Multistakeholder Pledge: Durable Solutions through Secure Housing, Land and Property Rights

Background

This pledge effectively promotes durable solutions with a primary emphasis on sustainable return and reintegration, local integration and other local solutions, and thereby contributes to Objectives 1 and 4 of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) – to ease pressures on host countries and support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.

Firmly established in the ideals of good land governance – characterized by accessible, transparent processes that enable forcibly displaced persons to participate in decision-making on how land is used, managed, and developed, ultimately contributing to the overall recovery from conflict, peace-building and bringing displacement to an end – the pledge has been framed squarely against recommendations 18 through 20 and 9 through 11 of the 2021 High Level Officials Meeting on the GCR.

Secure access to adequate housing and land plays a critical role in facilitating access to a range of human rights, including the right to food, shelter, water, sanitation, health, work, security, freedom of movement – just to mention a few – and is therefore a key factor in addressing the human and societal impact of climate change, land degradation, desertification, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, urbanization, the differentiated experiences of men, women and children in certain parts of the world, and the consequent escalation of tensions over access to and use of land and natural resources and forced displacement.

This multistakeholder pledge seeks to consolidate and build upon the many promising practices at the national and local levels that reinforce the right to adequate housing and secure access to land as cross-cutting imperatives for durable solutions and long-term development outcomes.

Pledge description

By committing to this Multistakeholder Pledge, stakeholders agree to support the advancement of durable solutions via any of these five Key Areas of Focus:

1. Restitution of housing, land, and properties (For State Actors in Countries of Origin) – You commit to ensuring that displacement affected populations can access HLP restitution mechanisms with special attention given to the rights of female-headed households and in accordance with international laws and best practice. You commit to initiate and undertake activities to facilitate restitution of housing, land and properties of returnee women, children and men with international support as required. This will include shaping policy, legal and regulatory frameworks, and providing material and in-kind support for restitution and/or compensation processes and programming in accordance with international law and best practice.
2. Recognized documentation of tenure rights to housing, land, and properties (For State Actors in Refugee Hosting Countries and Countries of Origin) – You commit to initiating and undertaking activities with international support as required towards the provision and safeguard of recognised documentation of formal, customary and informal HLP rights of refugee and returnee women, children and men as a central facet of housing and land programmes.
3. Comprehensive strategies for securing rights to housing, land and properties (For State Actors in Refugee Hosting Countries and Countries of Origin) – You commit to initiate and undertake activities towards the development and implementation of comprehensive adequate housing and land tenure security interventions in support of women, children, men and communities affected by displacement through area-based approaches and with support of national and international humanitarian, development and peace actors as required.
4. Material support for initiatives promoting secure housing, land, and property rights for forcibly displaced persons (For Donor States, Inter-Governmental Bodies, International Financial Institutions, other development actors – including UN System Partners) – You commit to support refugee hosting states and countries of origin to address the barriers to secure access to adequate and affordable housing, land and property for forcibly displaced women, children, and men by way resource mobilization via earmarked financial instrument and in-kind support and other forms of material support.
5. Technical support for initiatives promoting secure housing, land, and property rights for forcibly displaced persons (For UN System Partners, development actors, international non-governmental, civil society and refugee-led organizations) – You commit to support refugee hosting States and countries of origin in addressing the barriers to the enjoyment of housing, land and property rights for forcibly displaced women, children, and men by way of technical assistance, support in coordination and other forms of in-kind support, including via development cooperation programming.

Supplementary to the above, this pledge further encourages the engagement of development actors in support of capacity-building for National Statistical Offices (NSOs) – via methodological guidance, technical assistance, and/or earmarked financing – toward the inclusion of forcibly displaced population types in the monitoring of SDG indicator 1.4.2 (on tenure security) for forcibly displaced men and women as accounted under the multistakeholder pledge on Inclusion of Forcibly Displaced and Stateless Persons in National Statistical Systems and Surveys.

Learn more about the multi-stakeholder pledge on Durable Solutions and Secure Access to Housing, Land, and Property.

Leadership

HLP Working Group:  

• United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) 

• Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Supported by UNHCR.

Contact details

Jamal Browne, Durable Solutions Officer - Housing, Land, and Property, UNHCR