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RECLAIMING HOME the Struggle for Socially Just Housing, Land, and Property Rights in Syria, Iraq and Libya

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RECLAIMING HOME the Struggle for Socially Just Housing, Land, and Property Rights in Syria, Iraq and Libya RECLAIMING HOME The struggle for socially just housing, land, and property rights in Syria, Iraq and Libya Edited by Hannes Baumann RECLAIMING HOME The struggle for socially just housing, land, and property rights in Syria, Iraq and Libya Edited by Hannes Baumann Contributors Leïla Vignal Nour Harastani and Edwar Hanna Suliman Ibrahim Javier Gonzalez Ina Rehema Jahn and Amr Shannan Sangar Youssif Salih and Kayfi Maghdid Qadr Thomas McGee Not for Sale © Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be printed, reproduced or utilized in any from by any means without prior written permission from the publishers. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the original authors. They do not necessarily represent those of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Cartographic Design: Thiago Soveral Cover Illustration: Moshtari Hillal Graphic Design: Mehdi Jelliti Published in 2019 by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Regional Project «For Socially Just Development in MENA» TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Thomas Claes ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction HLP through the lens of conflict strategies, informality, and social justice struggles Hannes Baumann ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Locating Dispossession and HLP rights in the War in Syria Leïla Vignal ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 10 Syrian ownership rights documentation and the challenge of ‘reconstruction’ Nour Harastani and Edwar Hanna ............................................................................................................................................... 10 Seeking Justice for Property Grievances in Post-2011 Liby Suliman Ibrahim ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Assessing HLP violations and governance dynamics on the local level .............................................. 10 Land, house occupations, and destruction in a strategic border area: The case of al- Qusayr in Syria Javier Gonzalez ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 10 If we leave we will never live in this house again.’ Perspectives from Eastern Aleppo on housing, land and property governance and rights violations during the Syrian war Ina Rehema Jahn and Amr Shannan ........................................................................................................................................ 10 How the deprivation of land ownership makes minority groups more vulnerable: An examination of the case of Yazidis in Iraq Sangar Youssif Salih and Kayfi Maghdid Qadr .................................................................................................................... 10 Nothing is ours anymore – HLP rights violations in Afrin, Syria Thomas McGee ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Author bios ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Foreword The ongoing wars and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa have caused immense suffering and destruction. The wars in Syria, Iraq and Libya have displaced millions of people, both inside their countries and a cross the border. Many of those displaced, especially in Syria, hail from informal housing in urban areas and often do not possess reliable legal proof for their ownership of the properties they had built and used to occupy. During the conflicts, informal housing was mostly located in rebel-held areas, significantly increasing the prospect of destruction and damage. This uneven distribution of the burden of HLP (housing, land and property) rights violations and destructions, as shown in many of the contributions in this book, turns HLP very directly into a question of social justice. HLP rights violations can take different forms in times of conflict: they can be the cause, tool and/or outcome of the war and still bear vast importance for the post-war reconstruction of both physical, legal and state infrastructure. While overlooking the issue carries the risk of reigniting conflict, a successful and just settlement of HLP issues can contribute to a sustainable peace. Violations of HLP rights have historical, legal and social layers, as shown in the chapters. Initial violations and displacement from the time of post-independence nation-building or neo-liberal authoritarian upgrading have caused long-simmering pre- conflict tensions. Additionally, the current armed conflicts and its ensuing displacements and expropriations are adding further violations. Given the current political and military realities in all three countries addressed in this publication – Syria, Libya and Iraq – and the accumulated layers of violations, dispossession and secondary occupation, a solution that addresses all grievances and achieves full restitution or compensation seems impossible. The focus, therefore, should lie on finding a feasible solution that brings justice for as many as possible and, most importantly, without creating new conflicts. While this publication aims to give insights into the dynamics of HLP in three countries in the region, other countries are left out due to numerous constraints. Mainly these are Yemen, where HLP violations are rampant but research is unfortunately still scarce, and Palestine, where the issue unfolds in a very different way than in the rest of the region. Every project has its limitations, and for reasons of feasibility and comparability Syria, Iraq and Libya emerged as case studies. We sincerely hope that this publication might help raise awareness on the relevance of HLP grievances for building sustainable peace and improve the understanding of HLP dynamics in the region among international donors and decision-makers. From start to end, this project took just around one year and a half, an impressively short amount of time for such work. This is due to the commitment and motivation of the project’s central actors: First and foremost, I wish to express my gratitude to Hannes Baumann, the scientific advisor and editor of the publication as well as to another editor, who unfortunately must stay anonymous. It was the anonymous editor, who helped develop the project’s initial conception kept it going with his motivation. Without the commitment of both editors, this 4 project would have never seen the light of day. Equally, I wish to thank all contributors to this book for their commitment, scientific rigor and dedication to the project, in addition to all those who participated in the project’s workshop and discussions in December 2018 in Tunis. Additionally, I am thankful for the fruitful cooperation with Thiago Soveral who designed the illuminative maps in this volume, as well as Moshtari Hilal for her excellent cover illustration and Mehdi Jeliti for his reliable type-setting and graphic design under time pressure. Finally, I wish to thank the ten anonymous peer reviewers for their work. The reviewers’ comments and critiques, including for chapters which did not make it into the final publication, have significantly improved the quality and rigorousness of the book’s contributions. This project was made possible by a special fund allocated to FES from 2016-2019 by the BMZ, the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, providing a unique opportunity to fund outstanding and timely research. Thomas Claes Project Director “For a Socially Just Development” Tunis, September 2019 5 Introduction The struggle for socially just housing, land and property rights in Arab countries Hannes Baumann As violent conflict has engulfed various Arab countries the region has become a focus for discussions on displacement and its effects on housing, land and property (HLP) rights. The framework of these debates are the Pinheiro Principles of 2005, which seek to provide practical guidance for governments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations to restore HLP rights after violent conflict.1 The contribution of this volume is to put HLP violations in Syria, Iraq, and Libya into their political and social context. The authors provide the locally specific insights that domestic and international actors need to be aware of to address HLP violations and work towards social justice. Academics and practitioners acknowledge that there is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach to dealing with HLP violations during and after violent conflict.2 As Ballard puts it: ‘Remedying forced eviction involves understanding local physical evidence, grappling with secondary occupation problems that have unique geographical and economic contours, and
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