Informal settlements and fundamental rights
Ploeger, Hendrik and Danielle Groetelaers
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects several fundamental rights that can be associated with the use of land. More specific: the fundamental right to property and the right to respect for ones private and family life and ones home. Informal settlements (also known as squatter settlements, illegal settlements or encroachments) are characterized by a dense expansion of small, more or less provisional shelters built from diverse materials. These settlements are developed on private or public land by people who occupy the land without holding any title. The urgent need for this kind of shelter for the poor gains the upper hand in countries where planning and housing systems - in that respect - are not functioning properly. Although these settlements are 'informal' or 'illegal', the occupants can claim under the European convention protection against arbitrary acts of the government interfering with their fundamental rights. One of the basis of those claims can be article 1 Protocol No. 1 ECHR, that guarantees the 'peaceful enjoyment' of ones possessions. On the aspect of illegal occupied land, the European Court of Human rights in Strasbourg holds a wide interpretation of 'possessions'. The Court accepts that occupants of land can claim a proprietary interests, although they donnt have any (formal) right in the occupied land. On the other hand, the Court recently found that the right to property of the landowner itself was infringed by the rule of adverse possession under English law. The paper gives a general survey of the interpretation and application of Article 1 in respect to informal settlements, based on case law of the European Court.
Event: XXIII International FIG Congress : Shaping the change
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