The issue that involves slums accompanies the whole urban evolution of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The removals were, since the beggining of slums, seen as necessary to solve the problem the slum would have constituted to the city. This work has as its objective to analyse how the present construction of risk discourse has been used as a justification for the removals of slums. In order to do so, an analysis of the evolution of the process of removals in the city of Rio de Janeiro will be made, so that later it is possible to approach how risk discourse enters this matter. As part of this process, I will make an analysis of how the urban law of the city approaches slums, risk-prone areas and the relation between both. I will also analyse how strategic planning inserts itself in this context and bibliographies that approach the theme of risk and vulnerability.