
Questions remain as to the minimum conditions that these approaches should fulfil
to ensure security of tenure, what type of institutional arrangements are required for
implementation, and whether such approaches can be replicated in diverse contexts and at
scale. This is particularly relevant to those forms of tenure that have received less attention
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
See, for example, UN-Habitat, Global Report on Human Settlements 2009: Planning Sustainable
Cities. However, such initiatives are scarce.
Federal Law No. 10.257/2001 (City Statute).
Constitution of Brazil, art. 5 (23).
See N. Calavita and A. Mallach, Inclusionary Housing in International Perspective: Affordable
Housing, Social Inclusion, and Land Value Recapture (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2010);
Maldonado Copello and María Mercedes, ―Revisitar las tensiones en el proceso de aplicación de la
Ley 388 de 1997‖, Fórum de direito urbano e ambiental, vol. 9, No. 54.
See, for example, the Déclaration d‘engagement solidaire de Casablanca (Morocco, 2004).
See para. 59 above.
See Global Land Tool Network (www.gltn.net/index.php/home); Payne, ―Urban land‖ (note 22
above); and Urban LandMark, Incrementally Securing Tenure: An Approach for Informal Settlement
Upgrading in South Africa (2010).
See UN-Habitat, Count me in: Surveying for Tenure Security and Urban Land Management (2010).
Article 183, Constitution of Brazil. See also the State Lands (Regularisation of Tenure) Act No. 25 of
1998 (Trinidad and Tobago) and Urban Poverty and Habitat Precariousness in the Caribbean
(United Nations publication, Sales No. S.04.II.G.43).
19
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