2.1 All refugees and displaced persons have the right to have restored to them any housing, land and/or property of which they were arbitrarily or unlawfully deprived, or to be compensated for any housing, land and/ or property that is factually impossible to restore as determined by an independent, impartial tribunal.
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2.2 States shall demonstrably prioritize the right to restitution as the preferred remedy for displacement and as a key element of restorative justice. The right to restitution exists as a distinct right, and is prejudiced neither by the actual return nor non-return of refugees and displaced persons entitled to housing, land and property restitution. United Nations ‘Pinheiro Principles’ on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (2005)
I. BACKGROUND 1.
Since the end of the Second World War, the world has never counted more displaced persons - both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) - than there exist today. According to the United Nations (UN) refugee agency, UNHCR, as of 2021 there are more than 82 million people officially registered as refugees and IDPs. If those not officially considered persons of concern to UNHCR, including those displaced by environmental, climatic and other forces are added to this total, these numbers expand into the many hundreds of millions, with further hundreds of millions threatened with looming climate displacement as global climate conditions worsen. As such, notwithstanding how displacement is measured, there are now many tens of millions of refugees and internally displaced people throughout the world who are seeking durable solutions to their displacement, many of whom dream of returning to their original homes or at least re-assert control over them, even if these homes are damaged or illegally occupied by others or if return would be dangerous. International law and practice increasingly recognises that all people who have seen their homes destroyed or arbitrarily occupied by members of opposing political, ethnic or religious groups, must be legally entitled to re-possess and/ or return to their homes, lands and properties through the process of HLP restitution, and when return is either dangerous or materially impossible, that control should be able to be re-established over these HLP resources by the displaced and where required adequate compensation or reparations be paid. Unresolved restitution cases span the globe, leaving 2
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2
UNHCR, UNHCR Global Trends Report, 2021.
3
See: UNHCR, Unlocking Solutions for the Internally Displaced: Additional Submission to the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement, September 2020.
4
See, for instance, Pablo de Greiff (ed), The Handbook of Reparations, Oxford University Press, 2006.
