Summary
Access to justice to address violations of housing, property and land rights is key to durable solutions to displacement. The loss of homes and properties compromises displaced persons’ security, privacy and livelihoods, as property frequently represents people’s most important economic asset. Its loss therefore perpetuates displacement and represents an obstacle to economic recovery, reconstruction and peace-building.
ILAC’s “Dispossession in Syria: A Fundamental Piece of the Accountability Puzzle,”released in the Autumn 2022, reviews how the current context in Syria provides very limited access to justice on housing, property and land rights issues. While realities differ from one area to another, what was already a slow and pluralistic justice system is now fragmented into four different entities where courts and other institutions are administered by different political actors and armed groups, with large variations as to laws and procedures depending on who holds territorial control.