Syria’s reconstruction must take a wider view of housing, land and property rights

What are the main HLP rights violations the study covered?

Baumann: Each contribution has a specific focus. Leila Vignal explains the ways in which the Syrian government has abused HLP rights in its war against the opposition—and to subdue its population. Nour Harastani and Edwar Hanna surveyed over 100 Syrians to illustrate the various HLP issues they face. They are particularly critical of the Syrian regime’s “reconstruction” agenda and show how urban megaprojects are designed to expropriate potentially troublesome urban populations.

"In Afrin in Northern Syria, which is under the control of Turkey and allied local militias. In their efforts to control the local Kurdish population, they also frequently violate HLP rights."

Other contributors look at specific locations in Syria. Javier Gonzalez argues that the Syrian government and Lebanese militia Hezbollah discriminate against particular sectarian groups they consider more likely to side with the opposition. Thomas McGee sees similar mechanisms at work in Afrin in Northern Syria, which is under the control of Turkey and allied local militias. In their efforts to control the local Kurdish population, they also frequently violate HLP rights. Ina Jahn and Amr Shannan provide the first in-depth look at how residents of Eastern Aleppo, when it was besieged and under opposition control, sought to provide alternatives to the state-controlled property registration process.

The contributions on Libya and Iraq focus on the failure to resolve historical violations of HLP rights. Suliman Ibrahim tracks the efforts by a Libyan pressure group to reclaim the properties that were expropriated under a Gaddafi-era law in 1978.

Sangar Youssif Salih and Kayfi Maghdid Qadr record the frustrations of the Yazidi minority population in Sinjar province, northern Iraq. The genocidal violence they faced under the Islamic State group from 2014 to 2017 was part of a longer history not only of physical violence against the group but also HLP rights violations. Salih and Qadr argue that, since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi state has failed to return Yazidi properties expropriated under the Ba’th party’s “Arabisation policy”.

How can this study be used as a reference in the reconstruction phase in Syria?

Download the full study here.

Baumann is a politics lecturer at the University of Liverpool, researching and teaching on Middle East political economy. He brought his expertise in civil war economies and post-war reconstruction to the FES project on HLP rights in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, coordinated by Thomas Claes the director of Economic Policies for Social Justice regional project at FES MENA.

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