In the midst of the horrific events and serious challenges facing the peoples of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, from the COVID pandemic to the current state of armed conflicts in many countries of the region and climate change events, which led to a state of long-term mass displacement and abuses the rights of housing, land and property of the displaced and refugees in the region. These are in addition to the crime of genocide that civilians to which they have been subjected under Zionist colonialism in the Gaza Strip, in occupied Palestine, since 7 October 2023.

In this context, Housing and Land Rights Network - Habitat International Coalition (HIC-HLRN) assumes the duty to convene this eighth session of the regional Land Forum with the Members, partners and friends and allies of the Coalition in the region, to evaluate the cases of climate change impacts and HLP restitution after displacement within their respective normative framework.

Recommendations and commitments to action:

At the end of the discussion on the prospects for cooperation and the joint strategy, the participants in the forum presented a set of main recommendations that must be worked on during the coming period, namely:

• Develop a legal guide for litigation to support affected communities facing displacement due to climate change and conflict;
• Establish a legal working group to follow-up on the recommendations of the Land Forum;
• Monitor and evaluate impacts in illustrative cases as needed for reports that reflect the reality of affected communities;
• Operate truth-telling committees and community dialogues to achieve real transitional justice, including accountability and reparations;
• Raise the capabilities of civil society in transboundary river issues to determine international responsibility (extraterritorial obligations) of neighboring countries to protect and restore the Iraqi people’s rights to their water resources and arable land;
• Pursue a restorative justice approach that integrates the victim groups into the peacebuilding and institutional-reform processes (within the rubric of transitional justice);
• Focus our reports and monitoring tools on displacement due to climate change and conflict, as impacts are similar and need a victim-centered and rights-based approach to remedy in both contexts;
• Pay attention to water scarcity and water resources issues between and among countries of the region, especially understanding the sources and applicable standards;
• Coordinate between civil society organizations at the national and regional levels to pursue funding, build capacity and training to diagnose the situation, issue reports or case studies related to violations resulting from the effects of climate change, including those beyond the borders of countries, especially mass displacement resulting from environmental disasters or extreme and slow-onset climate-change phenomena;
• Form a legal working group that contributes to building and strengthening legal frameworks with the human rights approach to remedying loss and damage from climate change; conflict, occupation and war; prolonged displacement across many countries of the region;
• Further develop the gender dimension and gender equality in loss and damage with parties to the Loss and Damage Fund;
• Develop and share methodologies by civil society that take into account the specificities of the region to contribute to the ability of local communities and displaced persons to withstand and recover from (be ‘resilient’ amid) the effects of climate change on housing and land tenure security;
• Raise awareness and empowering affected or vulnerable groups, in order to pressure decision-makers to establish clear accountability mechanisms and redress for displaced victims and affected communities;
• Strengthen civil society’s capabilities and capacities to access accurate information, and support local community capacities to find information and data related to housing, land and property recovery issues, and link them to experiences in other regions;
• Share with international organizations and government decision makers the concerns and methodologies being worked on by civil society to remedy displacement and assess affected persons’/communities’ costs, loss and damage, raising the remedy of long-term displacement as a priority in international discourse and forums concerned with climate and sustainable development.

Download the Full Report

Review the previous rounds of Land Forum: The Land and Its People: Civil Society Voices Address the Crisis over Natural Resources in the Middle East/North Africa.