Advocacy

provide a basis for an eventual restitution programme; 9. Restitution is a tool for conflict prevention. Ignoring the restitution demands of returnees will tend to aggravate rather than reduce tensions or violence; and 10. Restitution is beneficial for the economy. 82

56. Building on these foundational perspectives, a new WRA by virtue of its very existence would play an advocacy role in pushing for ever greater attention and action on outstanding restitution claims. While the new agency might not have the legitimacy or powers needed to adjudicate national restitution cases itself, it could certainly act as a repository for all legal and related documents surrounding restitution claims, both generic and individual in nature and advocate on the need for new national bodies to be established to adjudicate or otherwise resolve them fairly and equitably. It would promote the promise of a pathway to justice for people seeking to reassert control over their former homes. It could do this through advocating for a wide range of actions by the international community as a whole, as well as by individual governments including, for not limited to ensuring that:

1. Restitution issues are included in all refugee and IDP registration procedures;

2. Equitable, transparent and non-discriminatory institutions, procedures and restitution mechanisms are established directly within peace agreements and voluntary repatriation agreements;

3. A human rights-based approach to return and the recovery of refugee and IDP land, housing and property pervades the restitution process;

4. A gender-sensitive approach pervades the entire restitution process, particularly in terms of succession, inheritance and ownership rights;

5. A consistent legislative and administrative framework is in place;

6. Domestic law and relevant international standards are consistent with one another;

7. Flexible and effective remedies based on IDP and refugee choice are established;

8. Claims processes are free, simple and equitable;

9. There is a public commitment to strenuously enforce any restitution decisions;

10. Measures need to be in place to protect the rights of secondary occupants;

11. All restitution decisions are included within a national HLP registration system;

12. Appropriate compensation systems are in place;

13. Claims processes must be accessible to all tenure types at the time of displacement, including property owners, private and public tenants and the those that were dwelling within the informal sector; and

14. Restitution rights must be accessible to heirs of property, and that citizenship, nationality and residence do not undermine or restrict restitution rights.