HLP issues are one of the biggest causes of conflict and disputes and can also greatly inhibit the provision of services and assistance. As such, having the ability to identify local dispute resolution mechanisms, understand customary and regulatory practices, and facilitate alternative dispute resolution processes can help CCCM practitioners navigate and resolve HLP and tenure-security-related disputes. Understanding the HLP context early on in CCCM responses can also aid CCCM actors in preventing future conflict and engaging in support advocacy for more equitable HLP and tenure security practices.
The tools and resources in this section are focused on guidance in alternative conflict management and dispute resolution strategies, intervening in land-related conflict, and facilitating mediation processes.
Tools
Context
Provides a practical introduction to the relationship between land and conflict, a range of programmatic interventions to address conflicts surrounding land issues, how various interventions can inadvertently cause land conflicts, and guidance on land-related programming. This is useful for CCCM practitioners engaging with any projects where land disputes could occur. The Rapid Appraisal Guide provided in this toolkit will help CCCM practitioners determine which land issues are most relevant to the conflict in different settings, which can be used in any context. Existing USAID mechanisms and implementing partners that work on land issues are also provided, which can help CCCM practitioners identify resources for extra support.
Summary
The first section of the toolkit provides a general overview of the key issues that contribute to conflict over land, including key failures that lead to tenure insecurity.
Six key Lessons learned from land conflicts in Uganda, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, urban Peru, Brazil, and Colombia are provided, focused on framing interventions by sector and combining interventions with complementary activities/approaches. A checklist of general considerations to analyze upon intervening in disputes/conflicts over land-related issues is provided.The toolkit provides examples of innovative programs addressing land issues under the following thematic areas:
- alleviating inequities in land holdings
- increasing and protecting tenure security
- identifying and resolving conflicting claims to land, responding to population displacement and return,
- responding to population displacement and return, and 5) post-conflict land issues
The goal of the provided Rapid Appraisal Guide is to assist practitioners in understanding which land issues are most relevant to conflict in the context in which they are operating, and what programmatic could be employed to address them. The guide is divided by the categories of questions, with subcategories and lists of recommended questions under the following categories:
- Basic Questions (legal, political, operational, governance considerations)
- Questions about Land issues Pertinent to Conflict (status of person being interviewed, sub-themes within land and conflict, tenure insecurity, displacement/refugee situations).
Context
This handbook has been prepared by UN-Habitat at the request of the Early Recovery Cluster to provide guidance on addressing land issues in a post-conflict environment, with specific guidance provided on camps. The target audience is both emergency and early recovery humanitarian workers with a limited background in land, but whose work is impacted by issues related to land.
Summary
The following key issues and corresponding case studies relevant to CCCM and HLP are covered in this handbook:
- Land Disputes: Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor, Burundi, Kosovo
- Land Records: Cambodia, Somalia, Timor, Burundi
- HLP in Displacement and return: Kenya, Sudan
- Vulnerable groups (land rights of women, children, minorities, Indigenous groups, soldiers, disabled groups): Liberia
- Urban Settlements
- Camps: Jordan
- Natural Resources: Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Liberia, South Sudan
Each Key Issue contains an introduction that presents the issue and how it will impact the work of humanitarians and early recovery actors, an outline of the dimensions of the challenge, a strategy for action to address the issues, “do no harm” guidance, country case studies, and additional tools and references.
View tool
Context
This assessment tool provides sets of inquiries about laws, policies, stakeholders, and powerholders as they relate to HLP conflicts to both identify relevant categories of information and analyze their significance. This is intended to facilitate the development of an action plan or policy to address HLP issues. These questions are useful for CCCM practitioners engaging with local institutions on HLP matters or to aid in contextual understanding during site selection.
Summary
The tool is organized by clusters of questions under different categories related to HLP conflicts, rules, and institutions. Each cluster of questions include an explanatory text providing context and guidance on how the information gathered would inform the development of an HLP action plan. The questions are clustered under the following categories:
HLP Conflicts
- Typology: Understanding the depth of the HLP conflict/dispute, potential for escalation, history of escalation, relevancy to past laws, policies, or disputes, and disparity of effects between men and women.
- Geographic Dimension: Boundaries of dispute/conflict, the potential for dispute/conflict to grow, broader political influences, demographics of the affected population, the role of migration, and how geographic/climate trends influence the conflict/dispute.
- Time Dimension: How the dispute/conflict has peaked or subsided to understand the trajectory of the dispute/conflict.
- Parties to HLP Disputes: Responsible actors, the role of civil society, local governments, international organizations, and advocacy groups, political context, the role of neighboring states, and prior foreign interventions.
- Historical Context: Understanding the historical background of the dispute, the development of the country, how migration shaped the country, historical trends of land use and conflict/dispossession, the role of women and land management, and the historical significance of natural resources.
HLP Rules
- International Obligations: Understanding relevant multi-lateral and human rights agreements, influence or presence of peace treaties, and discrimination of ethnic minorities or Indigenous groups.
- Inventory of Domestic Formal Rules: Constitutional frameworks, relevant statutory laws, relevant executive decrees, and administrative by-laws and implementing regulations.
- Patterns of Recognition of Informal and Customary Rules: Officially recognized customary, religious, and community laws, conversion of informal and customary rights through titling, conditional recognition of customary rights, and unrecognized informal and customary rights.
- Policies Supported by Statutory Law: Who formally owns the land, customary recognitions of ownership, safeguards/protections/laws for women owning land/property, community practices of land management, formal titling practices, and how laws serve/inhibit community land ownership.
HLP Institutions
- Rulemaking Institutions: the legitimacy of formal/statutory law-making systems, the relationship between formal/statutory law-making systems, and national perceptions of legislative bodies.
- Adjudicatory Institutions: Existence and legitimacy of adjudication bodies, presence of informal adjudication bodies, perception of formal adjudication bodies, and available remedies for HLP disputes.
- Record-keeping institutions: accessibility of record-keeping institutions, community processes of documentation, reliability of formal documentation.
Resources
| Title | Date | Resource |
|---|---|---|
| Land tenure alternative conflict management | 2006 | View resource |
| A quick guide to land and conflict prevention | 2013 | View resource |
| Guidance note: integrating housing, land and property issues into key humanitarian, transitional, and development planning processes - section 3, theme 2 - HLP rights and peace processes, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding | 2018 | View resource |