A/HRC/16/42 near Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh, illustrates some of these problems. The claimants challenged the design and implementation of the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which was designed to support the Land Law of 2001. The project, funded primarily by the World Bank, “aimed at developing a land policy and regulatory framework, building capacity of the relevant Government agencies, developing a land registration system and a titling program, strengthening mechanisms for land disputes and developing State land management32.” 30. LMPAP was able to accomplish a number of its goals including the development of key parts of the legal framework and the issuing of around 1.3 million land titles. However, “despite these achievements, the failure of the project to tackle fundamental inequities in the control and management of land meant that it did not improve tenure security for the segments of Cambodian society that are vulnerable to displacement33 .” Those who had less formal rights saw their security of tenure undermined: “The recognition of possession rights in the 2001 Land Law, including the right to convert possession into full ownership through title, was intended as a mechanism to incorporate this pre-existing tenure system into the formal centralized system….[However these] legal possessors are accused of being ‘illegal squatters’ because they do not have ‘hard’ formal title, and this in turn has become a common justification for eviction….By expanding the reach of the formal titling system, LMAP has increased the actual and perceived superiority of hard titles issued under the project vis-à-vis soft titles issued under the pre-existing tenure system. LMAP has thus unwittingly weakened the tenure status of those households who have been excluded from the formal system and must continue to rely on their ‘soft titles’ as proof of their rights to the land34.” 31. Similar lessons can be learnt from post-disaster situations. Disasters occur in a social context framed by complex issues of power, politics and longstanding vulnerability and poverty, including widespread tenure insecurity. Understanding this complexity is fundamental to developing and implementing successful responses. This is illustrated in the case of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in October 1998. According to official estimates Hurricane Mitch left 21 cities severely damaged, 82,735 houses damaged, 66,188 houses destroyed and 44,150 people homeless. In addition 123 health centres and 531 roads were damaged and eight health centres and 189 bridges were destroyed 35 . As a result, an estimated 1.5 million people were negatively affected. 32. While people from all economic groups suffered from the effects of the hurricane, the damage disproportionately affected the most marginalized sectors of the population – poor women, peasants, indigenous groups. Significantly, many of these had been living under insecure tenure conditions in irregular settlements and inadequate housing, located in vulnerable areas exposed to strong winds, flooding and landslides. Although evacuation orders were issued, many refused to leave their homes for fear of losing their belongings, with disastrous and often fatal consequences. Vulnerability and in particular tenure insecurity was both the cause and effect of the disaster for such families. In the absence of officially recognized tenure rights, people ended up living on the fringes in dangerous areas, which due to their location were often worst affected by the hurricane. Any postdisaster response measures intended to form the basis for longer-term recovery would therefore have needed to address pre-existing insecurity, in order to provide a basis for the full realization of the right to adequate housing. 32 33 34 35 World Bank Inspection Panel, LMAP Eligibility Report, (2010) para. 23. N. Bugalski and D. Pred, “Land Title in Cambodia: Formalizing Inequality” in COHRE Housing and ESC Rights Law Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 2, (June 2010), p. 4. N. Bugalski, M. Grimsditch and D. Pred, “Land Titling in Cambodia: Lessons from the Land Management and Administration Project” (forthcoming), p. 11. Secretaría de Salud de Honduras, Programa de Preparativos para Desastres. 11