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The COHRE Housing and Property Restitution Programme (HPRP)

The COHRE HPRP aims to strengthen housing and property restitution rights for refugees and IDPs wishing to return to their original homes and lands through research, institutional design, legal advocacy, and training. The programme aims to reverse grave violations of human rights, promote the UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution, design restitution blueprints, and improve policies of UN Peace Operations.

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The COHRE Housing and Property Restitution Programme (HPRP)

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  1. The COHRE Housing and Property Restitution Programme (HPRP) Summary of Achievements and Activities www.cohre.org

  2. Returning Home: The Global Challenge Worldwide, more than 35 million people are living as refugees and internally displaced persons. A considerable majority of the world’s displaced wish to return to their original homes and lands, but for a variety of reasons are not able to do so. www.cohre.org

  3. Programme Methodology The COHRE HPRP aims to strengthen housing and property restitution rights for refugees and IDPs wishing to voluntarily return to their original homes and lands following both conflicts and disasters, through the creative and strategic use of: • Research • Institutional and policy design • Legal advocacy and litigation • Training www.cohre.org

  4. Programme Objectives • Reversing the effects of grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including ethnic cleansing and forced displacement; • Promoting the effective implementation of the UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons; • Designing institutions and ‘Restitution Blueprints’ relating to focus countries to provide workable frameworks to effectively secure housing and property restitution rights; and • Improving the policies of UN Peace Operations addressing housing, land and property issues in post-conflict settings, including restitution rights. www.cohre.org

  5. Programme Achievements: County-Based Work Over the past eight years, the HPRP has worked directly on housing and property restitution issues in a range of countries including: • Albania • Bhutan (for refugees in eastern Nepal) • Colombia • Cyprus • East Timor • Georgia (and South Ossetia) • Guatemala • Iraq • Kosovo • Maldives • Palestine/Israel • Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. www.cohre.org

  6. Programme Achievements: International Advocacy The HPRP has also been active in promoting the adoption of several major new international standards on housing and property restitution by leading UN human rights bodies and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Among other things, the HPRP instigated the appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on Housing and Property Restitution and since 2002 has worked very closely with the Rapporteur, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, to elaborate the Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (‘The Pinheiro Principles’). www.cohre.org

  7. The Pinheiro Principles The UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (‘The Pinheiro Principles’) are an important advancement in the field of restitution rights, and provide important guidance to all relevant actors, national and international, in addressing the legal and technical issues surrounding housing, land and property restitution. www.cohre.org

  8. Current HPRP Activities • Improving International Peace Operation Responses to Housing, Land and Property Issues in Post-Conflict Countries • Implementation and Promotion of the Pinheiro Principles on Housing and Property Restitution • Housing and Property Restitution Country-Level Efforts www.cohre.org

  9. Improving International Peace Operation Responses to Housing, Land and Property Issues This HPRP project aims to identify practical means by which United Nations and other post-conflict peace operations can more effectively address the housing, land and property rights challenges that invariably face all post-conflict countries and territories. www.cohre.org

  10. Implementation and Promotion of the Pinheiro Principles on Housing and Property Restitution This HPRP project aims to advance the implementation of the Pinheiro principles on Housing and Property Restitution, and to raise their profile within both national and international circles. www.cohre.org

  11. Housing and Property Restitution Country-Level Efforts This HPRP project works to: • Promote the rights of refugees and displaced persons in specific countries to return to and re-possess the homes and lands from which they fled; • Raise the awareness of policy and law-makers on practical ways to address and implement restitution rights; and • Assist in the development of possible restitution blueprints within countries grappling with the restitution challenges. www.cohre.org

  12. Housing and Property Restitution Country-Level Efforts In 2006, this HPRP will work in or on the following countries: • Afghanistan • Burundi • Colombia • Iraq • Myanmar (Burma) • Sri Lanka • Sudan • The United States (post-Katrina) www.cohre.org

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