Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons: Implementing the Pinheiro Principles in the Middle East and North Africa

This handbook is designed to provide practical guidance to national and international actors, institutions, and organizations working to protect the housing, land, and property rights of refugees and displaced persons. It contributes to achieving sustainable solutions by applying the Pinheiro Principles to displacement situations across the Middle East and North Africa region.

The handbook is intended for professionals working in intergovernmental organizations, international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government institutions engaged in humanitarian aid, post-conflict recovery, reconstruction, and development related to refugees and displaced persons. The Handbook also targets government officials at municipalities, regional governments or at the national level, judges and other actors in the judiciary, staff of ministries dedicated to human rights, land and housing administration, and so on. Furthermore, refugees, displaced persons and other affected persons may be able to refer to this Handbook and use it as a tool to enable them to understand and access their rights and processes of housing, land and property restitution. In the aftermath of displacement, these various actors working towards claiming or protecting restitution rights are often confronted with numerous associated questions, complexities, obstacles and risks.