TS 1.1 -People, Cadastre and Land Governance for Society Use of Upgraded Evidence in Cadaster Approaches for Syrian Refugee Return Use of Upgraded Evidence in Cadaster Approaches for Syrian Refugee Return

Abstract

SUMMARY The enormity of the Syrian refugee crisis in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, together with the difficulties of their livelihoods and the burden placed on host countries, highlights the importance of planning now for the eventual return of refugees to their housing, land and property (HLP) in Syria. As in all refugee generating scenarios, the manner in which most Syrians departed their HLP resulted in little opportunity to obtain, prepare or bring, the documentation needed prove ownership, occupation, or claim to their properties to which they must one day return. Further, in a great many cases such documentation, if it existed, was incomplete, inaccurate, contested, confused, improperly recorded and of uncertain legal standing. Overlain on this situation is a long history of land and property confiscations, dispossession, grievance, corruption and patronage, which has meant that many HLP assets will be reclaimed anew when their former occupants return. While the social and legal challenges for reattaching returning refugees to their HLP is difficult in any postwar situation, this will be particularly so in the Syrian case due to the absence of documentation and the contested, confused and aggrieved land rights system in the country's history. Past research has highlighted the need to move quickly in refugee situations, so as to be able to effectively capture such recognition and recollection of land and property features before they are lost. Waiting until a war is over before establishing a program for how refugees will reclaim HLP is an expensive and protracted process that marginalizes those who have lost important evidence over time, resulting in a reluctance to return from refugee hosting countries. This paper examines the prospect for examining the primarily informal, customary evidence that refugees do have and how this evidence can be gathered, upgraded, combined and corroborated, and then inserted into useful types of cadasters for use in their return to (and restitution of) lands, properties and areas of origin