Foreword by Dan Lewis

Summary

The years leading up to the preparation of this volume were some of history's most intriguing and beguiling as far as the following topics are concerned. While still far from the center of most policy- and law-makers' minds, there can be no doubt that housing-, land-, and property-related deficiencies now occupy a place on the international agendas of many agencies and governments involved in helping to bring peace, stability, and reconciliation to countries emerging from conflict. The agonizingly slow recognition that the resolution of land- and property-related disputes following war is one of the cornerstones of any sustainable peace operation has proven frustrating for those charged with unraveling the chaos of displacement and restoring the rights of survivors.

Yet, even with this small but growing recognition that displaced families and survivors of war should not remain perpetually vanquished, and that rights over property usurped through conflict demand some form of restitution, it is not sufficiently embedded in the understanding that any land or property “solution” requires a measured, integrated, and broad-scale engagement. To produce sustainable property restitution, the machinery driving the justice system, the land administration system, land-use planning, and institutional coherence across all three sectors must function, and in many cases requires complete rebuilding.

The case studies presented here describe a vast body of experience in some of the most challenging environs on the planet. The authors describe the successes and failures, the weaknesses and impenetrable bureaucracy characterizing this field.