Fostering Resilience through Housing, Land, and Property Rights in Arab States

This session aims to present different country experiences to protect, record, and digitize the housing, land and property rights as an avenue to promote resilience and sustainable development and to address the impacts of conflicts and socio-economic and climate crisis.

Weak paper-based land administration, unrecorded land rights, and prolonged conflicts have affected the people-to-land relationship, increasing vulnerability to climate risks and exacerbating the impact of conflicts and displacement. In some contexts, the statutory and societal mechanisms that protected HLP rights were disrupted, making communities susceptible to exploitation and displacement. On the other hand, some countries have made significant progress to protect, record and digitize HLP information, paving the way for effective socioeconomic development, peace and stability and climate action.

The event is set to highlight both the challenges and potential opportunities in safeguarding HLP rights amid ongoing instability. It will emphasize the implementation of a rights-based approach within the frameworks of international humanitarian law, and guidance notes such as the Secretary General Guidance Note ‘The United Nations and Land and Conflict’. The event will strengthen the linkage between humanitarian, development, and peace-building endeavors, demonstrating how integrated approaches can foster resilience and support sustainable development through the enhancement and promotion of HLP rights.

Case studies from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and other countries will illustrate successful approaches.

The event builds on the work of the Arab Land Initiative, a platform for substantial collaborative efforts towards sustainable and resilient development.