Guiding principles on security of tenure for the urban poor

This Guidelines are published by the Special Rapporteur on Adequate housing in Feb 2014.  I believe that these principles can be useful on our programs, (specially our Recovery  and Urban programming) as it presents an overview on how to strengthen diverse tenure forms, both formal and informal, an overview of mechanisms conducing to security of tenure, and also how tenure security/insecurity affects different aspects on the urban poor,  from their capacity to be resilient, to how it affects  business activities, or gender implications.

The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing has been mandated to provide practical  guidance for the implementation of the right to adequate housing. In the present report, she  recommends a set of guiding principles to assist States and other relevant actors in  addressing the current tenure insecurity crisis faced by the urban poor in an increasingly  urbanized world. These principles aim to provide guidance to States and other actors to address this challenge in order to ensure adequate housing for poor and vulnerable people in urban and peri-urban areas.

Underlying these guiding principles is a presumption that individuals and communities occupying land or property to fulfil their right to adequate housing, and who have no other adequate option, have legitimate tenure rights that should be secured and protected. The concept of legitimate tenure rights extends beyond mainstream notions of private ownership and includes multiple tenure forms deriving from a variety of tenure systems.

Online home for the Guide
http://direitoamoradia.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Guidelines_EN_-vers%C3%A3ofinal.pdf