Housing, Land and Property and Access To
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Reality of Housing, Land, and Property Rights in Syria HLP Working Group - Research 2020 Housing, Land and Property and Access to Documentation Outside of Regime-Held Areas in Syria Case Studies of Six Areas in Syria Housing, Land and Property and Access to Documentation Outside of Regime-Held Areas in Syria December 2020 - Copyright © The Day After (TDA) is a Syrian organization that works to support democratic transition in Syria, and its scope of work is focused on the following areas: Rule of law, transitional justice, security sector reform, electoral system design and Constituent Assembly election, constitutional design, economic reform and social policies. Istanbul - Turkey Pürtelaş Hasan Efendi Mahallesi, Cihangir Caddesi, No:3, D:1 - İstanbul. Tel: +90 (212) 252 3812 Website: www.tda-sy.org Email: [email protected] Operations and Policy Center (OPC, formerly Orient Policy Center) is an independent think tank and service provider based in Gaziantep, Turkey. Established in 2014, OPC conducts original research and provides consulting services to enhance policymaking, development programs, and humanitarian response projects. Syrian-led and owned, OPC combines local knowledge with technological and scientific expertise, utilizing in-house statisticians and graphic designers to create original and intuitive final products. Between 2014 and 2018, OPC was an exclusive service provider to the Orient Research Center (ORC) in Dubai. Since then, OPC has focused on cultivating relationships with governmental and non-governmental bodies working in Syria or with the Syrian diaspora. Currently, OPC is in a stage of growth after significantly upscaling its capabilities due to increased demand from a growing clientele. 2 Preface Based on the importance of the housing, land and property rights file in the Syrian people’s future, and on how this is linked to the right of return, peace building, community cohesion and Syrian social fabric, TDA has devoted much effort over the years to address this file through a number of related projects. To stress the importance of this file and of joint collaboration, TDA has established a working group for housing, land and property rights; a group comprised of several Syrian organizations concerned with these rights, coming together to advocate the file and unify efforts to preserve Syrians’ rights. The group works with the broader spectrum of human rights CSOs in order for this task to complement their own work, thereby contributing more effectively to a just and sustainable peace based on restoring rights and the return of the displaced in a safe, voluntary and dignified manner to their places of residence. 3 Table of Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................05 Introduction .................................................................................................................................07 Glossary ..........................................................................................................................................09 I. Daraa ............................................................................................................................................12 II. Duma ...........................................................................................................................................18 III. Afrin ....................................................................................................... 24 IV. Azaz ....................................................................................................... 30 V. Al-Bab ..................................................................................................... 36 VI.Idlib ........................................................................................................ 44 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 52 4 Executive Summary Land Registries in most countries in the world provide property owners with a land title guaranteed by the government, thereby guaranteeing the real estate rights of their citizens. In Syria, there is more than a 40%1 discrepancy in some regions, between registered land/ property, and actual land/property owned by citizens. The institution that formally oversaw real estate documentation, the General Directorate of Real Estate Interests, worked with hardcopy records, and distributed them to various sub- directorates, and subsidiary offices in the Syrian provinces. Consequently, when the regions began to fall to the opposition, and outside of the regime’s control, the central database of real estate properties in the country was dispersed among the various military forces that controlled those territories. In most opposition-controlled areas, there were attempts to reactivate real estate records, and authorities in those areas established alternative directorates and land registry offices. However, the lack of a central land registry/directorate, insecure public records, and the different methods of managing each land registry in each area, created a myriad of challenges that the regime today is attempting to exploit for its own political interests. This study provides an in-depth summary on the issue of property in six Syrian areas, where alternative land registries were established - in Daraa, Duma, Azaz, al-Bab, Afrin, and Idlib. The study presents the most significant issues that have accumulated in each region in the pre- conflict stage and lists the military changes that have occurred throughout. It investigates the alternative land registry situation in those areas: • Who they’re managed by • How various authorities in those areas deal with real estate records • Groups or organizations that filled the administrative vacuum left by the absence of state institutions • How the alternative management institutions were formed • Who they’re supported by • Documents and transactions that are left behind, and challenges that may arise in the future This study on the current situation of real estate records in Syria is of great importance, as real estate registries are the main reference for protecting the property rights of citizens - especially in a country that lacked formal or organized property rights even before the conflict. About half of the population was forced to leave their areas, as their homes and urban structures were destroyed. This makes the property issue one of the most complex problems in the country, and relates to the issues of reconstruction, the return of refugees, and conflict resolution. 1) Statement by the former Minister of Housing in the regime’s government, published at the link: https://bit. ly/35eJ1n4, seen on: Sep 07, 2020 5 Results in the study indicate that all alternative land registry offices that were established in the six areas of study followed the Syrian property law, and worked with the same administrative structure, and followed the same stipulated procedures, with a few differences from one region to another. The lack or absence of real estate records was a common dilemma for most areas of study, resulting in their reliance on various methods to fill gaps in their databases. One of those methods included their reliance on information (databases) leaked by former regime employees, as was the case in Daraa. In Afrin, property owners were asked to provide the alternative land registry offices with their ownership documents that were missing from the archives. In al-Bab, alternative land registries utilized records from various municipal and treasury directorates to prove ownership, and substitute for property records. Areas of the study that were re-seized by the regime, like Daraa and Duma, were faced with the problem of the regime’s dismissal of all procedures and transactions organized by the alternative land registry offices. Most of their staff were displaced, but they managed to preserve most of their work by digitizing their records before they were seized by the regime. As for the areas that remained outside the regime’s control, such as Idlib, and cities in the northern countryside of Aleppo, the alternative land registries there still operate in a relatively independent manner within their local framework of policies; and without the presence of a central administration or any organizational body linking the sub-administrations to each other. The Syrian Interim Government was expected to act as the centralized body overseeing those land registries but was not able to fulfill that role. The future of the manifestation of those experiences is still open to all possibilities and is dependent on the political solutions in those areas. Therefore, it is necessary to include the issue of property in the agenda of negotiations between the Syrian opposition and the regime, especially with regard to the tens of thousands of transactions organized by the alternative land registry directorates and offices, which are unrecognized by the regime. 6 Introduction After less than a year of protests breaking out in Syria, the Syrian regime began to lose many areas, and its territories shrunk further during 2013, as the forces opposed to it gained more strength and momentum, and intensified their attacks. By the end of the year, most Syrian territories fell to the opposition. In most of these areas, alternative administrations were formed, and included local councils, courts, and police services. Directorates of education, health and others