Housing, land and property (HLP) rights, as rights, are widely recognized throughout international human rights and humanitarian law and provide a clear and consistent legal normative framework for developing better approaches to the HLP challenges faced by the UN and others seeking to build long-term peace. This book analyses the ubiquitous HLP challenges present in all conflict and post-conflict settings. It will bridge the worlds of the practitioner and the theorist by combining an overview of the international legal and policy frameworks on HLP rights with dozens of detailed case studies demonstrating country experiences from around the world. The book will be of particular interest to professors and students of international relations, law, human rights, and peace and conflict studies but will have a wider readership among practitioners working for international institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, non-governmental organizations, and national agencies in the developing world.

This book is about the UN's role in housing, land, and property rights in countries after violent conflict.

This book explores various contemporary aspects of the growing field of housing, land and property (HLP) rights. HLP rights have undergone a major transformation in recent decades, but much remains to be done to bring their promise to the billions of people who have yet to access them. This work presents several innovative ways by which the entire field of HLP rights can be strengthened in support of those to whom they are promised by human rights laws. It outlines the author’s suggestions for creating a new World Restitution Agency, expanding our understanding of the term ‘internationally wrongful act’ to HLP crimes, the links between mine action and HLP rights in post-conflict societies and the need to include HLP issues in peace agreements. The book concludes with several chapters that outline suggestions for better addressing climate displacement, including the need for national climate land banks, the role of the courts and how to redistribute global wealth towards rehousing the millions set to be displaced from their homes and lands due to the effects of climate change. The volume will be essential reading for academics, researchers and policymakers working in the areas of international human rights law, housing, land and property issues, humanitarian issues and climate change.

In the first Commentary on the United Nations Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons – known colloquially as the Pinheiro Principles – Khaled Hassine and Scott Leckie outline the restitution rights of persons who have faced forced displacement and the loss of their homes, lands and properties. The Commentary compiles and analyzes in considerable detail the legal contents of the Pinheiro Principles - a consolidated international instrument generated by the United Nations in 2005 to provide a solid normative framework on these questions and which legal duties exist for states and the international community to secure them. The book will be of vital interest for all actors concerned with applying restitution rights in practice.